Kaiser High School Varsity girls and mixed paddling crews raced at OIA championships in Keehi Lagoon last Saturday. After placing second overall, the varsity girls paddling crew is going to State Championships in Hilo.
The vars girls started off the regatta with a slow start, and quickly fell behind the five other crews. However, Kaiser began to catch up as they entered the turn, marking the halfway point of the race. The canoe did a rapid 180 degree rotation around the flag and began the sprint back to the starting line.
The Kaiser girls began rapidly pulling forward towards and passing the crowd of canoes in the front. They reached the finish line just a few seconds after Mililani, taking second place; an impressive comeback that would guarantee them their spot in the Hawaii State Championships.
Anna King, a Senior who was in both the varsity mixed and girl’s crews, was exhausted after racing four times throughout the entire regatta, participating in both the Varsity Girls and Varsity mixed competitions that day. “At the end of that fourth race I was drenched in sweat, but I am super stoked to be going to states with the girls crew,” King said.
Jackson Hopkins, a sophomore paddler had his mind on something else during the regatta.
“I was really hoping that Junior Varsity would be able to race today at championships but unfortunately we weren’t able to because we got disqualified two weeks ago.”
The Junior Varsity mixed crew had a false start during their second race of the season, lowering their overall score, impeding their chances of qualifying for a spot in the Championships. There weren’t enough paddlers, in the beginning, to make up a Boys Varsity or Junior Varsity Girls team, which lowered the number of potential qualifications significantly. “Most of the Sophomores were pulled up to Varsity to make their crew better,” Hopkins said, “so we didn’t have enough people to make a crew.”
Coach John was disappointed that there wasn’t very much Kaiser JV representation in the races, but he was still very pleased with how Kaiser did overall.
“While I do wish that we could have had more crews, I think that the JV mixed did a good job as many of them were first year paddlers. This year was really a build-up time so that next year we’ll be even stronger and a real competition in the regattas.
“And the Varsity crews? They did a super job! I am really excited to see how they perform in States. And the Varsity Mixed crew could have been a real contender for State Champion,” Coach John stated enthusiastically.
All in all, the Junior Varsity mixed and the other Kaiser paddling crews had a blast paddling and are looking forward to the Varsity Girls performance in states.
