Special to The Maui News

Maui Preparatory Academy won the girls division while Baldwin High School made a late surge to tie Na Pueo in the boys competition at the first Maui Interscholastic League surf contest of the season on Saturday at D.T. Fleming Beach Park.

Surfers enjoyed the best surf conditions in years at Fleming as a new north swell produced overhead waves.

Maui Prep girls dominated, beating runner-up King Kekaulike, 60-48. Na Pueo won three of the five divisions — Sloane Jucker was tops at No. 1, while Zoey Offergeld and Lily Burden claimed No. 3 and No. 5, respectively. The other Na Pueo finalists were Scout Smith, second at No. 4, and Imani Caserta, third at No. 2.

Maui Prep girls coach Lyndee Sprenger was overjoyed.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so proud of my girls,” Sprenger said. “We just came into this season with a mixed team because we have some girls we’ve adopted from Lahainaluna, who came over to Maui Prep after the fire.

“Our girls were just really excited to get out in the water,” Sprenger added. “They work hard and have a great attitude, and I was really pleased by the results.”

Jucker had the highest two-wave score in all of the finals, including an 8.37 on what was one of the bigger waves all day.

“The waves were really awesome,” Jucker said. “I happened to catch one of the better waves of the heat.”

Jucker seemed to be more stoked about her team’s win than her individual victory over defending MIL champion Chrislyn Simpson-Kane of King Kekaulike.

“So exciting, I think that’s the best part of doing these MIL surf contests,” Jucker said. “You’re really a team, you can win for your school, that’s awesome.”

Maui Prep had another individual champion at No. 1, boys winner Zolten Poulsen. The Napili school is located 2.6 miles from D.T. Fleming Beach.

“Obviously, the waves were super fun,” Poulsen said. “It’s honestly a lot different than how we’ve been surfing it the last couple weeks, still definitely the home-court advantage.”

Poulsen took an early lead over Keano Jardine of Maui Christian, but then fell behind.

“I started off with a pretty good score,” Poulsen said. “I got a little nervous because my next two waves were pretty bad and I just fell. I only had a couple waves remaining because you only get five, just super stoked to get one more solid one.”

Poulsen’s family lost their home in the Lahaina fire, and his 12 personal surfboards.

“My community support just has been amazing through my school, my teammates, through everybody, it’s been incredible,” he said. “Honestly, I think I have a better quiver than when the fire hit.

“I’m super stoked that me and my team were able to take the tie with Baldwin. Baldwin surfed great too.”

Baldwin came on strong in the end to catch Maui Prep. Rexford Ang won No. 4, and Jaiyah Jardine was second in No. 5.

Ang was almost out of the contest before it started.

“Right in the morning when we got here, I wanted to hop out and practice a little and free surf and I busted my lip open with my board,” Ang said. “I was trying to bail out of a wave and underwater my board came straight at me and hit me right in the mouth.”

Turns out Ang had a hole through his bottom lip. Lahainaluna athletic trainer Michael Grillo glued the outside and inside lip back together.

“Super stoked on my win today,” Ang said. “I felt like our team did really good today, so sick. My lip feels all better now.”

Second-year Bears coach Jeff Smith wasn’t surprised with his team’s finish.

“We’ve been putting in the work over at Sandpiles,” Smith said. “These guys have been hungry for waves. Over at Sandpiles is the hardest paddle out I can imagine so seeing these clean waves today, they were just frothing.

“We haven’t seen a clean wave like this since we started the season. First time they haven’t had to duck dive 84 times before getting out to the set.”

Twin sisters Talia and Lila Sloan led new MIL member Maui Christian to a fourth-place finish in the girls competition. Talia won the No. 2 class while Lila took the No. 4 division. It was the first time the Sloans had surfed D.T. Fleming.

“The waves were fun but it was kind of hard, hard to find which were good,” Talia said. “They would look like they were breaking, but then they wouldn’t.”

She was able to find a left-breaking wave and was able to complete two turns for the highest score of her heat, a 6.27. That score enabled her to edge past Bella Kuailani of King Kekaulike, 10.84 to 10.77.

Another first-timer to the D.T. Fleming surfbreak was Hana freshman Kanoa Gaffney, who won boys No. 2.

“It was my first time (competing) so I was kind of nervous in my first heat but I made it to the finals,” Gaffney said. “My coach kept telling me, ‘deep breaths, deep breaths,’ and I kept my calm throughout the whole competition.”

“Tried my best out there,” Gaffney said. “The final was stacked, a lot of incredible surfers, so surprised I pulled off a win.”

The next MIL surf meet is scheduled for March 16 at Kahului Harbor.

• MIL SURF MEET NO. 1

Saturday’s Results

At D.T. Fleming Beach

Boys

Team–t1. Maui Prep 49, t1. Baldwin 49, 3. King Kekaulike 46, 4. Seabury Hall 41, 5. Kihei Charter 38, 6. Maui Christian 34, 7. Hana 33, 8. Kamehameha Maui 25, 9. Lahainaluna 22, 10. Maui High 8, 11. Haleakala Waldorf 6.

No. 1–1. Zolten Poulsen, Maui Prep, 14.70; 2. Keano Jardine, Maui Christian, 11.83; 3. Duke Stanton, Baldwin, 10.20; 4. Otis Buckingham, King Kekaulike, 7.90; 5. Jacob Pu, Hana, 4.23.

No. 2–1. Kanoa Gaffney, Hana, 11.67; 2. Teiva Keomaniboth, King Kekaulike, 10.83; 3. Ezra Offergeld, Maui Prep, 8.14; 4. Noah Dvorak, Maui Christian, 7.27; 5. Noah Haas, Kihei Charter, 4.82.

No. 3–1. Kanoa Kuailani, King Kekaulike, 12.26; 2. Ozzi Reyes, Kihei Charter, 10.63; 3. Cru Spalding Kamehameha Maui, 9.66; 4. Josie Romanchek, Seabury Hall, 7.84; 5. Ayden Truong, Baldwin, 6.10.

No. 4–1. Rexford Ang, Baldwin, 10.83; 2. Pierce Armstrong, Maui Prep, 9.86; 3. Max Thobe, Seabury Hall, 6.86; 4. Preston Armstrong, Lahainaluna, 6.67; 5. Edison Kramer, King Kekaulike, 5.60.

No. 5–1. Byron Ellis, Kihei Charter, 10.84; 2. Jaiyah Jardine, Baldwin, 9.93; 3. Sage Ryden Seabury Hall, 9.90; 4. Noah Richard, Maui Prep 9.07; 5. Christian Brath, Kamehameha Maui, 0.00.

Girls

Team–1. Maui Prep 60, 2. King Kekaulike 48, 3. Baldwin 42, 4. Maui Christian 36, 5. Kamehameha Maui 35, 6. Lahainaluna 34, 7. Seabury Hall 26, 8. Maui High 20, 9. Haleakala Waldorf 16, 10. Hana 9, 11. Kihei Charter 6.

No. 1–1. Sloane Jucker, Maui Prep, 16.47; 2. Chrislyn Simpson-Kane, King Kekaulike, 14.70; 3. Thayane Colpas, Maui Christian, 9.07; 4. Mahea Sanita, Hana, 8.83; 5. Graye Smith, Baldwin, 7.10.

No. 2–1. Talia Sloan, Maui Christian, 10.84; 2. Bella Kuailani, King Kekaulike, 10.77; 3. Imani Caserta, Maui Prep, 9.33; 4. Maile Kaaihue, Baldwin, 8.63; 5. Mia Kosianowski, Lahainaluna, 4.37.

No. 3–1. Zoey Offergeld, Maui Prep, 8.53; 2. Maia West, King Kekaulike, 7.66; 3. Makena Huestis, Haleakala Waldorf, 5.00; 4. Sachi Yamaguchi, Seabury Hall, 4.87; 5. Lena Granillo, Lahainaluna, 1.00.

No. 4–1. Lila Sloan, Maui Christian, 11.83; 2. Scout Smith, Maui Prep, 7.73; 3. Oli Schur, Lahainaluna, 3.93; 4. Marley Shea-Apolo, Baldwin, 3.10; 5. Magnolia Padgett, King Kekaulike, 2.17.

No. 5–1. Lily Burden, Maui Prep, 10.26; 2. Wai Smith, Seabury Hall, 9.73; 3. Faith Hubin, Kamehameha Maui, 7.93; 4. Ava Herren, Baldwin, 4.66; 5. Alexa Garcia, Lahainaluna, 3.33.