The Maui Prep girls golf team finished fourth at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships on May 5-6. Pictured are (from left) Kelsey Reul, Sofia Mallari, Sacha Salem, coach Jeff Hall, Tehya Chumley and Ava Kawahara. Courtesy photo

Led by Sacha Salem and Sofia Mallari, the Maui Prep girls golf team finished fourth at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships.

Coming into the spring season, Salem wasn’t sold on returning to the sport, but after placing 14th overall at the state championships May 5-6, she is glad she did.

On the verge of graduation, the senior is a standout golfer and star swimmer for Na Pueo. Earlier this year, Salem won a gold medal in the 200-meter IM and took fourth in the 500 freestyle at the swimming state championships.

As Salem explained, she decided to focus most of her attention on swimming this year, and she came back to play golf mostly for her teammates and to finish off her fourth year on the squad.

“Honestly, for me, I didn’t have high expectations considering I was swimming the majority of that week,” she said. “I didn’t really practice golf that much. I played my practice round — didn’t really go as well — but I was like, ‘OK, maybe if I play my practice round bad, I’ll play my actual tournament good.'”

At the girls state championships, Salem led all golfers from Maui County, shooting a 2-over 74 on the first day and 84 on the second day for a combined score of 158 at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course.

In the first round, Salem carded birdies on the Nos. 2, 3, 10, 11, 14 and 16 holes. The round was good enough for Salem to tie for fifth place and put her four shots off the lead.

“That round felt good,” she said. “Everything was kind of working, and I just didn’t have much expectations for myself, so I was kind of like, ‘This is my last state tournament. I’m gonna go, just try my best, and it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be.'”

One stroke behind Salem was Mallari, who was 16th overall at 159. Mallari shot 78 the first day and 81 the second with three birdies in each round. The team scores were a combination of the three best individual scores each round. Maui Prep’s Tehya Chumley (165, 28th), Ava Kawahara (167, 31st) and Kelsey Reul (171, 38th) rounded out Maui Prep’s golfers at the state championships.

“I definitely think we expected a little more,” Salem said of the team’s fourth-place finish. “I definitely think we could have done better, but I mean, conditions were hard, it was a mentally tough round and I’m so proud of my teammates for putting their all in.”

En route to the state championships, Maui Prep won its third-straight Maui Interscholastic League championship and went undefeated this season. Also, Kawahara became the first Maui Prep girls golfer to capture an individual MIL title when she won the MIL Championship with a 12-shot advantage over the second-place finisher.

At the state championships, Alexa Takai of Punaho finished first overall at 142, five shots ahead of her teammate Samantha Monroe. Punahou had three of the four top golfers, and won the team title. Mililani was second and Kalani finished third.

Other notable performances at the HHSAA State Golf Championships from Maui County included Naiya Hamasaki of Kamehameha Schools Maui, who finished 32nd at 167, and Emi McMillen of Lahainaluna and Lana Bajon of King Kekaulike, who both shot a 170 and took 34th and 36th, respectively, due to the tournament’s tie-breaking rules.

Jasmyn Yun of Maui High shot 173 and tied for 39th, and Reina Mae Lana of Baldwin shot 175 to finish 43rd.

Unsure she wanted to play golf her senior season, Salem can now look back at this season with satisfaction.

“I’m really glad I finished my senior season of golf,” she said. “I told my coach, ‘I don’t like this game that much. I don’t really want to be playing it,’ but I was really happy (playing golf). … I think that golf is such a mentally challenging sport that me not having as high of expectations was one of the things that helped a lot with it. Just going into it like, ‘You know, I don’t really play this sport as much. It’s going to be what it’s gonna be, and being able to bounce back after hard holes is what matters — and having fun.'”