PEARL CITY — By the time darkness fell, victories were being celebrated and tears shed over years of hard work stolen in the night.

Kalani won the boys and girls team titles at yesterday's nearly 12-hour-long O'ahu Interscholastic Association air riflery championships at Pearl City. Chelsie Hata of Moanalua won her second straight individual girls title and Roosevelt's JiHoon Lee won the boys title.

Shooting started at 7:30 a.m. under sunny skies. But the last flight of shooters didn't end until about 7:15 p.m. They spent 45 minutes shooting with the sun long faded, through intermittent rain, and six cars beaming their lights from behind, all while trying to focus on a bullseye 33 feet away and competing for a state championship berth.

"I was shooting literally blind and I couldn't tell what was white and black, and it was raining," said an upset Samantha Javier, a Kapolei senior competing in her first OIA championship.

It was another twist to an interesting season. Due to budget restraints, teams didn't travel for matches. Instead, they shot at their home range, and scores were compared between opponents. Also this year, competitors had 60 shots to fire, compared to 30 last year, making the championships longer.

"I was a little bit more nervous because we haven't been challenging each other face-to-face," Hata said.

She said it was fun seeing other teams, but thought nerves would get to her. It didn't. She finished with a 534 aggregate (out of a possible 600).

The Kalani girls completed an undefeated season by beating Pearl City in the finals. Kalani's top four shooters totaled 1,894 to Pearl City's 1,831.

"There isn't a girl who stands out. When one does shoot better than the other, that person would motivate everybody else," said Kalani sophomore Alissa Harada, who finished fifth individually. "Everyone to us is the best."

Kalani beat Moanalua, 1,913-1,780, to win the boys final and also finish the season unbeaten.

"It's all cooperation," said Kalani sophomore Grant Takara, who placed second individually. "It's a team effort. We don't have super high shooters. The whole team has to pull together to achieve their goal."

Lee won the boys title with a 496, one more than Kalani's Takara and Brandon Arakaki. Lee protested the initial scoring of his target, which shooters are allowed to do, giving him one more point.