Jonathan Oba won two individual events to carry Roosevelt to the OIA boys swimming and diving championship at Central Oahu Regional Park on Saturday.

Despite a bumpy start that included a disqualification in the first relay, the Rough Riders compiled 254 points — 64 more than second-place Kalani.

“The boys had to work extra hard because they were disqualified in the first relay, so they had a lot of points to make up,” said Roosevelt head coach Susan Nishioka.

Kaiser won the girls title with 345 points, the Cougars’ seventh straight OIA title.

Down points early in the boys competition, Nishioka turned to her best swimmer, Oba.

“He’s pretty much my go-to person,” Nishioka said. “If I need him in a certain event, he’s always willing to switch his events.”

Oba was called to action and delivered, winning the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:49.62 and the 100-yard butterfly in 51.34 seconds. Despite winning two OIA titles, Oba couldn’t help but feel like he didn’t show his best form.

“I didn’t really do well for the individual part,” Oba explained. “Overall, when going for the win, I think I did really well.”

Going for the win was a common theme among the Rough Riders on Saturday as they tried to channel in their momentum from Friday night’s win the 400-yard boys relay in 3:21.02.

“From yesterday, we changed the order a little bit. Today was a pretty good day early on, so that adrenaline rush kind of built into (today’s relay),” Oba said.

While the boys finished first, the Roosevelt girls placed fifth, tallying 110 points. Although four other teams finished in front of the Rough Riders, one of the best performances of the day came from Taylor Brooks, who own two events, including an upset over Kapolei’s Mailan Wendt in the 100-yard freestyle.

“I was really surprised because I hadn’t been able to go to 53 (seconds) in over a year,” Brooks said. “It really wasn’t about winning, it was more reassuring that I can do it.”

Brooks might have been an underdog in that race, but is a force to be reckoned with.

“I think I did really well,” Brooks said. “I’m really proud of all my swims, they were really strong. There’s a few things I need to work on, but overall I swam really solid and I’m really excited about that.”

Brooks’ time in the 100-yard freestyle was 53.69, and also performed strongly in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.09. Roosevelt won nine events out of a possible 21, but Brooks was their only winner on the girls side.

Nishioka and Oba both have their eyes on states, taking place at Kamehameha-Hawaii — Brooks won’t participate because of water polo — but realize that they have a lot of work to do.

“It’s pretty hard to score at states — they only score for five places. We’re just hoping we can get points,” Nishioka said.

Oba has faith that when the time comes, Roosevelt will be ready to take on the best the state has to offer.

“We’re really good this year,” Oba said. “If we just work really hard, we have a really good chance against the ILH teams and stuff. I just hope no one gets injured — we need to train hard but not too hard.”