Kamehameha soundly defeated Saint Louis in the Boys Gold Division finals at the Moanalua Holiday Invitational Wrestling Dual Meet Tournament on Thursday.
Had it not been for forfeits in three weight classes by the Crusaders, the 44-19 winning score would have been much closer. Those three matches were worth a total of 18 points.
In the other 11 classes, the Warriors won six of the matches to Saint Louis’ five.
“Anytime you compete against Saint Louis and Leilehua, the real big programs, to win is a big deal,” said Kamehameha coach Rob Hesia, whose team earlier defeated the Mules 43-20 in the semifinals of the two-day tournament at the Moanalua gym. “It’s exciting as a team. It shows how complete we can be. Saint Louis is missing tons and tons of their guys, so don’t be fooled.”
Kamehameha’s Kysen Terukina (120 pounds), who is No. 5 in the Hawaii Prep World pound-for-pound rankings, and Kana‘i Tapia (138) won by pin. Teammates Brant Porter (106), Braden Akima (152), Makana Tapia (160) and Laakea Ane (220) also won on the mat in the finals.
Although he didn’t score points for the Warriors, Manaia Wolfgramm avoided a pin against three-time state champion Corey Cabanban (No. 1 p4p), who moved up from 126 to 132 for Saint Louis in the finals.
“Yeah, he went out there against Corey and I liked his attitude about it,” Hesia said about Wolfgramm. “He wasn’t out there just trying to survive. Every other match you see Corey in, it’s a mauling. He put it on Manaia, but Manaia defended himself well against Corey, who is just a buzzsaw.”
Said Wolfgramm: “Going in, I knew I had nothing to lose, so I just put it out on the line and tried to do my best. Go out there swinging.”
Saint Louis’ Elijah Kaawa (113), Tyler Ibarra (126), Bolton Taam (145) and Kayson Kekahuna (285) were the Crusaders’ other winners in the finals. Kaawa won by pin and Kekahuna beat the Warriors’ Lazarus Simbahon 8-3 in double overtime.
“Kamehameha is an established program,” Saint Louis coach Al Chee said. “They’re the ones who have set the bar and so we’re chasing them. Today, we were just undermanned and outmatched.”
In the Boys Silver Division finals, Moanalua topped Kealakehe 53-30 in a match highlighted by a pin from Na Menehune’s Logan Garcia (No. 9 p4p) at 132 pounds.
Fourteen boys teams and 11 girls teams participated.
Unlike the boys’ tournament bracket style, the girls competed in a round-robin. Moanalua (5-0) finished in first place, and Leilehua (3-2) edged Kamehameha (3-2) in a close average-score-per-match tiebreaker (32.50 to 31.67) for second place.
