The Moanalua boys wrestling program is certainly not made up of step-skippers.
Na Menehune seem to send an army to every tournament and will be at another when the OIA East championships begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Farrington. The tournament is just the first indication that the season has turned serious, with states just 19 days away. It’s early, but Moanalua has something to fight for.
Senior state champion Noah Wusstig has an opportunity to win his fourth OIA East championship, an achievement as rare as any other but not as rare as it used to be. The last time a boy has achieved it was last year when Logan Garcia of Moanalua turned the trick at 126 pounds after starting his career as an 108-pound freshman.
Na Menehune junior Elijah Asuncion will be going for his third East crown on Saturday and represents a sea change from the way things have been for the past 25 years. Before Garcia won the East last year, no boy had finished the slam since Kahuku’s Richard Torres way back in 2007 and he was the only one to do it since the 1990s.
All-time greats like Chaeden Grace-Reyes and Rene Suehiro never swept divisions. What changed? One difference may be coaches being more willing to throw freshmen into the fire than they used to and fewer are taking the week off to rest their weary bones for the upcoming OIA championships.
Three boys have won four OIA West titles in the last 20 years, with Liam Corbett completing it at Leilehua in 2016 after beginning his career at Radford. The other two were Pearl City’s Blake Cooper in 2014 and William Smithe of Mililani in 2006.
The OIA West championships will be held Saturday at Pearl City at 10 a.m. Branden Pagurayan of Kapolei and Leilehua’s Kaena DeSantos are in line for repeats.
Five of the top seven and six of the top nine ranked pound-for-pound wrestlers compete in the OIA with Kalaheo’s Rysan Leong (No. 2), Wusstig (No. 4) and Moanalua’s Boltyn Taam (No. 5) and Asuncion (No. 7) in the East and Pagurayan (No. 3) and DeSantos (No. 9) in the West.
Boys Varsity East 2019 BRACKETS- Seeding mtg
Here is a list of past winners:
Moanalua is doing a good job. Some studs on that team! Garcia was worth the price of admission! Loved watching that kid. Men of Kapalama looks very tough also the girls side is straight scary. My alumni rough riders needs a lot of pieces.
What has happened to my Kaiser cougars?