KEAAU – Mekayla King called it nerve-wracking, and Bradon Miyake noted the added pressure.
KEAAU – Mekayla King called it nerve-wracking, and Bradon Miyake noted the added pressure.
The addition of a shootout at the BIIF air riflery individual championships not only brought out the best in the Waiakea seniors, but the crowd as well.
“There was clapping,” Warriors coach Mel Kawahara said. “We’ve never had that before.”
Usually a hushed spectacle save for the sound of led pellets hitting paper targets, onlookers at Kamehameha’s Koaia Gym clapped when the eight boys and girls made their way to their respective 10-shot finals, and then again after they finished each round.
When the applause stopped, King and Miyake had silenced the rest of the competition in winning their first titles.
Each entered as a top seed, though they got there in different fashions.
King put up the two highest scores, boy or girl, at the beginning of the season, and she had the steadiest aim of anyone Saturday by a fairly wide margin, outdistancing teammate Shaye Nishimura (638.8 to 622.8).
“I got into this my sophomore season because I thought it was interesting,” King said. “I just worked on my positions, and every night at practice, I would pick a position and work on it.
“This season was about remaining consistent.”
Formerly, BIIFs consisted of two rounds in the three positions (prone, standing and kneeling), but the HHSAA this season adopted a finals format in which the top eight advanced out of the first round.
Not surprisingly, the final eight wahine were all Warriors – five from Waiakea and three from Kamehameha.
King has worked hard enough in practice that she said she’d switch gears even with the state championships looming Oct. 25 in Honolulu – Waiakea is a perennial contender, combing to win three team titles and three individual crowns in the past six years.
“It’s time for me to focus on my studies,” she said. “I owe this to my coaches and teammates.”
The other top-five finishers, Kamehameha’s Cobi Broad and Tiari Fa’agata and Waiakea’s Tiara Pacheco, also scored higher than any competitor in the boys field.
Miyake, a four-year shooter, only earned the top seed during the last meet of the regular season and only by an eyelash over St. Joseph’s Mark Nemeth.
In theory, Kawahara said, Miyake faced a lot of pressure in a competitive boys field that featured challengers from many different schools.
“I just try not to think about any of that and block everything out,” said Miyake, who maintained that same mentality during the shootout, staying in the lead and finishing at 600.5. “I knew my margin for error was low.”
“I got into the sport because it seemed different than all the rest,” he said.
Hilo’s Robert Molina finished second, just edging Nemeth (594.7-593.5).
Waiakea extended its BIIF reign. The Warriors have won every league team championship since the sport was instituted by the BIIF, and in the last handful of years only a pair of Kamehameha shooters have kept Waiakea from a clean sweep of individual tiles.
“The scores all seasons have been closer than usual from other teams, ” Miyake said, “so I wanted to go out and extend our legacy.”
After a long of day shooting, King called the festivities bittersweet.
“I was able to do what I wanted to do,” she said, “but now I have to leave it behind.”
Even after losing two senior champions, the clapping for Waiakea air riflery has likely only just begun.