"I feel like I can leave with a full heart," said Wong, who is retiring this year. "I've achieved all the goals I set for myself as a coach."

Kamehameha and Moanalua repeated as champions in their respective divisions in the HHSAA/Zippy's State Cheerleading Championships at the Stan Sheriff Center in front of a loud audience of 2,456.

Kamehameha repeated as the large division (12 to 18 members) champion and Moanalua repeated as the medium division (11 or fewer) champion.

Kamehameha, the national high school cheerleading champion, scored 275 points, Radford finished second with 253, and Baldwin was third with 232. With 3.5 points separating Radford and Kamehameha last year, Wong said this year, "we really tried to have the girls focus on what we were doing. The battle was within ourselves."

She said the strength of the squad was "their ability to work together as a team."

Warriors team members were Jessie Riane Ahuna, Mia Archuleta, Tiare Camarillo, Corinne Chun, Jessica Kaanoi, Alyssa Kong, Shawna Lee, Emi Manuia, Summer Maunakea, Jasmine Merseberg, Tamara Patton, Chanel Silva, Kawena Vierra and Lehua Watanabe.

Kamehameha senior captain Lee, who was the recipient of the state's Senior-Scholar Athlete Award, said that because Wong was retiring this year, the squad wanted to send her out "with a bang. We wanted to come here and do the best we can do."

About Wong, she said: "Dolly is awesome. She is most definitely the best coach in the world. We'll do anything for her, and she'll do anything for us."

Wong, who began coaching at Kamehameha in 1991, said she is retiring because she wants to give younger coaches a chance — which is a good thing for Lee, who wants to help coach Kamehameha next year.

"She's an inspiration," she said of Wong. "I want to come back and coach, to motivate my squad like she did."

Wong is retiring after leading Kamehameha to three state titles, the first in 2002 in the medium division.

The Menehunes' routine began with a series of flips and ended with coach Sherrie Faildo flipping out with joy.

"We had a tough year," Faildo said. "We finished fourth in the (O'ahu Interscholastic Association) and we had to come back from a loss."

Menehunes team members were Megan Batara, Candace Cabanilla, Chelsea Castilliano, Patricia Fernandez, Jennifer Maki, Jenna Neeley, Lindsey Okumoto, Jennifer Oyape, Lindsay Tangonan, Katlin Taosaka and Angelica Wright.

She said they added more difficulty from last year's winning routine.

"We didn't want to play off of what we did last year," she said. "This is a completely different squad."

Moanalua, the OIA Eastern Division champion, scored 262 points to beat out Mililani, which scored 243. Leilehua, with 228, came in third.

Wong and Faildo said the level of competition was higher this year than in the previous two years.

"Squads are stronger, more creative," Faildo said. "The level has been raised, not just our squad, but overall."

Said Wong: "Everyone is working on creative routines, jampacking them with quality components."

Each squad had two minutes and 30 seconds of performance time. They could not exceed 1 minute and 30 seconds of music and had to perform a minimum of 35 seconds of cheer/chant.

Squads were judged on fundamentals such as jumps, tumbling, partner stunts, dance, expression and showmanship, choreography and overall crowd appeal.

Judges also factored in energy, creativity, voice strength and articulation, poise, confidence and precision of the squads. The maximum points a team could score was 300.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.

Team results

Medium Division: 1, Moanalua (Megan Batara, Candace Cabanilla, Chelsea Castilliano, Patricia Fernandez, Jennifer Maki, Jenna Neeley, Lindsey Okumoto, Jennifer Oyape, Lindsay Tangonan, Katlin Taosaka, Angelica Wright) 262. 2, Mililani 243. 3, Leilehua 228. 4, Kaiser 205. 5, Iolani 192. 6, Kapolei 180.