MEDIA RELEASE

Men

A second place finish at the Dennis Rose Invitational has University of Hawaii at Hilo Head Coach Earl Tamiya beaming as his youthful squad finished two strokes behind tournament winner Cal State Monterey Bay.

His five-man squad consisted of four freshmen and senior Neil Cabico. Chris Shimomura (72-69-74) and Christian Agosto (75-70-70) led the Vulcans and were tied for third place at 1-under-par 215.

Cabico was a stroke back (69-76-71=216) and in eighth place.

A little bit of irony as Agosto participated as an unattached individual so his scores didn’t count in Vulcans’ team scoring.

“I didn’t know what I had and what to expect,” said Tamiya. “Everyday is different but they did well.

“It looks promising,”

CSUMB’s Oskar Nystrom won the tournament with a 5-under-par 211 with rounds of 68-72-71 which helped his team claim the team title with an 868. Following UHH (870) in team scoring were Dixie State College (876), Grand Canyon University (881), Cal State Stanislaus (886), Cal State East Bay and Valdosta State University (898), Hawaii Pacific University (905), Notre Dame de Namur University (907), Brigham Young University-Hawaii (925) and Montana State University-Billings (963).

Completing the Vulcans squad were Travis Russell (T18, 79-68-74=221), Corey Kozuma (20th, 75-76-71=222) and Blake Snyder (T29, 76-75-76=227).

Also competing as individuals and representing the Vulcans were Christopher Armanini (T29, 74-80-72=227) and Nick Matsushima (T52, 76-84-82=242).

Women

The University of Hawaii at Hilo claimed two of top four spots in Dennis Rose Invitational to finish second in the 4-team tournament on the Waikoloa Resort Beach Course.

Nationally-ranked Grand Canyon University won the team title by a 12-stroke margin. UH Hilo followed with 926 points followed by Cal State East Bay (962) and Academy of Art University (967).

GCU’s Tiffany Hewetson won the tournament with a 10-over-par 226 (76-75-75). UHH’s Nicole Aoki (78-74-75) was tied in second place with Academy of Art’s Crystal Faith Superal (72-76-79) at 11-over-par 227. In fourth place was the Vulcans Dayna Bersamin at 12-over-par 228 (76-76-76).

“I was really please with our team’s consistent scores,” said UHH Head Coach Jim DeMello. “This tournament showed we’re up there with our competition.”

UHH’s Randi Ono finished in eighth place at 14-over-par 232 (76-79-77). Also in the tournament were Nyssa Aoki (14th, 83-83-79=245) and Kiley Umeda (15th, 77-89-81=247).