VIDEO: Hawaiian wins AAAA team title
VIDEO: Senior women's race
VIDEO: Boys 18 race
VIDEO: Junior women's race
VIDEO: Sophomore women's race
mg src="http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/inc/pix/icon_video5.gif" alt="" height="14" width="14" border="0"> VIDEO: Junior men's race

Puna won the AAA division and Keaukaha won the AA division yesterday.

The state regatta features four divisions: AAAA for the biggest clubs, AAA for the next biggest, then AA and A.

It is the second consecutive year that Big Island clubs took the AAA and AA state titles.

Napili of Maui won the A division for small clubs.

"Our kids had a great day and our women," Puna head coach Afa Tuaolo said. "It was an overall thing. Everybody did what they had to do to make points."

Last year, a controversial disqualification cost Puna the AAA title (which went to fellow Big Island club Kai 'Opua).

This year, there was no doubt. Puna scored 166 points to out-distance second-place Kihei of Maui by 34 points

Puna won two races — boys 16 and women novice A — but got several other top-five finishes. Tuaolo said racing at Hilo Bay was a key to the club's success.

"To me, it's like your home grounds and a lot of our paddlers knew the area," he said. "And the tide was right ... the outside (lanes) were winning, the middle and the inside."

Keaukaha won two races, and prevailed in the tightly contested AA division.

Keaukaha scored 115 points, Lae'ula O Kai of Maui was second with 114, and Waikiki Beachboys was third with 113.

Keaukaha won the girls 18 race early in the day, then clinched the AA title by winning the mixed 40 race late in the day.

Lae'ula O Kai, a Maui club, won the women's open-4 race and placed second in the girls 14 race.

Waikiki Beachboys won three races, including the prestigious women's senior race by a surprisingly convincing margin.

The crew of Dana Gorecki, Kelsa Teeters, Andrea Messer, Jen Polcer, Rachel Bruntsch and Kaui Pelekane completed the 1 1/2-mile course in 12 minutes, 5.99 seconds. Hui Lanakila was second in 12:27.94, about two canoe lengths behind.

"We had to get redemption for last year because we got edged out," Pelekane said of last year's loss to Hui Lanakila by 0.31 of a second at the state regatta. "Our goal was just to go out there and paddle hard and we wanted to win."

The same Waikiki Beachboys crew also won the women's sophomore race.

Napili's win in the A division was surprising based on the numbers. For starters, the A division featured 36 clubs, making it perhaps the toughest division to win.

Napili had just four youth crews entered in the regatta, but they combined to score 53 points, including stunning 15-point wins by the girls 13 and boys 13 crews.

"We were actually the second seed from Maui in both those races," Napili coach Joey Tihada said. "But we've been battling with Hawaiian all year and we know that they have some of the top paddlers in the state. We knew if we could keep up with them all year, we had a shot at this and our kids came through today."

Napili's girls 13 crew won in lane 14 (farthest from shore), which is like being the last seed for the race.

Kawaihae, the two-time defending A division state champion, placed second with 51 points.