Na Pueo boys roll to 3rd straight MIL crown
Maui Preparatory Academy’s Landon Long watches his eagle try on the Royal Kaanapali Golf Course’s first hole Thursday. He settled for a tap-in birdie. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Baldwin’s Nathaniel Maier hits off the first tee Thursday.
Maui Prep’s Chris Salem shakes hands with teammate Kai Shively after sinking a birdie putt on the first hole.
Shively follows the flight of his drive off the first tee.
Maui Preparatory Academy’s Landon Long watches his eagle try on the Royal Kaanapali Golf Course’s first hole Thursday. He settled for a tap-in birdie. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Baldwin’s Nathaniel Maier hits off the first tee Thursday.
Maui Prep’s Chris Salem shakes hands with teammate Kai Shively after sinking a birdie putt on the first hole.
Shively follows the flight of his drive off the first tee.
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KAANAPALI -- The smile on Landon Long's face summed up the situation pretty well on the edge of the ninth green of the Royal Kaanapali Golf Course on Thursday.
Long fired a team-best 36 to guide his Maui Preparatory Academy boys golf team to the Central Pacific Bank/Maui Interscholastic League team crown. Na Pueo outdistanced Baldwin 150-202 on Thursday.
Combined with Tuesday's 148-169 score in favor of Pueo at The Dunes at Maui Lani, MPA rolled to a 298-371 victory in the championship aggregate score.
Long was a key member of Na Pueo's 2022 state championship team as a freshman, but last year he struggled at the state tournament. His 82-81--163 left him tied for 29th in the individual standings and MPA finished second in the team chase, by six strokes to Waiakea.
Long, who finished 13th in 2022 as a freshman, has taken those results personally all season. Long led MPA in both segments of the MIL championship -- he fired 34 on Tuesday.
"I wouldn't say it's my everything, but it's a large weight," Long said. "Walking off a golf course I've never felt emotionally like that. I mean, I let myself down so much that this year every time I step on a golf course, every time I walk in the gym it's all about that 81-82 and it's about coming back and doing what I can this year."
Na Pueo clinched five state tournament berths with the MIL team title.
"I think this year we have one of the strongest teams I've ever been a part of," Long said. "It means so much to walk out of here knowing that we have five spots clinched to states, but that is not going to stop us from going out there and trying to take the top five spots in the MIL individual tournament. We want to go out there and compete whenever we can.
"We breathe consistency and exhale confidence. We have a work ethic, we push, we push, we push each other and we work harder than anybody else. It comes down to confidence and that's why we can come out here and deliver."
Fellow juniors Renner Chumley and Chris Salem have been members of the state champs and runners-up the last two seasons.
Salem fired a 39 and Chumley a 41 on Thursday. Kai Shively shot an even-par 37 and Arshayah Marshall had a 38.
"I mean, it's pretty cool, just looking back on freshman year we've kind of built this up from the ground up, the three of us, you know, me, Chris and Renner," Long said. "Coming in from freshman year, it's so cool to see it develop because a lot of people expected us to be good for a couple years, but now with Arshayah, Kai Shively, Arjun (Patel), even Carter Bozich, we have so much depth that's been built over time.
"We're not going away, is pretty much the point. Every week we go into practice and no one's spot is given. We have six, seven guys who can shoot sub-40 for nine holes. Shively was incredible today."
Shively, a first team MIL Division II basketball All-Star, was happy to be in the mix on Thursday after his 43 was the dropped score in the start-five, count-four format on Tuesday.
He had three birdies, a double bogey and a bogey for his even-par finish on Thursday -- he finished strong with birdies on six, seven and nine wrapped around his bogey on eight.
The wind was a major factor on Thursday.
"I just went out there and played my game," Shively said. "I didn't have a good round on Tuesday, so I had to step up for my team and it felt good to do it."
Shively said his team thrives on the team portion of the season.
"I mean, we're a family out here," he said. "We all just try to do our best. We work hard every day. We have fun and there's never a doubt that it's going to be a bad round."
MPA coach Jeff Hall said his team has been solid all season.
"They prepare like no other, I can tell you that, hard, hard workers," Hall said. "To play like they did today in this wind, it's phenomenal, it's beyond good. Like I said, they've been putting in the work and it's starting to pay off. They are all coming together."
Ben Cafferio led Baldwin with a 46 on Thursday, while Zach Kuraoka, Nathaniel Maier and Angelo Media all had 52s. The Bears' dropped score was a 54 from Brady Yokouchi.
The Bears will now have to fight for the final 10 spots the MIL gets to the boys state tournament through the MIL individual tournament.
"They're good, they're really tough," Baldwin coach William Kapoi said of Na Pueo. "For us, this is a big accomplishment because I believe last year we were like third to the last and then this year we're second place. Getting this far, getting to play these competitive holes will pay off in the long run."
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.