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Maui High girls, Maui Prep boys capture 1st MIL surf team titles

Tamryn Taoka of Maui High School sends up spray on her backhand during MIL surf meet No. 4 on Saturday at Lahaina Harbor. She claimed the girls No. 1 division to help the Saber girls win their first MIL team championship. Dayanidhi photos

Special to The Maui News

The King Kekaulike High School boys and girls won the battle of Lahaina Harbor, but the Maui Prep boys and Maui High girls won the war as they claimed their first MIL surfing team championships Saturday.

The Na Alii boys took Lahaina Harbor by storm as they won four of the five boys divisions and had one champion and four runner-ups in the girls’ classes.

The Na Pueo boys and Saber girls were both second at Lahaina Harbor, but claimed the overall titles due to their wins at D.T. Fleming Beach Park and Koki Beach earlier in the season.

“I’m just super stoked for the kids,” Maui Prep head coach Lucho Banto said. “We have such a small school with only six on the boys team. It’s the first time that Maui Prep wins the boys.”

Maui Prep’s Niko Banto goes vertical in getting second at boys No. 1. The senior captain led Na Pueo to the MIL team title, a first for the MPA boys.

Banto’s son, Niko, is a senior and team captain. Niko was second in the boys No. 1 division behind King Kekaulike’s Cash Berzolla.

Niko Banto was ecstatic with the team title.

“It feels great, first time in school history,” he said. “We work together well. We had a really good core of five solid guys. I’m happy I got to help make that happen my senior year.”

The Sabers were edged out by King Kekaulike 47-45 for the Lahaina Harbor girls title, but that didn’t put a dapper on Maui High’s celebration.

“Unbelievable, the girls are so happy,” said an emotional Jeff Balinbin, the Sabers’ head coach. “We are the only (Maui High) team to win an MIL championship this (academic) year.

King Kekaulike’s Chase Burnes goes airborne in winning the boys No. 2 final Saturday.

“They worked really hard for this. It was a true team effort, all eight girls got to compete. It was tough to choose who was going to surf. The only one person that surfed every single meet, that was Tamryn (Taoka), our captain.”

Taoka backed up her win at last year’s Lahaina Harbor contest with her first victory of the year. She claimed the girls No. 1 division.

“It’s kind of crazy, we haven’t really won anything that big before,” Taoka said of winning the team title. “We’re all really excited and happy. I know we had a good chance because of the amount of girls we had. This is a big surprise and a nice reward.”

It was some vindication from 2020 when she, Lily Ahrnsbrak and Chloe Domingo were freshmen and Taoka’s sister, Ashley, was a senior. After turning in a strong performance in the season opener at Kahului Harbor, the MIL surf season was a COVID casualty.

“I think we had a chance that year,” Taoka said. “That honestly sucked because we knew we could have done it. It was a really nice feeling to win finally, especially because it’s my last year here.”

Layla James of Kihei Charter cuts back to set up for her next turn en route to winning at girls No. 2.

Taoka calls Lahaina Harbor “one of my favorite waves.”

“I surf here a lot,” she added. “I was really stoked to win, I really wanted to.”

Her highest scoring wave came on split peak with reigning MIL champion Chrislyn Simpson-Kane of King Kekaulike.

“I was paddling for it and I remember I was a little deeper than her going left, so she’s like, ‘What way do you want to go?’ “ Taoka said. “I was like, ‘I’m going left,’ and she said, ‘Okay I’ll go right,’ and she paddled fast behind me, past me to the right. And I was like, oh she let me have it. That was cool of her, it was a good wave, a little small, but it still had a lot of wall.”

Taoka, a goofy-footer, would score a 6.17 on her long left-hander while Simpson-Kane had a 5.17 surfing the right.

“We’re good friends,” Taoka said of Simpson-Kane. “We actually do talk a lot, just during the times where there’s no waves.”

Domingo was the other Saber to win, taking the girls No. 3 division.

The King Kekaulike boys were dominant with wins by Berzolla (No. 1), Chase Burnes (No. 2), Otis Buckingham (No. 3) and Teiva Keomaniboth (No. 4).

Na Alii were so in form that Buckingham at No. 3 had the highest heat score of the whole contest, 14.60. Officials count the two-best waves in a heat.

“Right when I paddled out, it started pulsing,” Buckingham said. “I caught five waves right off the bat, I was almost out of breath.”

Alana Nelson, competing for the first time, was the lone Na Alii girl to win, taking the No. 4 division. Simpson-Kane, Bella Kuailani, Sochi Henderson and Morena Danti were all second in their divisions.

“We were really impressed with our team today,” co-head coach Tom Rouse said. “All team members got to show up today for the first time of the three events. I’m really happy, they surfed very well, good kids in the water and in the classroom.”

It was the first time that King Kekaulike was at full strength since the Kahului Harbor contest on March 4, which was canceled due to small surf.

“There was spring break and there were pre-planned trips,” Rouse said. “The next event (Koki) there was unfortunately some personal family obligations that were more important than surfing, which is how life rolls.

“We’re happy for Kihei Charter, Maui Prep and Maui High and all the other teams, the level is really rising every year, it makes everybody better.”

Then Rouse threw down the gauntlet for the boys and girls individual championships at Hookipa.

“We’re looking for an all-King Kekaulike final in both divisions,” he said.

The other Lahaina Harbor champions were Lahainaluna’s Noah Arnold (boys No. 5), Kihei Charter’s Layla James (girls No. 2) and Maui Prep’s Leni Mullen (girls No. 5).

The final MIL surf competition of the season is the individual championships at Hookipa Beach Park on April 29.

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