Seabury Hall’s Tyler Loree (in photo) and Baldwin’s Anessa Riglos (second photo) won MIL individual titles this season and were the league’s top finishers at the state championships. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Two aspiring golfers from Maui are keeping their big dreams alive.
Seabury Hall’s Tyler Loree and Baldwin’s Anessa Riglos, who won MIL titles and had the highest finishes from the league at the state championships last month in Kauai, are now The Maui News Maui Interscholastic League Golfers of the Year.
Although they have achieved much, the junior duo has more to accomplish.
“I am honored and thankful to be joining the list of some of the best female golfers to come out of Maui,” Riglos said via phone last week. “I’m very honored and excited for my future to see where it goes.”
At the Wailua Golf Course in Lihue, Loree finished as the boys state runner-up, while Riglos was the only medalist from the MIL among the girls with a ninth-place finish.
Baldwin’s Anessa Riglos
“It takes a lot of hard work to achieve that level of play. I’m happy that I’ve seen my work pay off,” Loree said about his achievement. Although there has only been one boy state champion from the MIL in golf, Maui High’s William Coelho in 1988, Loree has the potential to be the next and said “it will be on his list, for sure.”
“And, just kind of working my game to get to where I can, hopefully, compete and win a state championship in the next two years,” he added.
Seabury golfer Loree originally hails from Texas but said “Maui living is awesome.”
“The weather is perfect every day,” he said. “It’s just really nice to play awesome golf in perfect weather — it doesn’t get much better. My team’s great and [it’s a] very welcoming community. All the guys out there enjoy playing golf, which is exactly what I like to do, so we get along pretty well.”
Loree said that the MIL is one of the best leagues in the state, as the top 10 finishers from the boys at state were from Maui. He is excited to compete against all of the top returners next year.
“Not only that, these kids that I’m playing against are also very nice and they are fun to play with, it makes it really enjoyable. It’s good for Maui to have all these young players,” he said.
The MIL All-Star teams comprise the top finishers from the four-round league tournament.
The boys’ MIL first team include Loree, Anson Cabello, and Chris Salem from Kamehameha Maui, and Renner Chumley and Dillon Jonke from Maui Prep, the league team champion. The girls’ first team includes Riglos, Ava Kawahara from Baldwin, and Sacha Salem and Tehya Chumley from Na Pueo.
Riglos, a student of Hawaii Technology Academy, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to play with the Bears, who won the MIL girls team championship for the fifth straight season. She began playing the sport during the pandemic after her father inspired her.
“He always told me golf could lead to great things if you can be a good golfer, such as good life skills, such as time management, and continue when things aren’t the easiest,” Riglos said.
This season, she tried to improve during each round of play but found it difficult to maintain a positive mental game after some tough rounds.
“I think hard work is one of the most important things you have to learn in golf, working very hard and preparing for the season both physically and mentally,” she said. “I had a great season and played great golf. I’m happy with the outcome, but keeping my mental game is something that I had to improve on during the season. It was very hard for me after some tough rounds, but keeping a positive mental game going into MILs and states, I had a great outcome and I wish to continue improving my mental game, and paying attention while on the golf course is very important.”
* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.
• Second Teams
Boys–Baldwin: Ben Cafferio. Kamehameha Maui: Luke Kahuhu. Maui High: Hunter Kitagawa. Maui Prep: Landon Long. Seabury Hall: Daniel Arashiro Garcia.
Girls–Maui High: Jasmyn Yun, Kalia Kaneta, Jacelyn Yun. Maui Prep: Sofia Malari.