The Chevron/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Wrestling State Championships takes place Friday and Saturday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena. Here are five pressing questions going into the grueling, two-day tournament.

1) Who will win the boys' team title?
This is the big question looming on the eve of the tournament.

Can Lahainaluna break the bridesmaid curse? Will Campbell come through? Or will Punahou — the dominant program in prep wrestling for the last decade — recapture the title?

While the trio of league champions are considered by most coaches surveyed to be the front runners, a handful of others are also making a push for the pedestal. Moanalua — the top team out of the OIA East — along with up-and-comer Kapolei and perennial-power Kamehameha out of the ILH were also mentioned as potential party crashers according to those in the know.

"Five or six teams can probably win it," Hurricanes' coach Sean Salter said. "It will be an interesting tournament."

It is the most parity seen in recent memory, Moanalua coach Darren Reyes said.

"Team wise, it's pretty open," Reyes said. "For the past number of years, there's always been one team that has kind of stood out and this year it's been kind of open. Kapolei had their highs at the (OIA) dual meet tournament, Campbell had highs at Westerns and OIA (individuals), Lahainaluna has been doing their thing in the MIL, so it's going to be interesting to see who can put it together at states."

With so many teams in the mix, it'll likely (once again) come down to those backside (consolation) and bonus points (for wins by pin fall and majority decision).

"That's going to be everything," Punahou coach Yoshi Honda said. "In the ideal situation, all of your guys are on the front side, but in reality a good chunk of them will end up on the back side for one reason or another and if you can't produce back there, your team will suffer. You have to take advantage of that and stay motivated and earn some points."

2) Can the Kamehameha girls defend their team title?
The Warriors broke through for their first state crown a year ago, but lost four starters to graduation, including state champions Shana Dilliner, Harmony Pacheco and Erin Scheidt. Whatsmore, Donavyn Futa gave up the sport after winning states as a freshman last year.

The cupboard is hardly bare, however, for coach Bill Venenciano, who has a tournament-best 13 wrestlers in the 14 weight classes, including 10 ILH champions. Three of them — Teshya Alo at 132 pounds, Taj-Destiny Vierra at 155 and Leilani Camargo-Naone at 184 — are the top seeds in their respective brackets this week.

The biggest challenge for the Warriors will come in the form of Lahainaluna, which brought 12 wrestlers over from Maui this week, including six No. 1 seeds. OIA titlist Campbell will also be in the mix, but expect the team title to come down to Kamehameha and Lahainaluna.

"We're going to do what we can with tactical victories and trying to get each and every point possible," Venenciano said. "We're preparing one match at a time. The brackets don't mean anything at this point. We're dependent upon our scouting reports and being able to stay calm as we get prepared for each round."

3) Which boys' weight classes will be critical toward the team race?
With so many title contenders in the mix, there are a number of weights that will factor into which ends team walking away from the Blaisdell with the championship trophy Saturday night.

"I think there's a few very competitive weight classes: 106, 113, 132, 138; they're all five or six wrestlers deep, so the match ups will be interesting," Campbell coach Lucas Misaki said. "Those are probably the four deepest weight classes and 160 is deep, as well."

Reyes pointed to the 132-pound bracket as particularly deep in talent.

"It's probably the most unpredictable weight class," Reyes said. "Any of the top eight guys in that weight could be wrestling for a championship. It's just about who shows up."

The 138-pound weight class features what is likely the most anticipated first-round pairing in top-seeded Joshua Crimmins, of Punahou, and Mililani's Zack Diamond, a two-time state runner-up who finished sixth in the OIA championships last weekend.

"That one (138) is a pretty pivotal one and then I think the two heavy weights (220 and 285) will be important, because that's where a lot of kids can score points," Salter said.

Ultimately, as one coach noted, it's more about ensuring the readiness between the ears of his own wrestlers than worrying about the progress of potential opponents.

"The most important thing is getting your kid 100 percent focused and physically ready, healthy and strong," Reyes said.

4) Which girls' weight classes will be critical toward the team race?
The top three contenders — Lahainaluna, Kamehameha and Campbell — have numbers on their side.

The Lunas qualified for 12 weight classes, as did the Sabers, while the Warriors have one more wrestler to potentially earn them team points.

The only two weights where a Lahainaluna wrestler is absent are 122 pounds and 155. Campbell's missing weights are 117 pounds and 225, while Kamehameha is without a heavyweight at 225.

Lalelei Mataafa, of Lahainaluna, is a virtual lock to win a third individual state title at 225 pounds, but the teams could go head-to-head in many other weight classes, which could tell the tale of who wins the team race.

The 138-pound bracket will be one of those pivotal weights. Lahainaluna's Breanna Dudoit Vasquez, who won at 135 a year ago, is the top seed, while Kamehameha's Kayla Gaspar-Takahashi drew the third seed, behind OIA champion Taysia Kano of Kapolei. Campbell's Lokelani Kam, who placed third at 140 last year, could see Gaspar-Takahashi in a quarterfinal bout Friday afternoon.

"We're looking at some tough competition at 138 with Dudoit-Vasquez and some of the girls from OIA that came down from 145 to 138," Venenciano said.

At 145 pounds, Lahainaluna, Campbell and Kamehameha drew the top three seeds in two-time state champ Carly Jaramillo, Angela Peralta and Jaclyn Fontanilla, respectively.

The 168-pound bracket is much the same with Campbell's Caragh Morris drawing the top seed, followed by Lahainaluna's Karina Arroya-Haro second and Kamehameha's Callan Medeiros third.

5) Is this (finally) the year for Lahainaluna to win it all?
The Lunas came oh, so close last year in the final team standings for both the boys' and girls' team competitions.

At the conclusion of day one, Lahainaluna led Pearl City by 9 1/2 points in the boys' team standings, while the girls held a 13-point lead on Kamehameha. Neither lead would hold, as both the Chargers and Warriors went on to claim their first state titles.

The Lunas have had plenty of success in the MIL — to the tune of 10 consecutive boys' titles and six straight girls' crowns — as well as in the state tournament, where the boys have finished no worse than third every year since 2008 and the girls have posted top-four finishes in each of the past five seasons.

 The past, however, is just that to Lahainaluna coach Todd Hayase.

"I don't think it means much at all," Hayase said. "It just means that we've been close."

Hayase is banking on a rigorous preseason schedule paying off this weekend. His team participated in four preseason tournaments in December — the all-girls Paani Challenge, the Moanalua Duals, the Garner Ivey Maui Invitational Tournament and the Hawaii Wrestling Officials Association Scholarship Tournament — as well the highly-regarded Battle for the Belt in Temecula, Calif. in January.

"We've set these kids up with the opportunities from all our summer travels, clinic and camps and every single preseason tournament that is available for them and every opportunity they need," Hayase said. "We did it all to get those quality matches in."

Will it be enough, however, to bring home a state championship to West Maui? The long-awaited answer to that lingering question will play out over the next two days at the Blaisdell.