Saint Louis and Sacred Hearts air riflery coach Alan Tokumura had a secret that he wasn't yet ready to share with his shooters.

Earlier this week the Interscholastic League of Honolulu received one more shooters spot for the upcoming state tournament, increasing its allotment from seven to eight.

"Really?" Sacred Hearts senior Clarissa "Haunani" Akana asked, when told after the meet. "I didn't know until just now."

That meant that instead of just the championship ILH team made up of four shooters plus three individual ILH shooters, two four-person teams would qualify for the state meet out of the private school league.

Tokumura withheld the information to keep the pressure on his shooters. He wanted them to compete hard for the shoulder-to-shoulder team championships yesterday at Saint Louis.

"I didn't want them to find out before the match," Tokumura said. "I wanted them to work really hard to get it."

Both his squads responded.

The Crusaders won their first ILH title in at least six years, breaking Punahou's streak.

Saint Louis scored 1,025 points, Punahou scored 991, Academy of the Pacific 981 and Kamehameha 881.

"I told them we needed to break 1,000 because Punahou is (consistently) breaking 1,000," Tokumura said. "To do that each shooter had to shoot about a 250 at least."

Most of his shooters did just that, as Jerel Mudloff led the Crusaders with 267 points, followed by Noah Staggs with 263, Jayson Lum with 250 and Dee Soliman with 245.

It was the first time since Punahou's reign that Saint Louis qualified for the state tournament as a team.

"Of all the years I've been here, it's the first time, it's a dream come true," said Lum, a senior who qualified as an individual last year. "We really worked hard. It gives us something to look forward to and gives us hope again."

Sacred Hearts won its fourth straight girls title, scoring 1,041. Punahou finished second with 1,027, Academy of the Pacific scored 958 and Mid-Pacific 949.

Kristie Thornburg scored 265 to pace Sacred Hearts, and Cecilia Wong (262), Akana (258) and Caitlyn Mori (256) also scoring for the Lancers.

It was a long day for many of the shooters, who also took SAT exams earlier in the day.

So were they tired of looking at little dots all day?

"Kind of, just a little bit," said Akana, the state defending champion.

"Not at all," Lum said. "It really tests your strength in shooting, but the way you know you did your best is if you're mentally fatigued."

NOTES

The Kamehameha boys JV squad won with a season average of 896.29 points, followed by Academy of the Pacific with 827.14. Both ended with a 7-2 record. Mid-Pacific finished third with 814.71 points. On the girls side, Sacred Hearts' JV team won with a 9-0 record (956.57 points), followed by Punahou (917.14) and Mid-Pacific (811.14).