The winners of the last 22 Maui County championships and six state titles weren't worried about points as much as they were about moving crews into state-qualifying positions.

After having 25 crews sitting in the top two positions following last week's opening regatta, HCC wanted to improve on that number. With the tough Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association getting only two out of 14 lanes per event at the state championships, that is not an easy thing to do.

Further complicating the scenario is that the MCHCA slate includes only seven regattas, as compared to eight a few seasons ago.

"You have to be ready to go and focused for every regatta now,'' HCC youth coach Paul Luuwai said to The Maui News. "We picked up about five more spots today, but we have to work hard to keep those spots. Those are big moves for us. You have no other option but to do it now. It is too hard to try to play catch-up late in the season and the competition is too good on Maui for that.''

HCC ended the day with 30 crews in top-two positions after winning 22 events on the 41-race slate, five more victories than a week ago at Kahului Harbor. Hawaiian piled up 146 points, 18 more than last week, to claim the regatta victory. Kahana came in second with 90 and Kihei was third with 82. Lae Ula O Kai was fourth (50), Napili fifth (28), Hana sixth (16), Wailea seventh (13), Na Kai Ewalu eighth (10) and Lahaina ninth (four).

This year's state regatta is scheduled for Aug. 4 at Hanalei Bay on Kauai.

The news for Kahana and Kihei canoe clubs was not as bright as it was for Hawaiian. Both clubs won six races last week, when they tied for second. On Saturday, Kahana had seven wins, while Kihei had six.

One week after lamenting the loss of eight points due to three disqualifications, Kahana had four more DQs on Saturday, including two that eliminated winning crews. Kahana is seeking its first 100-point regatta, but that was impossible with the infractions the last two weeks.

"Actually it is worse than last week – better and worse,'' Kahana coach Kekai Keahi said. "Our kids came out strong, scored a lot of points, but we had one crew that won get DQ'ed, our 14 boys. Our novice B women were also DQ'ed. These DQs are really hurting us.''

Keahi said that a lack of focus is leading to the disqualifications.

"We have been having great practices, so I don't know what is happening when we get to race day,'' Keahi said. "It is really frustrating.''

It also will cost Kahana some choices when the season starts to wind down.

"Once you get enough points (in an event), you can move people around,'' he said. "When you DQ and don't get those points, you have to keep your best paddlers in those events and try to get to state. At the same time, you could probably move those people around and try to get other spots to state later in the season.''

Kihei coach Kawika Williams said that hosting the regatta takes a toll that is not evident until the day of the event.

"We had a rough start and we are still having a rough time,'' Williams said as the regatta neared its end. "Hana really, really stepped it up this week and so did Hawaiian. As we may have surprised them last week, they really surprised us this week. We had kind of a rough week, but that is how it goes. A lot of our guys have had a lot to do to host an event like this, but you don't realize it until after the race results come in. Every season it seems like we come out with a lot of energy, but it goes fast.''