Kamehameha’s Kysen Terukina talks college possibilities

Kysen Terukina was walking down near the coaches area after a preliminary round victory Friday at the Texaco/HHSAA Wrestling State Championships.

A routine win. A pin over Moanalua’s Alec Fong at 132 pounds. One of the many in his high school career.

Yet, head coach Rob Hesia still gave him a hard hand slap and looked him in the eye as if the accomplishment was more than that.

Perhaps, that’s how wrestling is. The job done is the job done. A win deserves a handshake.

Terukina, who is going for his fourth state title, needs three more of those wins to do it. His quarterfinal match later Friday will be against Iz Gonzalez of Roosevelt.

Even though the pin came fast in the preliminary round, Terukina was not feeling his best.

“That match was a little bit rough because the wait was so long,” he said. “We warmed up and had to wait like three hours to wrestle. That was a good match. I just gotta focus on my next one. Even though it didn’t look rough and I pinned him, I can just feel when my body is not doing the stuff exactly the way I want it to. I can just tell it’s off a little bit. I’ll be good, though.”

Kamehameha, always a contender as a team, is out to repeat their 2019 title.

“We have the horses, we have the work ethic,” Terukina said. “Our team has that. If they lose a match, it’s OK let’s get pins to get third place and if they don’t get third, let’s get pins to get fifth place. Everybody has that mind-set. At the end of the day, we want to be the team on top so that we’re happy and we know we did everything. We don’t want to be the losers at the end of the day.”

Terukina will be wrestling in college.

“I’m kinda leading toward Iowa State right now,” he said. “But, it’s nothing set in stone. If I find somewhere better … . I’m still checking out schools. Fresno is an up and coming school. I think I’m going to visit them and Nebraska. I talked to the Ohio State recruiting coordinator, but nothing really happened from there. Missouri is a big one, too. Coach came to my house from Missouri to see me and visit my school.”