KAHULUI — Hawaiian Canoe Club opened the Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association season in what was, for them, a fitting manner — by setting Maui records with a 27th consecutive first-place finish and a whopping 165 points in yesterday's John Wilmington III Regatta at Kahului Harbor.

''Normally, we traditionally start a little slower — a lot of our paddlers do the one-man season, and that takes a lot of energy, money and effort — but for us to do this well right off the bat, wow,'' HCC assistant coach Paul Lu'uwai said to The Maui News. ''It feels good as a coach, but at the same time, we always want to be humble and the big picture is the state championship — that is the focus for us.''

Kahana finished second with 77 points and Kihei was third with 62.

''I have high hopes for our club,'' said first-year Kahana head coach Mason Panis. ''We started a week late and the season started a week early, we basically had a month and a half to practice before the first race.

''We filled every slot but three or four, and we'll go back to work on Monday.''

Lae Ula O Kai, which took fourth place with 58 points, sat in third place earlier in the day, with wins in the senior women masters, sophomore women, women novice A and mixed men and women races.

Kihei overtook Lae Ula O Kai later in the afternoon with a help from wins by the platinum men and mixed golden masters.

''We got an influx of kids this year, thanks to some of the parents and kids coaches, so we picked up the most for us in a long, long time — like 60 kids,'' said Lae Ula coach Ricky Balidoy. ''A lot of first-timers, but they're stoked and they like it, so that's exciting.

''It's always good to be competing, instead of just paddling. You always want to be racing because when you finish the race, everything — the drinks, the food — taste that much better. We have fun.''

There are a few differences this season as well, most notably the switch to two divisions — AA for the larger clubs and A for smaller ones.

Hana won the A Division with six points to Lahaina's four — those were the only two teams entered in the smaller division on Saturday, but that could change as the season unfolds, Wailea coach Kapena Whitford said.

''We've always had (two divisions) in our rule books, we just didn't utilize it for points standings, but we know there's a bunch of small clubs that don't fill most of the events, so we figure if they've got, I think, 14 or less, they should have their own points system so that, you know, it gives them some encouragement to win a category or a division,'' Whitford said.

''We're a couple crews over that, so we'll see what happens. We'll probably end up right around that number.''

Wailea had a strong showing in the keiki races, including wins in the boys and girls 13-year-old divisions.

The Lae Ula O Kai sophomore women won in 9 minutes, 48.28 seconds — 32 hundredths of a second in front of HCC. Hawaiian's golden master men's crew (4:26.68) edged Kihei (4:27.68) in another of the day's close races.

Hawaiian had a total of 27 first-place crews.

''Our goal is the states, so whatever stepping stones we need to get there, that's what we're trying to achieve,'' Luuwai said. ''And because we've been there before and we feel like we know what we're doing, we're just making sure we progress at the right time.

''Obviously, we're not peaking today. Even though we had this many wins, it's hard to top a day like this — to break a record in points and a record in most wins (in a row), it feels good, but we've got so much more work to do.''

Several other races were decided by mere seconds as well, and the close competition will only help the Maui teams grow stronger before the state competition rolls around, said HCC head coach Diane Ho.

''I'm so proud of Maui in general,'' she said. ''Especially when you think about it, we're all trying to qualify for two lanes.

''If you think about it, there have been years where we've gone to the state championship and one Maui club has won the A Division, one Maui club has won the AA Division and we've won the AAA Division … what that tells me is if Maui can dominate the sport like that, then that means Maui's where it's at, because it's not unusual for us to go to the state and whoever wins here will medal, regardless of what club it is.''

HCC claimed 21 medals at last year's state regatta.

''Our ability to win year after year after year is not possible without the other clubs, because there's other islands where one club dominates and no one else is really competitive,'' Ho said. ''We get pushed in every race — it may be a different club, but we're getting pushed in every race and that's awesome.''

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