For Saint Louis' track and field team, winning a title came down to the day's last race, the last leg of the 4x400-meter relay, the last centimeter, the final lean of the body and every ounce of energy and emotion.

The Crusaders won the state championship by a half point thanks to a lean at the finish line in the final event — scoring 44.33 points to Punahou's 43.83 points. In dramatic fashion, it came down to anchor Taylor Spencer finishing third by 0.02 seconds, good enough to seal the Crusaders state title.

Even those who were a part of it still have a hard time grasping the emotion of the event.

"That's just something special, to win by half a point," Saint Louis' Trevor Mau said. "We were looking as a team, and overall, for us, Hilo and Punahou, we should have scored a lot more points than we did. For it to be that slim of a margin, that's something you can't explain. It's something to win a state championship, but to win it by half a point, you can't explain it."

"I still can't believe that we won," said Mau, the only Crusader to win an individual title, setting the long jump record. "To take 10 guys and take on Punahou with their 40, I've never heard of anyone doing it before.

"Saint Louis and football, everyone expects us to win at that. I was looking at all the banners we have in our gym, and the last state championship we had in anything was in 2003. It feels good to bring it back."

Nine other teams won state championships for the first time, including a vast array of storied programs such as Punahou, which added four more sports to a long list of state titles, to Kapa'a — the first non-O'ahu school to capture a state championship in boys soccer.

PUNAHOU FOOTBALL

A school rich in athletic tradition — 320 state titles — finally broke through in a major sport it had yet to conquer — football.

"There was a lot of pressure and expectations with the winning tradition we have (at Punahou); there was a constant reminder that we hadn't won the big game," said Kale Ane, Punahou's associate athletic director and football coach. "We only made it to the championship game once before. We focused on not being satisfied with being there, but winning the whole thing."

Punahou, which lost to Kahuku in the 2005 final, beat Leilehua, 38-7, in December.

"We're all excited and very proud to have won the first one. Each one is meaningful, but the first one is always special," Ane said.

Before the game, the school's president Dr. James Scott spoke to the team, reminding them of the school's history.

"I don't think he meant to put pressure on us, but ... ," Ane said. "It was really inspirational and telling, but you don't realize how big the school is and how long it took us to get it."

"We had a lot of very good players, but in big games, the big players had to step up, and the other players had to play better than they had been," Ane said. "It was a combination of the big players stepping up and the everyday players getting better and raising their level of play too."

Just hours before the championship game, linebacker/running back Manti Te'o was named the first Dick Butkus award-winner as the most outstanding high school linebacker in the nation.

Punahou also won mixed paddling this year, after winning boys and girls titles previously. The Buffanblu won titles in girls judo and wrestling for the first time.

MOLOKA'I GIRLS BASKETBALL

When Moloka'i captured the girls Division II basketball title in March, it was not only the first for the school, but for the league as well.

"It just goes to show that it doesn't matter, you can be the underdog and win; you can come from a small school and win; you can be looked over the whole season and come out on top. It shows everyone on my team we can do it," said Farmers sophomore center Kalei Adolpho.

"A state championship for the school is a big deal, but for the first ever for league makes it that much more of a better accomplishment."

The Farmers sealed the win when Adolpho made the go-ahead putback with 12 seconds to go in a 45-42 win over Kamehameha-Hawai'i.

"It's a big deal because we're one of the smaller schools in the state (356 students), and we have to do a lot to get to states, everything from fundraising, to getting there," Adolpho said. "To make all of it worthwhile, it's just really rewarding."

When the team returned home from O'ahu, it was greeted with posters all over the school, in the stores and in the community.

"We had an assembly for us and some of the other sports. It was a pretty big deal," Adolpho said.

Moloka'i (15-0) entered the state tournament as the Maui Interscholastic League champion and No. 4 seed, meeting up with former champ Kamehameha-Hawai'i in the finals. The Warriors won in 2005 and 2007.

KAPA'A BOYS SOCCER

The road to becoming the first Neighbor Island team to win a boys soccer championship started with a tie for the Kapa'a Warriors.

"The first game (of the season) we tied (Waimea), 0-0, against the last-place team, and for a team that came in second in the state (in 2008) ... ," said Kapa'a senior Ikaika Fuerte, who led the Warriors to a 3-1 win over Hawai'i Prep in the state's Division II tournament for the school's first soccer title.

"The next week we played against Kaua'i High and I told the guys we needed to step up and play the way we played last year.

"The next time we played them we blew (Waimea) out, 8-0. That was our wake-up call."

Kapa'a reached the finals of the 2008 Division II championships as well, falling to Mid-Pacific in penalty kicks.

"Coming that close and losing in PKs, it gave us, the returnees, a little more drive to win," said Fuerte, an Advertiser All-State first-team selection and the tournament's MVP.

"It felt great, coming from a small island, with only three schools, it felt great to bring it home," Fuerte said.

Other Neighbor Island teams to win their first state championships were Kamehameha-Maui, which won the boys paddling title after winning the mixed title before, and Kaua'i, which became the second KIF team to win the softball title. Waimea won in 1980 when there was only one division.

Also, the Maryknoll baseball team won the Division II title. The Spartans also have championships in boys and girls basketball and boys volleyball.