In her oversized lavender hoodie, haku and regular lei, Kamalei Canionero doesn’t fit the mold of a long-range sniper.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Hawaii Baptist senior is the state record- holder in sporter air riflery — by a wide margin. Canionero dominated the final round with a phenomenal score of 100.4, finishing with a state record aggregate tally of 662.4 to capture the girls individual title at the Hawaii Army National Guard/HHSAA Air Riflery State Championships.
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The previous girls record of 647.7 was set just last year by Rio Williams of Punahou. The signs were there for Canionero, who scored 651 in the ILH championships last week for the title
“I like to go by the phrase, ‘don’t think, just do’,” Canionero said.
She was heartbroken when she finished third as a junior last year with a stellar score of 645.1. That was not enough to console her.
“Yeah. I felt very disappointed,” she said.
As a senior, two keys bumped Canionero from excellent shooting to borderline national-record performance.
“What changed is my mentality. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself, so I decided to change that by just being more relaxed and chill with it. Be like, nah, it’s OK. I’ll just do whatever and I’ll try my best,” she said. “It was at the very beginning of the season. My old coaches, Coach Robin and Coach Yuji (Hata), they retired. It feels like they kind of took my pressure with them because I just wanted to make them proud.”
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New coach Shon Uekawa was a good fit with the veteran Hatas gone.
“He was just very refreshing for me because he wasn’t very serious. I felt like I didn’t have to be serious anymore, either,” Canionero said. “Just do what you love.”
Reef Tolosa of Kaiser captured the boys individual title with a score of 642.8. That is the third-best score in HHSAA history behind Devez Aniol of Kamehameha-Hawaii (645.7) in 2018 and Dylan Fo of Hanalani (642.9) in 2024.
Tolosa was fourth as a junior last year, posting a score of 623.7.
“After shooting, I definitely didn’t think I would be this high. I was disappointed in how I did, but apparently it was enough,” Tolosa said. “There’s some pressure, but overall it’s good. I’m happy. I’ve been working for this and here we are. It’s something I knew would happen.”
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The boys runner-up was Everest Martinez of Punahou (638.1), followed by Buffanblu teammate Wyatt Endow (631.7), Bryan Bain of Pearl City (629.5), Ethan Pilar of Moanalua (622), Maddox Seto of Kamehameha-Maui (621.5), Kelvin Hung-Ino of Moanalua (621.2) and Brenner Young of Mid-Pacific (619.3)
The buzz was strongest around HBA’s record-setter.
“Her score is crazy. That’s really good,” Tolosa said. “It could be a national record.”
The national record, according to Civilian Marksmanship Program, is held by Emma Thompson of Freeport High School (Ill.), who posted a score of 672.4 in 2016.
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Megan Goo of Mid-Pacific was runner-up with an aggregate score of 640.3. Calie Yoda of Pearl City began the final round four points behind Canionero, but finished third (636.3). Rio Williams of Punahou, the defending girls individual champion, placed fourth (634.9).
Punahou’s repeat makes it seven girls state titles. Karen Finley guided the program to crowns in 2001, ’02, ’05, ’08 and ’16. Glenn Taga has led the Buffanblu to their back-to-back koa trophies.
Moanalua, under coach Bruce Yonesaki, also made it back-to-back state titles. Na Menehune posted a score of 2,124, which tied Saint Louis’ 2002 team for the fourth-best score ever. The program won its first boys team title in 2016 under Jeffrey Fujimoto. Yonesaki then guided the team to titles in ’17, ’19, and then the back-to-back koa in ’25 and ’26.
Canionero led the field going into the championship round. Her qualification score of 562 (kneeling, prone and standing positions) was four points ahead of OIA champion Calie Yoda of Pearl City. That 562 by Canionero also bested the previous three-round mark of 557 set by Vicci Lau of Punahou in 2002.
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“I felt very relieved. All the pressure from just being able to go to finals, ugh,” Canionero said.
She and her teammates had a break before the final round.
“I went with my friends and we ate udon. We had about two hours,” Canionero said. “I tried to take a nap.”
Goro (553), Jaycie Shinsato of Kalani (546), Williams (546), Zoe Glazer of Kaiser (545), Taryn Yamamoto of Pac-Five/Maryknoll (542) and Kyla Miyamoto of Punahou (542) filled out the list of top eight shooters for the dramatic final round.
Led by Williams, the 2025 individual girls champion, Punahou defended its girls team title with an aggregate tally of 2,142. It was shy of last year’s state-record breaking score of 2,158, but the Buffanblu actually led Pearl City by just one point before the last leg, the standing position targets.
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“We’re all seniors. It’s me, Kyla (Miyamoto), Gabby (Deperalta) and Phoebe (Lin). Everyone’s awesome,” Williams said. “It’s amazing. It’s harder for me not to get in my head and have high expectations. I really wanted to go into this match knowing it’s my last sporter match and try and have fun. Everyone on our team shot better than we thought we would.”
Williams was in awe of Canionero’s feat.
“Kamalei did amazing, and she’s so sweet,” she said.
Pearl City clocked out with a 2,134 score. Kaiser placed third (2,078), followed by Kalani (2,059) and Kamehameha-Hawaii (2,039). in the top five.
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The boys team standings were in the hands of Moanalua once again.
Tolosa plans to compete at the next level. Memories of Kaiser air riflery will always bring him a smile.
“There are loads of memories of everybody. I’d like to say thank you to my coaches and to Kaiser and club. It’s all been amazing. Amazing people,” he said.
Tolosa hopes to qualify for Junior Olympics (precision) again, and compete at regionals and nationals. The latter are sporter, which is the technology used in high school.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
