KAHULUI — Seabury Hall crews finished in third place in the boys and girls divisions of the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA state regatta last season, one spot out of a trophy in each case.

A closer look shows the Spartans were a combined 1.81 seconds away from adding two runner-up koa-wood, warrior-head trophies to the one they brought home from the mixed division.

On Saturday, in Maui Interscholastic League regatta No. 1 at Kahului Harbor, the Spartans started their mission to add more hardware to their trophy case where four state championship and seven state runner-up trophies are already encased.

They won all three varsity A finals — boys, girls and mixed — by impressive margins.

“I don’t really want to say too much, but I think they’re extremely driven, we have great captains and older kids’ leadership, which is the key to any successful sports team,” Seabury Hall coach Paul Luuwai said. “I’m just really appreciative of the other coaches who come help me and our older kids, they are really good leaders for our younger kids.

“Everybody put their cards on the table today, so everybody knows we all played our cards. I’m really happy for our kids to sweep it.”

Seabury Hall captains Cody Frampton and Lei’ohu Turley were both on two winning crews.

“It being my senior year, I just came into this race wanting to be a little nostalgic about it and the years that we’ve done before,” Turley said. “I didn’t really have any expectations. Every single time we start a season we don’t know who has been working hard. So I’m just really proud of us to see all the hard work and training paying off.”

Said Frampton: “I think it’s really great, our team, I mean we’ve been together for a long time. This whole senior class, we’ve been together since like sophomore year coming out of COVID. So, we just blended with the juniors we have in our boat. … We’ve just all been paddling together for a while, so it’s really great to see how it all came together.”

Frampton said last season’s state performances — and the close-but-no-cigar finishes — are driving this entire group.

“We had high expectations last year, we didn’t know if we could win it all, but we’re still bumming,” Frampton said. “So you know, like our coach always says, ‘First and second get medals, third gets a box of tissues,’ So, we had that boxes of tissues a lot last year. We have added a few kids who are really good, but we’re still almost the same team.

“We have those expectations and even higher this year. For sure, it’s driving us.”

The Seabury Hall girls crew of Jasmine Gorman, Zella Kofron, Kaesha Purdy, Makena Ruegsegger, Isabelle Brown and Turley won their half-mile race in 4 minutes, 34.33 seconds, more than 19 seconds in front of second-place Kamehameha Maui.

Frampton was joined on the boys winning crew by Sig Konohia, John Kaahui, Jake Brocklehurst, Liam Romanchak and Max Moquin. They finished in 3:50.83, more than nine seconds in front of second-place King Kekaulike.

The Spartans mixed crew of Frampton, Konohia, Ruegsegger, Brocklehurst, Gorman and Turley won in 4:16.94, more than 10 seconds in front of Na Alii.

Maui Prep made the second and third MIL paddling finals in school history on Saturday — in girls and mixed — and their third-place finish in the girls race was the best-ever for the small private school in Napili.

The third-place MPA girls crew included Johnnie Holland, Isabelle Perchard, Leni Mullen, Presley Williams, Calli Liarenza and Kira Newton.

While it is still to be determined whether the MIL will get two or three lanes to the state regatta, Na Pueo girls showed they are contenders for a state berth after finishing just 1.37 seconds behind second-place Kamehameha.

“This is definitely the first time we’ve made two finals in one regatta,” coach Rose Crichton said. “For me personally, my husband (Walker Crichton) has been coaching for the past six years, since 2017 or so and we’ve seen progress throughout the years. For a good four years, we’ve been able to work with the kids, especially the ones that came up their freshman year and never paddled before.”

Walker Crichton is the head coach, while Rose Crichton and Teddy Ah Puck are the assistant coaches. Among the new paddlers out for the team is Landon Long, a standout golfer.

“It really is just the first race, there’s still so much for us to work on, but it’s nice to get this out of the way, get the jitters out,” Rose Crichton said.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

MIL CANOE PADDLING REGATTA NO. 1

Saturday’s Results

At Kahului Harbor

Varsity

Girls–1. Seabury Hall (Jasmine Gorman, Zella Kofron, Kaesha Purdy, Makena Ruegsegger, Isabelle Brown, Lei’ohu Turley) 4:34.33, 2. Kamehameha Maui 4:53.40, 3. Maui Prep 4:54.77, 4. King Kekaulike 5:02.81, 5. Kihei Charter 5:14.86, 6. Maui High 5:39.82

Boys–1. Seabury Hall (Cody Frampton, Sig Konohia, John Kaahui, Jake Brocklehurst, Liam Romanchak, Max Moquin) 3:50.83, 2. King Kekaulike 3:59.92, 3. Kihei Charter 4:11.50, 4. Baldwin 4:29.78, 5. Kamehameha Maui 4:30.50. DQ: Lahainaluna (bury flag).

Mixed–1. Seabury Hall (Cody Frampton, Sig Konohia, Makena Ruegsegger, Jake Brocklehurst, Jasmin Gorman, Lei’ohu Turley) 4:16.94, 2. King Kekaulike 4:27.44, 3. Kamehameha Maui 4:30.74, 4. Lahainaluna 4:39.46, 5. Maui Prep 4:42.99, 6. Baldwin 4:54.08

JV

Girls–1. King Kekaulike (Michiru Barawis Tanaka, Bellamoon Hunkin, Kaylee Tagalan-Lum, Tesha Dacuycuy-Espania, Yona Martin, Pristine Pullman) 2:38.03, 2. Lahainaluna 2:40.53, 3. Kamehameha Maui 2:41.94, 4. SeaburyHall 2:49.88, 5. Khei Charter 2:50.26, 6. Maui Prep 2:50.63, 7. Kulanihako’i 2:53.15, 8. Baldwin 3:06.75

Boys–1. Kihei Charter (Ciro Martin, Jason Vierra-Trisdale, Ridge Evans, Diego Garcia, Levi Bell, Noa Moscovich) 2:17.83, 2. Kamehameha Maui 2:22.39, 3. Seabury Hall 2:30.63, 4. King Kekaulike 2:37.66

Mixed–1. Kamehameha Maui (Kukamaehuikapono Kahaloa, Naupakapualahaole Olaitiman, Mikaela Benavides, Anthony Sardine, Waika Ahana, Napuaonalani Jost-Ikeda) 2:13.06, 2. Lahainaluna 2:15.29, 3. Seabury Hall 2:17.98, 4. King Kekaulike 2:22.11, 5. Kihei Charter 2:24.56, 6. Maui Prep 2:28.39, 7. Kulanihako’i 2:38.49, 8. Lanai 2:57.35.