Waiakea’s Min 2 strokes back

A hot start and favorable conditions put Ciera Min on course to reach her goal Tuesday on Kauai.

The Waiakea junior got a bit unlucky on the greens and settled for an even-par 73, leaving her two strokes off the lead after the first round of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association girls golf championships.

“The round was pretty good, but I wanted to shoot under par,” she said. “The conditions were good. I’m surprised the scores weren’t lower.”

Min rattled off three birdies and a par over her first four holes before taking a step back at Wailua Golf Course.

The Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion capped her round with her fourth birdie and was in a three-way tie for third.

She played the course’s five par-5 holes at 3-under.

“Some of my putts lipped out, so there wasn’t much I could do about that,” Min said. “The putting conditions favored Waiakea because the greens were a little softer than some of the other g irls are used to.”

On a sunny day with light wind, Iolani freshman Rose Huang carded a 2-under 71 and led Baldwin’s Marissa Uradomo by a stroke heading into the second and final round that starts today at 7 a.m. Kalaheo’s Monique Ishikawa and Kauai High’s Taylor Viquelia were also at 73.

Min said she was confident she could go under par today, and the Warriors likely will need that sort of round if they are to have a chance to catch Iolani for the team championship.

The Red Raiders (221) led Baldwin by six strokes, and Waiakea and Punahou were another shot behind.

Also for Waiakea, senior Nani Yanagi shot a 76, while sophomore Andi Igawa and senior Megan Kimura were at 79 and 83, respectively.

In contrast to Min, Yanagi faltered in the early going before picking up steam.

She birdied the sixth hole to get back to 2-over, then a birdie on No. 18 gave her an even back nine.

“It got to the point where I just kind of stopped keeping score,” Yanagi said. “On the back nine, I started looking over at my dad, and he was making faces at me. I started to relax and was talking to my playing partners.”

Yanagi was the BIIF’s top finisher at states in 2011, and she pointed out that the Warriors made up a seven-stroke deficit last season during the final round against Baldwin to finish runner-up behind Punahou.

“Anything is possible,” she said. “We’ve got a great group of girls, and we’ll go for it.”

While Waiakea featured a playing contingent of four on Kauai, all five of Iolani’s competitors were among the top 15, including Marissa Chow (75), who tied for second last season.