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Seabury girls capture MIL crown in race-off

By Dakota Grossman 5 min read

KAHULUI -- As the Seabury Hall canoe paddling team capped off a sweep of Maui Interscholastic League titles with gold in the girls division after a tiebreaking race-off Saturday at Kahului Harbor, Spartans steersman Lei'ohu Turley smiled and sighed with relief.

At the final MIL regatta of the season, Seabury's come-from-behind victory in the half-mile race over Lahainaluna left the Spartans and King Kekaulike with two wins each this season. That forced a quarter-mile race-off between the Spartans and Na Alii for the league title.

"Coming into the race, we were really nervous because we had a new crew this week-- two of our girls had to leave for volleyball-- so we didn't know what would happen today, but I'm really grateful to our coaches who really pushed us to be our best and we wouldn't have won without them and their support," said Turley, who along with Layne Millen, Malia Cosare, Kaesha Purdy, Zella Kofron and Rio Imperato finished the one-on-one battle with Na Alii in a time of 2 minutes, 4.40 seconds. King Kekaulike crossed in 2:05.98.

Earlier in the day, the crowd waited in anticipation from the beach as the girls crews paddled to the starting line of the half-mile race -- the Spartans were disqualified last week and the Lunas beat out Na Alii for first place, leaving the girls crown up for grabs on Saturday.

Lahainaluna had the lead coming down the homestretch, but Seabury gutted out the final strokes to win in 4:36.16. The Lunas placed second (4:31.04) and King Kekaulike third (4:36.20).

Still sweating from the first race, the Spartans and Na Alii girls took only a brief rest during the boys varsity event before paddling back out for the quarter-mile tiebreaker.

Turley said it was intimidating to only have two boats lined up on the water, but she kept repeating to the crew to relax and "just paddle."

"We have a little ceremony that we do before the start to get all of our jitters out before we go into the boat because we don't want to bring all that nervousness in," the sophomore said. "It was a good thing, sort of, that we didn't have to sit on the beach and just wait because we were already warmed up. So going back out there, I don't think we were tired, we were just eager to get back out there."

All week long, Seabury head coach Paul Lu'uwai reiterated with the team the importance of racing smart and not overthinking their abilities.

"It was a pressure race -- we had to win (the first race) just to tie it -- and then to win it after that, that's just amazing and I'm just stoked that my kids performed at the level that they did," Lu'uwai said. "I know that it was pressure for them, that it was stressful for them, and it was stressful for me too."

Sitting in seat 3 for King Kekaulike, senior Natalie Dziuban said that paddling for the last time as a high school athlete on Maui was an "unreal feeling."

"I feel like we get energy from the people we're surrounded by, the place, the water; we all just come together, and at the end of the day, we're just happy to be doing what we're doing and to just be here," she said. "It sucks not winning, but I know the other teams deserve it just as much as we did."

Still, her teammates on the girls, boys and mixed crews will all be representing the MIL in a couple weeks at the state championships at Keehi Lagoon on March 5, as well as all of Seabury's crews -- the Spartans' boys and mixed crews clinched MIL titles during the third league regatta earlier this month -- Lahainaluna's girls crew and Kamehameha Maui's boys and mixed teams.

"That itself is awesome, I'm so excited," Dziuban said. "I'm looking forward to meeting new competition -- the only ones I'm familiar with are the ones I've raced with here on Maui -- so that's going to be exciting (and) meeting new people and racing in a new place."

Seabury's boys and mixed crews completed season sweeps of the MIL regattas Saturday.

The Spartans' boys crew of Jake Devane, Caleb Proctor, Sig Konohia, Joshua O'Conner, Max Stone and Finn McAfee won in 3:49.99, while the mixed crew of Devane, Proctor, Gracy Dowd, Konohia, Alara Berkman and Leiana Bland won in 4:08.83.

"I'm just so proud of my girls for going off and for our boys staying undefeated -- we're honoring our seniors today and their last races," Lu'uwai said. "It's been a blessed year and I hope we can go to states and represent Maui. I'm really looking forward to being top three in states and hopefully come home with one of those tikis -- that would be freaking awesome."

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com

MIL Regatta No. 5

Saturday's Results • At Kahului Harbor

Varsity

Girls--1. Seabury Hall (Layne Millen, Malia Cosare, Kaesha Purdy, Zella Kofron, Rio Imperato, Lei'ohu Turley) 4:26.16, 2. Lahainaluna 4:31.04, 3. King Kekaulike 4:36.20, 4. Kamehameha Maui 4:50.13, 5. Maui High 5:08.08, 6. Baldwin 5:10.30.

Girls race-off--1. Seabury Hall 2:04.40, 2. King Kekaulike 2:05.98.

Boys--1. Seabury Hall (Jake Devane, Caleb Proctor, Sig Konohia, Joshua O'Conner, Max Stone, Finn McAfee) 3:49.99, 2. King Kekaulike 4:03.21, 3. Kamehameha Maui 4:04.43, 4. Maui High 4:09.17, 5. Lahainaluna 4:13.28, 6. Baldwin 4:14.82.

Mixed--1. Seabury Hall (Jake Devane, Caleb Proctor, Gracy Dowd, Sig Konohia, Alara Berkman, Leiana Bland) 4:08.83, 2. King Kekaulike 4:10.80, 3. Lahainaluna 4:14.18, 4. Kamehameha Maui 4:19.69, 5. Kihei Charter 4:21.80, 6. Baldwin 4:28.59, 7. Maui Prep 4:52.53. DQ: Maui High.

JV

Girls--1. Seabury Hall (Isabelle Brown, Iona Asher, Harmony Powers, Skylar Kuroda, Rylee Stout, Samantha Cano) 2:11.08, 2. Kamehameha Maui 2:15.90, 3. King Kekaulike 2:17.85, 4. Kihei Charter 2:21.56.

Boys--1. Seabury Hall (Cody Frampton, Sig Konohia, Rhys Maier, Jack Brocklehurst, John Ka'ahui, Max Moquin) 1:51.12, 2. Kihei Charter 1:53.01, 3. Maui Prep 2:06.13.

Mixed--1. Seabury Hall (Cody Frampton, Rhys Maier, Isabelle Brown, Skylar Kuroda, Harmony Powers, Max Moquin) 2:01.48, 2. Kihei Charter 2:04.20, 3. Baldwin 2:13.80, 4. Kamehameha Maui 2:17.12, 5. King Kekaulike 2:17.57, 6. Maui Prep 2:19.10, 7. Lanai 2:26.77.

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