For all the work they do throughout the season, Hawaii's small-college cross country runners did most of their sweating this week. 3 schools headed
to regionalsBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comEven though only two of the four schools competed, every runner stood idly by waiting for word on if they will be able to go to their regional meet in Fresno, Calif., Nov. 9.
It is an annual problem for area athletic directors, who must weigh the benefits of traveling to the mainland for one meet against the cost of doing so.
"Every Hawaii school has that dilemma of travel," HPU athletic director Russell Dung said. "It is not necessarily budgetary, but it does make a difference."
This year Brigham Young-Hawaii, Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific will be competing for the right to run at the national meet. Hawaii-Hilo will stay home.
"It is completely against my philosophy (to be pessimistic)," UH-Hilo athletic director Kathleen McNally said. "But it is so expensive and I don't think we would finish in the top 10. We run weekly against HPU and BYU. If HPU is the barometer and we can't even come close to them ..."
The Sea Warriors are once again the class of the conference, the only one with a realistic chance of qualifying for nationals as a team, so they will certainly be making the trip, and have since joining the NCAA in 1998.
"We assess the team's capabilities of winning, see if they can get to nationals as a team," Dung said. "Vien (Schwinn, HPU's coach) has done a good job in making it an easy decision, though."
The Sea Warriors have won every meet this season, and expect to challenge Cal State Chico, Humboldt State, Anchorage and UC Davis for one of the top spots that would enable them to take their entire team to nationals.
Brigham Young-Hawaii probably will not challenge the top teams, but is going anyway to see what its top runners can do.
Chaminade has less of a chance of coming home a winner than BYUH, but is going for the experience. The Silverswords send their teams to either the Pacific West Conference championship or the regional every year, and since there was no conference championship this year it will try its legs against the best in the west.
"We are thinking about the future," Chaminade coach James Oshiro said. "We have a young team of freshmen and sophomores, so we are going to acclimate ourselves to the experience."
McNally believes that she might have the answer to her annual problem. She says that she is thinking of setting standards for the regular season that would spell out whether her teams have earned the right to compete in the regional.
"I don't think our program is established enough yet," McNally said. "Even if we had the bankroll, I'm not sure we would be ready to go. We are trying to put it in writing as far as times when we can go."
Seasiders fall to third: The BYUH volleyball team dropped to third in the regional rankings released Wednesday, behind No. 1 Western Washington and No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino.
The Seasiders, who were No. 1 in the last poll, dropped when they lost to unranked Western New Mexico last week. They caught a break, though, when San Bernardino lost to unranked Cal State Bakersfield.
Western Washington took over the top spot despite losing to BYUH and CSSB this year.
Water polo tournament: BYUH is hosting the "Hawaiian Water Polo Challenge" beginning tonight at Kamehameha and running through Monday in Laie.
The Seasiders will start the tournament tonight at 8 p.m. against Santa Clara and Chaminade will play Cal Baptist. The Hawaiian Masters will also participate.