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Courtesy Recreation & Parks Department

One of the many contestants of the Elks Hoop Shoots City Finals held at the Alameda Point Gymnasium shoots a free throw.

The 38th Annual Elks Hoop Shoot City Finals took place last Friday at the Alameda Point Gymnasium.

More than 30 kids competed in the city finals and were rooted on by their parents and other family members.

In the 8-to-9-year-old girls' competition, Brianna Gregory and Jennifer Wong both made 14 of 25 free throws, so first-place honors was decided in a tie-breaking round. In the tie-breaking round, Gregory made three-out-of-five free throws to win. Wong came in second and Keely McFall finished in third place with four made free throws.

In the 10-to-11-year-old girls' competition, Rosie Saxton was the clear winner by making nine free throws.

Jason Cibull won the 8-to-9- year-old boys' competition by making 19 free throws. Ronald Robertson won second place with 15 free throws and Lucas Man finished third with 14 free throws. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Ryan Cibull finished in first place in the 10-to- 11-year-old bracket by making 18 free throws. Jordan Taylor made 15 free throws for second place and Lucas Mann made 14 free throws for third place.

Tyler Esplana won the 12-to- 13-year-old competition by making 18 free throws. Alax Silva finished in second place by making 15 free throws; Cody Yu made 14 to finish third.

Each Hoop Shoot contestant shoots 25 free throws and the contestant with the most made free throws wins the competition of the age bracket.

The first-place winner in each age group will advance to the regional finals, which will take place this Saturday, Jan. 14, at Serra High School in San Mateo. The contestant who wins the regional finals will advance to the national finals in New York later this year.

City final contestants were among the winners in the citywide competition in 2011 which featured more than 350 kids in 13 different locations throughout the city.

The Elks Hoop Shoot contest started in Alameda 38 years ago when the then supervisor of athletics for the Recreation of Parks Department, Lil Arnerich, wanted to start a recreation program to get kids active.