KAILUA-KONA — Konawaena’s Hunter Tavares entered the BIIF individual bowling Championships at KBXtreme as the clear cut favorite to take home the league title. The same could not be said for Kealakehe’s Kara Nishida, who trailed Kamehameha reigning champion, Dioni Lincoln, all season long.
However, as the oil settled on the lanes after six tension filled rounds of bowling on Saturday, both would stand victorious.
For Tavares, it was never how the ball made its way down the lane, but how many pins were knocked down at the end.
“He is a two handed bowler and that is pretty rare,” said Konawaena head coach Pat Kaaihue. “Like (professional bowler) Jason Belmonte, it keeps him consistent when hitting his mark, he just has a different mark than everyone else.”
Tavares is in his third year of bowling, and has known no other way on the lanes, never having even experimented with the normal one-handed style.
“Before I got to high school, I was watching another high school kid bowl the same way and I just copied it. It is natural, comfortable, I just perfected it for me,” Tavares said. “Sometimes I can be real inconsistent with my line, but once I find my line I keep hitting it.”
Tavares finished the championship meet with a 169 average for a total of 1,013. He edged out teammate Wyatt Savella by six pins. Kamehameha’s David Kohara rounded out the top three with a 967.
On the girls side, Nishida finished with a 915, for a 153 average. She was followed by Konawaena’s Courtney Kikugawa (846) and Lincoln (840).
“It was all about mental preparation for me and being more patient,” Nishida said. “I just went at my own pace.”
Nishida, a senior, has bowled all four years of high school. She placed second to Lincoln in last year’s championship meet and trailed her for the entire season this year.
“I’m just glad I was able to do this for my family and for the Konawaena community,” Nishida said. “I was just going with the flow.”
Team champs
The Kamehameha girls and the Konawaena boys also claimed the BIIF team titles the week before the individual championships.
This is the second win in a row for the Warriors, who were struggling to break through the westside school dominance just a few years back.
“Looking at how many solid teams are out here, and the fact that we don’t get to practice much, it warms my heart to see how well this team is improving,” said Kamehameha heaad coach Alison Julian, who has been coaching the bowling team since 2003. “I have a lot of softball players on my team. I just try to teach them the same thing they learn there. Throw strikes.”
The win was a nice end to a first coaching season for Konawaena’s Kaaihue.
“The boys went undefeated this season and they are a good bunch of kids,” Kaaihue said. “My goal was to just keep the boys consistent and throwing the ball straight this year. They did great and were pretty easy to coach.”
All-BIIF
The All-BIIF teams were announced after the meet on Saturday. Earning first team honors for the boys were Tavaras, Kohara, Savella, Kealakehe’s Jacob Agard, Konawaena’s Zy Kaaihue and Kamehameha’s Blake Moniz.
For the girls, the first team was comprised of Lincoln, Nishida, Kikugawa, Kamehameha’s Kuuleianuenue Ili and Ashley Midel.
Tavares was named the boys player of the year. Lincoln, Kikugawa and Nishida shared the girls player of the year honor.