KAILUA-KONA – The BIIF bowling season came to a close Saturday afternoon at KBXtreme in Kailua-Kona.
KAILUA-KONA – The BIIF bowling season came to a close Saturday afternoon at KBXtreme in Kailua-Kona.
Konawaena’s Mikki Fujimoto swept the girls competition, winning the BIIF championship as well as the overall title of best female bowler. On the boys side, Kealakehe’s Kawika Pierson saved his best games for the end, winning the tournament, while Kamehameha-Hawaii’s Brandyn-Lee Lehano took home the best male bowler of the year title.
Fujimoto ended the 2015 season with a league best 143.16 average score per game. On Saturday, she took an early lead in the tourney, bowling a 415 in the first three-game set. She had the second highest score in the second set of three, trailing only Kealakehe’s Kara Nishida, 416-412, for a total score of 827.
Kealakehe’s Rose Stephenson finished second with a total score of 803 after bowling a 408 and 395. Rounding out the top five were Skyler Crivello (Hilo, 788), Nishida (757) and Jayla Alonzo-Estrada (Kamehameha-Hawaii, 743).
Stephenson and Nishida helped the Kealakehe girls repeat as the BIIF team champions. The Waverider girls finished the year with a 28-3 record, followed by Kamehameha (27-4), Konawaena (15-15), Ka’u (11-19), Hilo (10-20) and Keaau (0-30).
“It just hit me how exciting it is to win the team championship,” said first-year Kealakehe girls head coach Loreena Ganeko. “I did not expect it, so shame on me, but the girls wanted it and they did really well.”
Stephenson and Nishida helped lead Kealakehe in 2015, while also filling a void left by the departure of 2014 individual champion Desiree Ichishita. Stephenson finished second overall with a 136.08 average. Nishida was fifth at 124.27.
“Kara is my pacer so we used her first,” Ganeko said. “Rose is a good anchor at the end and she did a good job of closing up the frame.”
On the boys side, Pierson out-bowled heavy favorite Lehano to take home the tourney championship. The Kealakehe senior leader rolled a 553 in the first set of three games and followed that up with a 623 in the second set. He was the only bowler on the night to crack 600. He won the tourney easily, outscoring Lehano 1,177-1,085.
“Kawika is a gamer, so he gets really pumped up against competition,” said Kealakehe boys head coach Baron Ganeko. “He was in the grove and had three or four 200 games.”
Rounding out the top five male bowlers for the tourney were Torin Savella (Konawaena, 1058), Christopher Koananui (Kamehameha-Hawaii, 936) and Chad Galiza (Konawaena, 924).
Despite placing second on Saturday, Lehano still maintained his lead overall for the season, bringing home the best male bowler of the year after averaging a league high 186.52.
Tresen Arakaki, of Konawaena, had the second-highest season average at 185.57. He helped lead the Wildcats to a team title for the 2015 season, along with three other returners in Savella, Galiza and Connor Harrington. Konawaena finished the year with a 29-1 record, followed by Kamehameha (23-6), Kealakehe (18-11), Ka’u (13-17), Keaau (5-25) and Hilo (1-29).
“It was a very, very good year,” said Konawaena boys head coach Clyde Takafuki.
Konawaena has won the last three team championships, and with seven bowlers set to come back next season, the reign doesn’t look like it will end any time soon.
The HHSAA tournament will take place Oct. 29-30 on Kauai. A total of 13 males and 13 females qualify, consisting of five top averages from the BIIF championship team, along with eighth top averages from the rest of the field. A list of qualifiers was not immediately available by press time.