Sacred Hearts’ Tashima, Punahou’s Watanabe on the mark

Sacred Hearts senior Sara Tashima can add a local medal to her haul of national ones.

Tashima, who has one national title and five national records to her credit, won her first ILH title at the Saint Louis Rifle Range on Friday.

Tashima beat all shooters with a 193 in the prone position and a 184 in the kneeling to score 546 points and beat Punahou’s Jaimie Obatake, who beat her by two points in the standing, by nine points. David Watanabe of Punahou won the boys title by two points with a 527. Mid-Pacific went into the event as the boys team champion and Punahou won the girls title.

The state championships will be held Oct. 29 at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

Tashima hit the range early and put up a range-best 193 in the prone, which was no surprise since she has a perfect score in the discipline to her credit. She followed that up with a 169 in the standing, but missed her first three shots in the kneeling and felt it all going downhill.

"It kind of frustrated me; the first three shots were really off," Tashima said. "Then I just realized I need to calm down. I always have this mind-set that I have to do well (in the kneeling) and if not, it is not going to be a satisfying score. I have to eventually erase that out of my mind and think of something else."

Tashima seems to always have something to overcome in her biggest meets. She finished ninth in last year’s state championships after her weapon was ruled illegal, and 13th as a sophomore, when her gas tank broke. She was third in last year’s ILH championships and 10th the previous year.

"Every year it is something," Tashima said. "I am nervous about what is going to happen to my equipment this year."

She composed herself, though, and put her next shot in the center of the black and it was all good from there. She finished with a 184 in the kneeling to beat everyone else in the discipline and head home as the clubhouse leader.

When she returned to Saint Louis — shooters were on the range from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and saw the scores, she knew that she had an ILH championship to her credit.

"At first I didn’t think it would be good enough," Tashima said. "But when I came back and saw the scores I thought, ‘I guess I did OK.’ "

Isabel Villanueva of St. Francis finished third among the girls.

Watanabe won the boys title over Zachary Chang of Mid-Pacific with a consistent effort. Chang outscored Watanabe by seven points in the prone, but Watanabe got six back in the standing and three in the kneeling. Mid-Pacific’s Colin Chung had the low score in the prone with a 191, and Cyrus Maunakea of Kamehameha, who finished third overall, was the king in the standing with a 170. Punahou’s Brandon Lau had the lowest kneeling score with a 184.