Nothing is given to any wrestler, even if his name is Terukina.
Kamehameha freshman Blaysen Terukina finished second at 108 pounds in the Hawaii Officials Association Scholarship Tournament at Leilehua on Saturday. It was his first varsity tournament.
Terukina, whose family can boast of eight state titles between three wrestlers, got an education in his first final, a 7-6 loss to ‘Iolani sophomore Jordan Ng.
"It feels like harder competition," Terukina said. "I could handle the moves and his strength, what surprised me was his conditioning, I have to work on that."
Terukina attacked Ng immediately, running up a 4-1 lead after the first period and holding on to lead 6-4 after four minutes. But Ng worked an escape to close it to 6-5 and took advantage of a lapse of concentration by Terukina to score the telling takedown with a minute left. Ng controlled Terukina the rest of the way with a grapevine.
"He took me down in the beginning of the match," Ng said. "That fired me up and I told myself he wouldn’t take me down again and took a couple of shots and one of them worked."
Terukina wrestled intermediate last year and dominated, but moved up two weight classes for the final and lost. He put on a solid 10-15 pounds after that and served notice to the state in this tournament that he is going to be a serious contender. He entered the competition unseeded, but went 3-0 before getting a lesson from Ng.
"He’s just ferocious," Kamehameha coach Chris West said. "He wrestles different from his brother. He is so aggressive. He’s got a big last name to carry, but every Terukina rises to the occasion."
Terukina’s brother Shayden won three state crowns, his father Darryl won two and uncle Ben earned three.
For as much help as Terukina gets around the dinner table, he gets as much support from a winning wrestling room.
The Warriors put six wrestlers into the finals, with three of them winning titles on Saturday. Kamehameha’s boys took the team title with 232.5 points to beat ILH rival Punahou, which had one champion and scored 197.5. Sutter Union was third with 142 points and one champion.
Pearl City, fresh off a strong performance in the Pa‘ani Challenge, had three champions among four finalists to outscore Kamehameha 162-146 for the girls team title. The Warriors had five finalists and each of them won their final match. Punahou was third with 83 points and one champion.
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