For the second straight year, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu swept the First Hawaiian Bank Canoe Paddling State championships.
It was also the second straight year that controversy reigned.
Punahou’s boys, Pac-Five’s girls and Kamehameha’s mixed crew won titles at Hilo Bay on Friday, but it was the final event that drew attention.
HHSAA race officials disqualified crafts in the first three lanes in the mixed final — Kamehameha, Punahou and Seabury Hall — for being over the line at the start. But when coaches of disqualified teams protested the decision, a race committee voted 4-2 to uphold their protest and restore Kamehameha and Punahou to gold and silver finishes. The OIA’s Kalaheo would have repeated as champion if the protests had stood.
HHSAA paddling coordinator Hartwell Lee Loy Jr. left the site to catch a flight before the protest decision was announced and before coaches for Kalaheo and Baldwin could question the decision.
Unlike in the OIA and ILH championships, state officials did not have the benefit of video to determine whether the start was faulty.
“Honestly, the (starters) flag was going up differently all day,” Kalaheo coach Julian Wicker said. “Sometimes fast, sometimes medium fast and sometimes slow. It kept us on our toes. Even coming in third, we ask a lot of our kids and they always deliver. We don’t want to win that way, we want to win by beating the other teams.”
Kamehamehama coach Napali Wood said he did not think his team was guilty of a false start, and is glad the team that crossed the line first was deemed champion. Kamehameha swept all three races last year in an event that needed an hour of deliberation before disqualifying Baldwin for burying the flag at the race’s halfway point.
Savili Bartley, Keanu Gututala, Hopena Pokipala, Kaeo Lindsey, Tyler Meditz, Iisha Fu, Keolewa Puhi, Nani Woolsey, Zoe Kalahiki and Tressie Ostermiller rotated in on the winning crew.
On the water, where there are no adults involved, the races were as close as ever.
Pac-Five edged Kamehameha by a half a second in the girls race, and Punahou beat ILH rival Kamehameha by one-tenth of a second in the boys race.
Buffanblu coach Rocky Higgins credited former Punahou paddler and elite canoer Eric Abbott with taking the boys crew through two weeks of intense preparation for the half-mile sprint at states. The Buffanblu needed the help after trailing Kamehameha three quarters of the way into the race.
“The last two weeks before states we pretty much said it’s now or never,” Punahou senior Aaron Madden said. “It was the closest race I ever raced.”
“It was too close,” Wood said. “The winning crew was just a tenth of a second better, but our guys did their best, that’s all we ask.”
Austin Ayer, Walker Bolan, Keanu Chee, Kyle Gion, Oliver Lewis, Alika Philpotts, Kaimana Rosso, Kaimi Sakamaki and Easton Matamull joined Madden in the canoe throughout the day.
The Wolfpack had their own close finish, winning the girls race with a crew that had never competed together before. Pac-Five used nine girls in the competition, with Kahala Schneider, Raven Howser and Maryna Feldberg in the canoe for every race. Sophomore Natasha Staman sat in the stroker seat for the first time in the final after emerging as the team’s top sprinter in training. Megan Kono, Ocean Hay, Clara Schlieman, Iolani Kahapea-Aquino, Kylie Faildo and Taeler Akana also contributed to the championship.
“The start went by really fast and before I knew it we were coming up on the turn, and the next time I looked up it was the finish,” Staman said.
The Star-Advertiser’s Christie Wilson contributed to this report
