Cross country: Modest goals for Vulcans

By KEVIN JAKAHI

Hawaii Tribune-Herald

UH-Hilo hosted the inaugural PacWest cross country championships in 2006, back when the Vulcans had a men’s program.

A decade later, UHH will host again, thanks to coach Jaime Guerpo’s connection with his friend Kamehameha athletic director Kimo Weaver.

The university dropped the Vulcan men’s program in 2011 due to financial cutbacks. The women’s program was originally suspended, too, but with strong community support, led by Guerpo, it hasn’t stopped running.

On Saturday at Kamehameha’s campus, 14 schools will compete in a tune-up for the NCAA Division II West Regionals, slated for Nov. 5 in Montana.

The No. 17 Cal Baptist men are the five-time defending PacWest champs while the Lancer women are the two-time champions.

Azusa Pacific junior Eileen Stressling, last year’s PacWest champion, enters as a strong favorite, and her presence, along with every other visitor, helps the state’s coffers.

Two UHH professors Tam Vu, from the business administration and economics department, and Eric Im crunched numbers on the event’s economic impact.

“Between airfare, rental vehicles, hotel rooms, restaurants and shopping, there will be significant spending,” Vu said. “That includes spending in Oahu and the Big Island. The number on the Big Island can be estimated at over a half-million dollars ($556,100) and with Oahu as the base for Hawaiian Airlines, their number is close to $400,000 ($390,700). That brings you close to a million dollars ($946,800) in long-term impact.”

Too bad, the PacWest can’t make the championships at Kamehameha an annual event like the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, where more than 20,000 spectators visit and spend more than $25 million.

Too bad, the PacWest race dollars can’t fill UHH’s nearly empty scholarship cupboard or at least bring the men’s program back.

A Vul runner has never won a race in the program’s history. But the women seized consecutive PacWest team titles in 2006 and ’07.

That’s unlikely to happen again because UHH offers an equivalent of 1.2 scholarships for cross country. The maximum for women is 12.6.

The rest of UHH’s sports are also underfunded, a major reason most can’t win on an unequal playing field.

Back when Bill Trumbo was the UHH AD from 1990-2000, that wasn’t the case. Trumbo secured corporate sponsorships and led Vulcan Athletic Scholarship Fund Drives.

A decade ago, Guerpo’s women chased conference crowns. Now, after years of dwindling scholarship amounts, he’s more focused on their self-improvement.

Last season, the Vuls placed 13th or second-to-last at the PacWest championships. UHH’s highest-finisher Anna Baker-Mikkelsen was 65th out of 100 runners.

Then at the West Regionals, where anyone is invited, the Vuls were last out of 28 teams. The West Region includes the PacWest, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association, the self-proclaimed “nation’s most successful Division II conference.”

UHH’s second race of the season was at Kamehameha but included only four teams —BYU-Hawaii, Chaminade, and Hawaii Pacific — in the 6 kilometer or 3.7 miles event. (After the 2016-17 season, BYUH will eliminate its sports programs.)

The Vuls came in third. Baker-Mikkelsen, a junior, was sixth in 25 minutes and 25 seconds. The other runners were Riley Arroyo, 16th, 31:21; Reyna Garcia, 17th, 31:32; Kaylee Rapoza, 18th, 31:39; Ashlyn Cabatbat, 19th, 32:52; and Cheyana Grossman, 20th, 34:11.

It’s highly unlikely that a Vul will run off with the PacWest individual title. The best runners average a time of 5:30 per mile. Stressling was at 5:42 when she won last year at Riverside, Calif.; Baker-Mikkelsen averaged 6:50.

It’s a rare measuring-stick opportunity for the Vuls, who don’t run on the same course twice. They get to gauge their self-improvement, a modest goal as any for them.