With state and league titles the stated goal for high school wrestlers, the Hawaii Officials tournament is often overlooked.
But in many ways, it is as hard to win as any of the tournaments later in the year.
Leilehua’s Liam Corbett and Kamehameha’s Blaysen Terukina will be going for their third title at the tournament beginning Friday, looking to join a list of the greatest names in recent Hawaii high school wrestling.
If Corbett and Terukina can make their way through the bracket and stand stop the podium on Saturday, they will join Brayden Akeo of Mililani, Pearl City’s Blake Cooper, Cassidy Oshiro of Mid-Pacific, Punahou’s LJ Remillard and Joshua Terao of Mid-Pacific as recent stars who won the tournament three times in their careers.
Like Corbett and Terukina, all of them won state titles. Terukina actually made the final of the tournament as a freshman but lost to Jordan Ng. Since 2005, the closest a wrestler has come to an Officials sweep over four years was by Terao, who forfeited his first match as a freshman and wrestled back to take third.
Kamehameha’s Teshya Alo had a chance to join Punahou’s Mindy Chow and Bree Rapoza of Kamehameha as four-time winners in the tournament but she is busy trying to earn a spot in the U.S. Olympic Trials this week.
Here are tomorrow’s brackets. As always, they are subject to change:
Where’s the boys brackets?
Seems to me that there would be a lot more 3 and 4 time officials winners. John Spiker (never lost a match in Hawaii) and Brandon Low who are 4x State Champs. There are a bunch of 4 time state champs for the girls so there should be more unless they were before the official tournament began. But I really don’t know.
I only had time to go back to 2005, but the short list even in that time period surprised me.
I am uploading the boys brackets now.