Wrestling

Kalaheo’s Rysan Leong is not going to be able to sneak up on anyone this year. Leong, No. 2 in Hawaii Prep World’s pound-for-pound rankings, will attempt to earn his first OIA championship at Leilehua on Saturday. Leong failed in his bid to join Jacob Solomon as Kalaheo’s second OIA champion since 2001 when he bloodied Pearl City’s Makoa Cooper‘s nose and outscored him 7-5 in the third period but fell short 12-7. Leong more than made up for it […]

As hard as it was to believe last year, this year it is even more remarkable. Kainalu Estrella of Lahainaluna finished his league season with the first MIL slam since before 1980 last year. Just a year later, something that hadn’t been done in at least 38 years might be accomplished again as Kawehi Gillcoat goes for his fourth MIL crown. Gillcoat won at 113, 122 and 140 pounds and will likely be at 140 again this year. Like Estrella, […]

Last year the Baldwin girls wrestling team dismantled Lahainaluna’s MIL dynasty. This year they hope to build one of their own. The Bears, who took six gold medals and beat the Lunas 198-174 for the MIL title on their way to the state crown in 2018, begin defense of their league title on Saturday at King Kekaulike. It was the first time a school had as many golds as Lahainaluna in the MIL championships since KS-Maui had four to the […]

Go ahead and take 10, Kysen Terukina. The Kamehameha junior can earn his surname’s tenth ILH championship on Saturday in his home gym, easily more than any other family has produced in the last quarter century. A Terukina has risen to the top step of the podium in each of the last six years, with Kysen following Blaysen (four titles) and Shayden (three). The next most successful ILH surname in the last 25 years is Vincent, Terao, Hoshino and Oshiro […]

Teshya Alo‘s 2016 Kamehameha girls wrestling team gets better and better every year. Ashley Gooman, who was a freshman on that team, can add to that team’s lore on Saturday with a fourth ILH title, joining Alo and Zion Grace Vierra as members of that squad to eventually go on to complete the ILH slam. There are only six Warriors to do it, and three of them toiled in the same wrestling room not so long ago. Other Warriors to […]

The title of lineal champion in boxing is reserved for Tyson Fury. In the boys 132-pound weight class in the OIA West, Campbell’s Brock Gooman doesn’t want any part of it. Gooman, who beat Radford’s Logan Leialoha in overtime of the semifinals of a 132-pound semifinal of the OIA West championships at Pearl City on Saturday, failed to defend his title when he was injured. Aiea’s Dante Bareng took the title after Gooman, who left the arena on crutches, was […]

Kapolei’s Allicia Mahoe‘s main event moment was almost as much a success as Ilima-Lei Macfarlane‘s was in December’s mixed martial arts event. Sure, Mahoe was at the OIA West Championships at Pearl City and Macfarlane was defending her Bellator flyweight world title belt at the Blaisdell Arena, but Mahoe is still on her way up. The renowned local power lifter — she can deadlift 220 pounds — won her fourth OIA West championship at 107 pounds with a 9-4 win […]

It’s strange to say that the storied Campbell girls wrestling program has turned things around, but their performance at Saturday’s OIA Western Division championships can’t be described as anything else. The Sabers were shut out of champions last year for the first time since 2011. They had an unprecedented five yesterday to match the Kailin Curran-led 2009 squad. And Campbell’s best wrestlers were not even really threatened. Jazmyn Enriquez (97 pounds), Alizeih Villalpando (112) and Heavenli Sardinha (138) all won […]