The Leilehua boys have caught up to Pearl City’s dynasty in the OIA arms race.

The Mules won their first OIA team title since 2003 with an easy victory over Kalani at Pearl City on Saturday.

James Sison paced the Mules with a 505, helping Leilehua to a score of 2,001 to beat Kalani (1,961). The Pearl City girls won their third straight championship behind 533 points by Kristi Takaki, who won the individual title.

Pearl City’s Zane Grzeskczak won the boys individual title with a 513 long after Sison’s day was done.

Joshua Shin shot a 501 for the Mules, Daniel Santos scored a 498 and Christian Chaves-Jiminez carded a 497 for the winners.

The Leilehua boys have always been in the hunt but never overcame the Chargers dynasty until Saturday. Pearl City saw its streak of three straight OIA titles snapped in the semifinals last week, when Kalani won after Pearl City had two top shooters sit out because of academics.

"It was pretty disappointing because all of their good shooters are gone already," Leilehua’s Bennet Cariaga said. "They are always a really good challenge. Not to sound boastful or anything, but it would have been nice to see them."

Leilehua lost to Pearl City by 40 points in the first match of the regular season. The Chargers will get their shot at redemption in the state meet Oct. 29 at the Blaisdell.

Leilehua’s rise to the top of the OIA began last year when the team showed up with new breech-loaded Crosman Challenger rifles that made the Daisy pump-action implements everyone else was using look like toys.

Leilehua coach James Esteban did his research and told his athletic director it was time for new weapons, and the boss agreed. Instead of breaking position after each shot to pump more air into the rifle, the Challenger allows a shooter to keep his natural point of aim and simply load the weapon before going again.

Pearl City shoots the Challengers as well, but Leilehua has had more time with them. Chargers coach Les Aranaydo was researching the new rifles the same time Esteban was, but he preferred to see what happened with his friends at Leilehua before approaching his AD for tools that can cost up to $600 each.

"I knew it was an important rifle to have for my girls," Aranaydo said. "Whoever has the new rifle has an advantage, and I was planning it out and it needed to be done but I wanted to see how it performed. It’s a lot of money, I was kind of letting them test it out."

Esteban bought two Challengers on his own last year and the school added five more. Pearl City currently has six of them.

"We literally shared rifles," Esteban said. "From there all of the other schools saw we were doing really well with them so they also got some. A few private schools like Kamehameha and Punahou had them so I had to try to even the playing field a little bit."

Leilehua’s Gavin Au was the poster boy for the effectiveness of the new rifles, wielding one well enough to take the OIA title last year and parlay it into a spot in college at Nevada.

"When I first came to Leilehua, my first thing that came to mind was that I want to shoot a gun," James Sison said. "But that changed over the years; now I just want to do it for the team."

Pearl City’s girls had the best of both worlds, sweeping the team and individual crowns with their Challenger rifles.

Takaki was followed in the individual standings by teammates Jennifer Loui with a 532, Kristi-Lin Wasano with a 528, Ashley Somera with a 516 and Danielle Tanabe with a 502.

The ILH will have its individual championships on Saturday before states Oct. 29 at the Blaisdell.