After seven years of frustrating losses, the Lanikai Canoe Club scored a frustrating victory yesterday.

Lanikai ended Hawaiian Canoe Club's seven-year reign by winning the Hawaiian Canoe Racing State Championship Regatta yesterday.

The day-long event at Ke'ehi Lagoon ended in controversy as a disqualification helped lift Lanikai into the top spot at the end of the 39-race regatta.

"It's somewhere between a hollow victory and a pyrrhic victory," Lanikai head coach Tommy Conner said. "We won, but how did we win it? The officials won it for us. That's how I feel."

Even more frustrated was Hawaiian of Maui. It entered as the seven-time defending state champion, but saw the streak stopped thanks in part to a disqualification of its women's 40-older crew for a false start.

The final tally had Lanikai with 355 points; Hawaiian placed second with 352. It was the closest finish to a regatta in recent memory.

The disqualification resulted in a penalty of 11 points against Hawaiian.

What's more, the final decision on the disqualification was made by race officials around 7:30 p.m. — about an hour after the final race of the regatta was completed.

"It's unfortunate that it's 7:30 at night and we have to wait over an hour after it finishes to determine a winner," Hawaiian head coach Diane Ho said. "It's tough."

Ho said she believed the Hawaiian women's 40-older crew did not have a false start. Race officials reviewed the video, but could not come to a decisive conclusion, so the original call stood.

It was one of several controversial disqualifications throughout the regatta.

"Maybe two hours ago, I would have been happy and had good things to say," Conner said after the final results were announced. "But the way the whole thing unraveled at the end, I feel unhappy for all the crews that got disqualified."

In any case, it was Lanikai's fourth state championship, and first since 2000.

"I think a lot of people here today are happy we got it," veteran Lanikai paddler Mike Judd said. "That's not to take away anything from Hawaiian. What they've done is incredible. But when it goes on that long, I think people like to see the underdog pull one out for a change."

Prior to the controversial ending, Hawaiian and Lanikai staged an epic back-and-forth battle.

Lanikai's strength was its open men. They scored an impressive sweep of the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior races.

"I don't know if you can expect to do that, but we were certainly trying to do it," said Pat Erwin, who coaches the Lanikai men's program.

The Lanikai crew of Kai Bartlett, John Foti, Mike Judd, Jack Roney, Jim Foti and Karel Tresnak Jr. won the prestigious men's senior race by completing the 1 1/2-mile course in 10 minutes, 43.2 seconds.

Tui Tonga came in second, 11 seconds later, and Hawaiian was third.

Lanikai once had a streak of 10 consecutive men's senior victories at the state regatta from 1992-2001. But yesterday was its first men's senior win since 2004.

"We stumbled a little bit the last few years, and last year we fell flat on our faces," Jim Foti said. "We were all thinking, 'Is Lanikai done?' So it feels good to bring it back. Real good."

It was especially sweet for Bartlett, who transferred back to Lanikai this year after two years on Maui with Hawaiian.

"There's a lot of funky feelings about that," he said. "But we focus on different things at Lanikai, and that's why I came back. We have a bigger picture in mind, and that's the Moloka'i (Hoe)."

Thanks to the performance of its men, Lanikai was able to rally from a significant deficit to Hawaiian at the start of the regatta.

Hawaiian opened the regatta in stunning fashion, winning the first three races — girls 12, boys 12 and mixed 12.

Hawaiian ended up winning five youth races, and scored 127 points in the 13 youth races. It was the 10th time in the last 11 years that Hawaiian finished the state regatta with the top-scoring youth program.

"Gosh, wow. I was hoping to do well, but this kind of performance ... it's overwhelming," said Paul Lu'uwai, who coaches the Hawaiian youth program.

Hawaiian also scored victories in the girls 14 and girls 16 races. Three of the girls from the girls 16 crew also paddled to a second-place finish in the girls 18 race.

"I was really tired, but then I looked at the 16 girls (race) as a warmup for the 18s," said Carlene DeCoite, who paddled in both races. "We didn't practice together for the 18 race, but we still did pretty good, so we were happy."

DesiRay Deluze, who paddled in the girls 16 crew, said: "We had to bring in points for the club, and we brought in a lot of points."

By the end of the youth races, Hawaiian had a 24-point lead on Lanikai.

Hawaiian finished with a regatta-high seven wins. It also won the men's novice A and women's freshman races.

The Hawaiian women also placed third in the sophomore, junior and senior races.

"When the kids do well like they did, it gives you chicken-skin, and you want to go out and do your part," said Dane Ward a paddler/coach for the Hawaiian women.

But Lanikai slowly caught up, despite a disqualification of its own in the men's novice A race.

After 37 of the 39 races were completed, Hawaiian had 342 points to Lanikai's 335.

Hawaiian's disqualification in the women's 40-older race was the 38th race of the day.

Ho, who has been Hawaiian's head coach through the seven-year run, took the defeat in stride.

"It's a great run, and we'll be back to try again next year," she said. "We're not folding because of this."

The seven consecutive titles by Hawaiian is the second-longest streak in state history, behind only Outrigger's nine in a row from 1984-92.

Hui Lanakila won the prestigious women's senior race in a thrilling battle against Waikiki Beach Boys.

The crew of Jessie Eames, Jaimie Kinard, Michelle Arnold, Arlene Holzman, Pauahi Ioane and Sarah Van De Vanter completed the 1 1/2-mile course in 12:23.06.

Waikiki Beach Boys, which won the women's senior race in 2006 and '07, came in at 12:23.37.

"At every turn, you could see how close it was," Holzman said. "We were really pushing each other. I've never heard our girls talk like that in the boat before. It really was exciting to be a part of."

The same Hui Lanakila crew also won the women's sophomore race.

But the talk at the end of the regatta centered around the controversial disqualifications.

Tui Tonga's men's novice B crew and Hui Nalu's women's 40-older crew lost potential first-place victories due to false-start disqualifications.

Also, Puna lost a potential first-place team trophy in the AAA Division due to a false start penalty in the mixed open-6 race.

When the results were finally resolved, the sun had set and several paddlers and coaches walked away from the officials' stand with shouts of frustration.

"I feel sorry for Hawaiian Canoe Club because they gave us a battle all day long and they lost the regatta on a ticky-tack call," Conner said. "I rather see it decided on the course than behind an officials' booth."