Eleogram, Payne advance

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - Dusty Payne of Lahaina and Ola Eleogram of Hana won championship-bracket opening-round heats on Monday in the U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach Pier, joining two other Maui surfers who had received byes - Kevin Sullivan of Lahaina and Ian Walsh of Kuau - in the round of 144.

Eleogram's score of 13.67 in waves of 3-5 feet was the 11th-best of the day. Izuki Tanaka of Japan was second in the heat with a 12.90, edging Haiku's Kai Barger (12.47) for a spot in the next round. California's Cory Arrambide (8.77) was fourth in the heat.

Payne scored an 11.70 in his heat - Chad Compton of California was second with a 10.86, followed by Oahu's Daniel Jones (6.30) and California's Josh Montgomery (5.53).

Eleogram and Barger traded the lead early in the heat. Eleogram went in front for good when he caught a wave worth 8.50 points, tied for the fourth-best individual wave score of the day, with 14 1/2 minutes left. Barger dropped to second at that point, and fell another spot after Tanaka scored 7.33 points on the next wave. Tanaka remained in second place for the rest of the heat.

Granger Larsen of Napili missed a spot in the next round by seven hundredths of a point. Larsen had a score of 9.33. Ricky Whitlock of California finished second in the heat with a 9.40, and Jesse Heilman of Florida won with a 12.37.

Wesley Larsen of Napili was fourth in his heat with 6.70 points. Japan's Teppei Tajima won with a 13.33, followed by Mexico's David Rutherford (13.33) and California's Matt King (8.83).

In the round of 144, Payne will be grouped with Rutherford, Sterling Spencer of Florida and Ben Bourgeois of North Carolina. Sullivan and Eleogram will be in a heat with Quinn McCrystal of California and Blake Thornton of Australia. Walsh will be grouped with Brazil's Odirlei Coutinho, Australia's Julian Wilson and Morocco's Abdel El Harim.

Clay Marzo of Lahaina and Dege O'Connell of Hana were eliminated earlier, in the round of 201.