Moanalua's Ian Lung (center) takes aim at the target during the finals round of the Civilian Marksmanship state air riflery championship. Lung helped Na Menehune win their first-ever state title Tuesday afternoon. Michael Lasquero | SL

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The 18^th Civilian Marksmanship state air riflery championship was twice as nice for Moanalua's boys.

Na Mehehune outdistanced runner-up Pearl City, 2,091 points to 2,008, to win their first state title Tuesday at the Neal Blaisdell Exhibition Hall, avenging a loss to the Chargers in the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship.

"It feels great," Moanalua's Ian Lung said. "We lost OIAs, so that was a little bit of a hit for us, but we came back strong and winning states is great."

Moanalua also is the first OIA team to win a state crown. The Interscholastic League of Honolulu has traditionally dominated the tournament, winning 14 of the previous 17 meets. Ironically, none of the ILH schools qualified for the team championship because they did not have sufficient individual entries. Pac-Five, the ILH champion, could not qualify as a team because it is made up the league's smaller schools. Punahou, despite having only three qualifiers, finished with the seventh-most points at 1,561.

"This time, we practiced harder and we were ready," Lung said of the difference from the OIA championships and the state meet.

Kalaheo's Justin Pascua won the individual title. He had the high score of 549 in the qualification round (made up of prone, standing and kneeling scores) and the best final round (standing only) with 92 points.

This was the first time the state tournament's individual scoring was done in two phases.

"I liked it, " Lung said. "Still kind of nerve-racking, but I enjoyed it none the less."

Obviously, the new format did not affect Pascua, who is only a sophomore has a chance to become only the second repeat champion since Kamehameha's Keanu Paikai in 2010 and 2011.

"It's really exciting," Pascua said. "It's taking a little time processing (the win), but I'm super excited."

Pascua said he worked harder to prepare for this season, even making adjustments to his technique.

"My coach just changed me up and then I practiced that and I got better."

Pascua, who placed seventh in last year's meet, is somewhat of a gun enthusiast.

"I was into guns, like air soft and paint ball," he said. "I was into sharp-shooting. Like the movies, I thought that would be cool to do it as a sport, so I turned to air riflery and it turned out to be really cool."