‘Iolani’s latest state championship is an overnight success — six years in the making.

The Raiders racked up a score of 43.9, edging perennial powerhouse Radford (43.45) to capture the Co-Ed Division title of the Zippy’s/HHSAA Cheerleading State Championships on Tuesday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Many of the Raiders, including 10 seniors, had begun training together in seventh grade. Under second-year head coach Sheri Nakaya, they broke through to make school history.

“This is amazing. I’m so proud of these kids. I just wanted to do it for them. I’m so glad that they pulled through,” Nakaya said. “It’ll be rough. Next year will be a little bit of a rebuilding, but these guys wanted to go out with a bang, and I’m glad that they did.”

Their routine, called “RISE,” was choreographed by Christophe Louis-Charles, a senior and the only boy on the squad.

“Hat’s off to him. He’s amazing,” Coach Nakaya said. “Resilience, integrity, support and execution. That’s what headed for and that’s what they did.”

Kapaa (36.55) finished third, followed by Kalani (35.55), Hilo (35.233) and Kailua (33.333).

Moanalua captured the crown in the All-Girls Division with a score of 44.2.

“I’m very excited for the girls. They did all the work. They deserve this. This is their moment,” Na Menehune coach Kaycee Kealoha said. “They fought through anything that made a little bit of a hiccup. They were there for each other and did this together.”

Moanalua, which finished the year unbeaten, will lose five seniors to graduation from a squad of 19.

“We’re still on a good track. Just keep learning, keep the momentum we have going forward,” Kealoha said.

The routine was named “Respect.”

“We changed our whole dance sequence only for states to show respect to our friends, our families, all the teams we compete with all season long,” Kealoha said. “We change it a little bit every competition.”

Seniors Alyssa Sakai and Isabella Samiano embraced every new challenge.

“There was a lot of pressure. Our coaches tell us that we’re the ‘A team,’ everyone comes to watch us and we need to put on a show for us every single time,” Samiano said. “We really anticipated this moment. There were no doubts in our mind this was going to happen.”

Sakai acknowledged the challenge of the new scoring system.

“We’re so used to showing super hard skills. This year we had to be really clean and very sharp with our movements,” Sakai said. “Every little detail counted.”

This was Moanalua’s eighth state title, the third under Kealoha.

Kamehameha was runner-up with 40.233, followed by Baldwin (39.087), Campbell (38.317), Sacred Hearts (35.117), Waiakea (34.467), Waipahu (33.833) and McKinley (31.15).

The divisions were a new format, a change from the previous “large team” and “medium team” categories. In addition, a new scoring system allowed teams to take more risk while facing a lesser deduction for mistakes.

That helped ‘Iolani, which was explosive but had a drop in the final 10 seconds of its three-minute performance. `

“Some of the placements were a little surprising. I think the new scoring packet was designed a certain way, and we really paid attention to what it was looking for,” Nakaya said. “There was a little bobble, and we knew that pyramid bobble was not going to affect that much. We weren’t sure, but it’s less penalty because of what the skill was that we fell on. We executed everything we needed to execute.”

At 6 feet, Louis-Charles towers over most of his teammates.

“We’re obviously surprised because we had a pretty bad (pyramid) fall, but we knew our technique and execution of things would hopefully carry through for us,” he said. “We choreographed it in a way where it would be difficult, we would score well, hit it and hit it hard. We didn’t do that today, but that’s OK.”

The routine is a carry-over from 2021, but with more risk and wow factor.

“I think a big part of it was trusting him and eventually it did work out. His choreography, it is very creative and innovative, but at the same time very clean,” senior Aly Gushiken said.

Radford coach Bo Frank was surprised by the final tally.

“I’m going to be honest. It’s always been you can’t drop a stunt and win a state championship,” he said. “But it is what it is. We gave our best. ‘Iolani was fantastic.”