The nation’s largest all-girls wrestling tournament turned out to be Hawaii vs. the nation, and island athletes more than held their own.

The Pa‘ani Challenge crowned 28 new champions out of 460 athletes at Kamehameha on Saturday, led by state champion Zoe-Shalom Ahue-Bolosan of Leilehua in the 235-pound class. The Mule pinned Lakewood (Calif.) heavyweight Ashley Wafer, who is fourth in her weight class back home, in 4 minutes, 50 seconds to avenge a loss to her in Las Vegas over the summer. Ahue-Boloson only had two matches but was named the most outstanding wrestler over 130 pounds.

“I was like ‘Oh my gosh, she is here,’ ” Ahue Bolosan said. “I was waiting for the third period so that she is tired, I was waiting for that so I could just hurry up and pin her. In Hawaii we are just athletic, we are that good. Hawaii is small, but we are mighty.”

Wrestlers from the continent made four finals in the Open Division, losing three of them. The lone championship came from Lakewood’s Esper Sanchez Kinney in the 190-pound class, beating Molokai’s Masina Borden Phillips with a takedown in overtime after tying the match with 22 seconds left in regulation in the most entertaining match of the final round. More importantly to Lakewood’s coach, Borden Phillips leaves the islands with her number in a few college coaches’ telephones.

“(Hawaii girls) like to battle,” Lakewood coach Randy Gonzalez said. “We were in for a fight the whole time. We didn’t just go out there and dominate some of the weights like we thought we would, but we needed this to measure where we are at.”

Multiple-time state champions Jahlia Miguel of Baldwin and Kamehameha’s Jax Realin were their usual dominant selves, picking up their third Pa‘ani titles to go with the Officials championships they earned last week. Sarai O’Day of Kamehameha joined Realin as a champion to give the Warriors two titleists.

Pearl City and Hilo matched Kamehameha with two champions each, with repeat champion Serah Yogi and Chloe Obuhanych sweeping the lower weights as expected for the Chargers. The surprising Vikings made four finals, with titles from Paige Taasan at 140 pounds and phenom Kaloni Brown at 110 pounds. Brown won the Pa‘ani Open division last year as an eighth grader and is an elite jiu-jitsu practioner who will be flying to Portugal next month for a competition and has another scheduled for Miami days after she tries to become Hilo’s fourth female state champion in March. She was named the Pa‘ani’s most outstanding wrestler under 130 pounds.

Other Pa‘ani Open Division winners were Nanakuli’s Stacallen Mahoe at 115 pounds, Mililani’s Makayla Paclib (125), Kalia Liafalemana-Haney of Farrington (135), Campbell’s Hiroko Yasu (145), and Mela Tokumura-Hanato-Wells of Konawaena (155). Kamehameha was the only school to double up in the novice tournament, with 13 schools crowning champions in the 14 weight divisions.

Keaau’s Joelie Coyaso was pinned in her final match at 155 pounds but was rewarded with the prestigious Fighting Spirit Award and $1,000 for her school.

Hawaii was the first state to sanction high school girls wrestling in 1998 and the Pa‘ani Challenge began in 2010 with 280 competitors, all of them from Hawaii. Punahou missed its tournament for the first time while competing in the Cimarron Spartan Invitational in Las Vegas, but there was no shortage of schools looking to take its place.

“It’s a special tournament,” Sumner (Wash.) coach Aaron Ledesma said. “Girls wrestling is growing throughout the nation and being a small part of it is pretty incredible. The great part of this one is not just the top-tier competition — we have the novice levels, so our girls found competition and confidence that they can carry with them.”

The first day of the tournament included a career fair and a clinic before anyone competed, and coaches believe that makes winners of everyone.

“I love this tournament so much,” Hilo coach Tyler Milare said. “You have the likes of (Iowa coach) Clarissa Chun take time out of her day and comes down here and puts on a clinic and the girls get to see that, work with that, and show girls so many opportunities that they have never considered. I would never miss this tournament ever.”