WAILUKU, Maui — On a hot, humid, mosquito-suffused night, in one of the most tightly contested state track and field meets, the Punahou boys team won the last race of the evening and with it their first state championship in five years.

Punahou led Baldwin by just six points, 55-49 heading into the boys 4x400-meter relay, with Kamehameha (47) close behind, and Mililani (42) in position to finish in the top three.

Punahou needed only a third-place finish to assure their victory, but the relay team wanted to leave no question that they were the best team.

"We knew we had to take it but we treated it like any other race," said Punahou junior Zach Coronas, who ran the anchor leg. "We go for the win every time."

Punahou finished with 65 points, followed by Baldwin (54), Kamehameha (49.5) and Mililani (46).

Punahou's boys knew they were in for a tougher-than-normal meet after they failed to qualify for the 4x100-meter relay during preliminaries.

Yet, the team's superior depth proved the difference.

Coronas was involved in each of Punahou's three event wins (the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes and the 4x400-meter relay), but his teammates managed to accumulate valuable points with 11 other top-six finishes.

"We have quality event coaches and athletes and they just kept fighting," said boys head coach Mike Pavich. "They showed a lot of pride."

The points lead changed several times in the second half of the meet, with the top four teams clustered within a single event's points of each other.

"We were keeping track of the points so we knew it was a four-team race," said Mililani head coach Marshall Ochi. "We knew we'd have to battle to the end, and we did. I'm happy with our performance tonight. These boys can't hang their heads about anything."

Ochi's team endured some tense moments late in the meet when junior pole vaulter Cameron Daugherty was initially disqualified for using too much tape to treat a blister that had formed on his right hand.

Ochi appealed, arguing that it was the meet's own medical staff that deemed it necessary to apply tape around the front and back of Daugherty's hand, rather than only at the site of the blister.

At that point, Daugherty and eventual winner Erik Rasmussen of St. Anthony had both vaulted 14 feet, 9 inches; the tape had been on Daugherty's hand for at least three rounds.

Mililani won the appeal and Daugherty was allowed, nearly a half hour later, to continue. Both he and Rasmussen fell short in their attempt to break Bubba Maclean's decade-old record of 15 feet, 3 inches.

"I talked to Bubba and he wanted me to break the record," Rasmussen said. "I just felt bad (about Daugherty). I felt it wasn't fair."

Mililani's D'Andre Benjamin, who individually accounted for 24 of his team's points with first-place finishes in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and a fourth-place finish in the long jump, and contributed 14 more as a member of both relay teams.

In one of the closest races of the day, Benjamin outleaned Baldwin's Colton Quinabo at the finish line to win the boys 110-meter hurdles.

"I thought I got beat," said Benjamin who tripped on his first hurdle and had to come back from deep in the pack to win.

"You just have to run scared," he said. "Run scared."

Quinabo also had his team's overall performance in mind, but he also wanted badly to beat Benjamin.

"He's the best I've seen," Quinabo said. "I've wanted to win this race since I was a freshman. I wanted this one as an individual achievement. My other events are all for the team."

Kamehameha's Brandon Hardin, who was disqualified from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu track and field championships two weeks ago for being entered in too many events, took advantage of the state meet's different rules by competing in the maximum six races.

Unfortunately, Hardin was hampered all day by a flare-up of the shin splints he's battled all season. Still, he placed first in the 100-meter dash, second in the triple jump, fourth in the 200-meter dash, and fifth in the long jump, and contributed to Kamehameha's second-place finish in the 4x100-meter relay and fifth-place 4x400 meter relay team.

Brothers Keoni and Nick Ucker made sure tiny Christian Liberty, with its enrollment of just over 120 students, was ably represented. Keoni took first place in the boys 1,500-meter run and Nick earned valuable points with a second-place finish.

"It's awesome to have him out there with me," Keoni Ucker said. "We wanted to do this together."

The pressure of the day manifested in some of the unlikeliest competitors.

Damien's Sione Tau, vice president of his senior class and a University of Colorado football recruit, said he was so nervous he woke up at 5 a.m., about three hours earlier than he normally does on a meet day.

"It's different than football," he said. "We're a team, but when you're out there by yourself, it feels like it's all on the line."

That didn't stop Tau from winning the discus throw and and placing fifth in the shot put.

"It's kind of a weird feeling winning something that's not football, but it's a good feeling," he said.

Like Punahou, Baldwin succeeded by accumulating points wherever they could get them. The boys team compiled 11 top-six finishes.

Joey Amescua provided the team's lone first-place finish, but it was a keeper. Amescua blazed to an early lead in the 800-meter run, finishing comfortably in 1 minute, 56.32 seconds, nearly six seconds ahead of Kamehameha's Kyle Pidot.

"What can I say?" asked Baldwin head coach Gary Sanches. "Even in the events we didn't win, some of our boys got PRs (personal records). What's bad about that? I like that this year there was no dominant team."

And although his squad came up a few points short, Sanches said he was also happy that the meet came down to the final relay.

"That's a favorite race of mine," Sanches said. "If you're an athlete, the 4x4 is where you prove it. That's where your manhood shows."

Reece Alnas from Kamehameha-Hawai'i was also a double winner, capturing the long jump (21, feet, 10 inches) and the high jump (6 feet, 4 inches).

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.