Pearl City strikes twice, winning boys, girls bowling titles

Pearl City became the first school to sweep the boys and girls tournaments, with the boys blowing away the competition by 681 pins and the girls cruising their way to a 172-point margin.

The Pearl City girls won for the first time since 2002, when the Chargers were completing a 3-peat. Pearl City’s boys hope to be in the middle of a 3-peat of their own — and more — after winning for the second straight year. They expected it this year and their coach expects many more.

“I’m looking at three more years of winning state championships,” Pearl City boys coach James Hayashi said. “That’s the plan.”

Hayashi has to keep pushing because he has a goal to reach. He wants to surpass the five state championships his brother Greg has earned at Hawaii Baptist Academy. James now has three titles, in 2008, 2010 and 2011, to Greg’s five (1996, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009). Hawaii Baptist finished a distant third this year behind runner-up Mililani.

“I’m going to beat his record,” Hayashi said. “He is the older brother, I am the younger brother, so I am going to show him I am better. We have a friendly little rivalry going on.”

Senior Kevin Oshiro led the charge for Pearl City, taking medalist honors for the first individual title of his high school career. He had some ups and downs but stayed right on his 221 average for the two days, closing with a 236 in the eighth game before rolling a 190 to close it out. He beat teammate Sheldon Naauao by 59 pins after Naauao rallied with a 233, 234 and 216 in his final three games. He was right on his 210 average.

“(Oshiro) bowled his heart out,” Naauao said. “I could tell right away he was locked in.”

Micah Lee placed 10th for the Chargers, followed by Shawn Nakanishi in 11th, Aaron Rafael in 35th, and Ken Hayase-Fong in 51st.

Pearl City had it locked up six games in but poured it on with its best performances in the seventh and eighth games, when the Chargers rolled scores of 1,017 and 1,075. They had four games over 1,000 in the tournament and no other team had even one. Their total score of 8,818 was just 14 pins shy of Kailua’s state record from 2002.

The Pearl City girls did not have it so easy. They entered the alley trailing Maryknoll by 46 pins, the first time they had been put in such a position after bowling from the front throughout the entire regular season and OIA championships.

They beat the Spartans by 69 pins in their first game on Friday and followed it up with a 902 in the second to put another 95 pins between them and went on to beat Maryknoll 7,205-7,033. Hawaii Baptist was third with 7,011.

Brianna Nakamura led the way with a 223 in the middle game to finish as Pearl City’s only medalist at 13th place. Freshman Ashlyn Castro was 20th, followed by Alera Chock (22nd), Tawnie Chock (28th) and Shanelle Fujii (42nd).

“We bowled as a team, solid as a team, and that’s how the girls are,” Pearl City coach Millie Gomes said. “They are very much team players.”

Jaymie-Rae Martin of Island Pacific was the individual champion, posting a 1,769 for the highest score since Samantha Masuda of Kapolei rolled a 1,787 in 2002. She beat defending champion Tammi Sakaguchi of Kalaheo by 133 pins after Sakaguchi beat her 210-148 in the first game on Friday. Martin got the margin back in the second game, beating her foe 180-152. Martin closed with a 203 to Sakaguchi’s 201 in the final game.

Brooke Higa of Baldwin was third with 1,594 pins. Christyn Wong of Sacred Hearts had Friday’s high score with a 225 in the final game.