Three seconds, Boom! Boom! Boom!

NAWILIWILI — The Kauai High School varsity girls paddling team is heading to the First Hawaiian Bank Hawaii High School Athletic Association state championships Feb. 6 at Keehi Lagoon on Oahu.

The coach and girls returned to Niumalu on Tuesday to resume training after earning eligibility for the state competition by winning its division Saturday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship regatta at Wailua River.

“Three seconds — boom! boom! boom!” said Lori Parraga, Kauai girls paddling team coach. “It came down to three seconds. Not just the championship race, the entire season was so close. Three seconds is very close.”

The Kauai girls, after looking at a 14-11 point deficit against Kapaa in the overall standings heading into Saturday’s race, pulled forward by winning its preliminary heat on the half-mile paddle that stopped the clock at 4 minutes, 43.21 seconds — just three seconds back of the Kapaa A (4:45.03) team.

Led by Christina Carney in the steers slot, the Red Raider wahine pulled across the finish line in 4:46.35, less than a second ahead of Kapaa (4:47.09) for the division win.

“The entire season has been close,” Parraga said. “We had Kapaa who had a big home field advantage and knew how to capitalize on it. There was Waimea, who had girls paddling through the summer and coming on strong. We had to think hard about how to do this. Our girls had been training extremely hard, but the races were extremely close.”

Parraga, after meeting with the girls, finally settled on a crew change, moving up her junior varsity stroker, or lead paddler in Seat No. 1, and moving her stroker back to Seat No. 6 as the steer because “she had some experience steering the boat.”

“It was nerve-wracking,” Carney said. “If we couldn’t win, I felt it was mainly my fault because I couldn’t steer right. I was nervous. But during the pre-race huddle, I told myself to focus — no bad water, look for the running water. The girls were fabulous and I could just paddle as hard as I could.”

Carney said winning the preliminary heat gave them the option of selecting which lane they would race the final — ether Lane 1, or Lane 3.

“Lane 3 had the activity,” Carney said. “You definitely wanted to be in the lane with running water. It makes a difference.”

Calcee Nance, JV stroker who has been paddling for three years, was also nervous about the final race on Wailua River.

“Coach moved me up Thursday,” Nance said. “I was super nervous because I had such a big job ahead of me. Before the race, our crew had a meeting and they told me — don’t mess up! Once we hit the water, I was able to shake off the nervousness and just focus.”

With the KIF championship win, Kauai girls finish the season with 19 points, edging the Warrior women by one point, Kapaa finishing with 18 points.

Kapaa finished the KIF championships by sweeping all three JV divisions to remain undefeated. The Warriors also took the varsity boys and mixed divisions despite not winning the KIF championship race in the mixed division.

“Our focus is now at states,” Parraga said. “The team’s goal is to make the semifinals, at least. We will go there to race hard and hopefully do as well as we want to.”

Last year, Parraga said the team finished second in its preliminary race. This would have advanced them into the semifinals, but the officials disqualified the team on an early start, abrubtly ending their trip.