Kahuku’s Teniya Alo finished off a second half-slam Saturday at the Leilehua gym.
Alo captured her second Oahu Interscholastic Association league wrestling title to go along with the two Interscholastic League of Honolulu titles she won before transferring from ‘Iolani.
Alo, who is No. 1 in Hawaii Prep World’s pound-for-pound rankings and who has Olympic aspirations, took just 18 seconds to pin Waianae’s Kamakana Hernandez-Waialae in the 138-pound final, and she will go for her third state title in the upcoming state tournament.
Two girls wrapped up their third OIA championships — Roosevelt’s Macy Higa at 117 pounds and Pearl City’s Jennie Fuamatu (168). Three others added a second league crown — Kaiser’s Tiare Ikei (112), Pearl City’s (184) and Leilehua’s Kelani Corbett (155).
“It’s pretty crazy,” Higa said. “Nothing I ever would have expected to happen because I just started wrestling my freshman year. But it’s kind of surreal right now. It’s my senior year and everything kind of just flew by. My team is great, my coaches are great and they made a super big impact on me getting here.”
Higa (No. 5 p4p) defeated Moanalua’s Kira Borengasser 6-1 in the final, and she is aiming at a second state championship. Corbett (No. 2 p4p) is vying for a third state title, and Fuamatu (No. 8 p4p) is looking for a repeat in the big show. Ikei (No. 6 p4p) is concentrating on landing her first state championship.
Thanks to runner-up finishes by five girls — Borengasser, Amanda Higa (122), Alizeih Villaipando (127), Gabrielle Perez (132) and Alana Dela Pena (184) — Moanalua (185 points) cruised to the team championship, outdistancing Pearl City (128.5) and Leilehua (124) in the final standings.
“We came close in a couple of finals,” Na Menehune coach Darren Reyes said. “The girls fell kind of short against tough opponents. We battled and grinded though. They stuck with it and as a unit we did well. We got a lot of points from that semifinal round. Getting (nine) girls into semifinals really helped a lot. And a freshman at 184 (Dela Pena) really boosted our team. It ain’t over. States is still there. We’d like to keep our hopes up high on that.”
Kapolei’s Allicia Mahoe and Roosevelt’s Haylee Fujioka failed in their bids to repeat as OIA titlists. Roosevelt’s Xiaolin Mai topped Mahoe 2-0 in the 97 final, and Leilehua’s Shantelle Mangrobang used a late escape to defeat Fujioka 7-6 in what was an intense, back-and-forth match.