Judo
Iolani boys, Kamehameha girls rally to ILH judo crowns


 



MAKIKI — The Iolani boys and Kamehameha girls rallied to claim the team titles at Friday night's Interscholastic League of Honolulu judo championships at Punahou's Christopher B. Hemmeter Fieldhouse.

The Raiders' boys and Warriors' girls both trailed Punahou entering the tournament. Teams accumulated points over the course of the regular season and then tallied in the totals from individual place finishers Friday.

Iolani edged Punahou, 136 points to 133, in a down-to-the-wire boys' race.

The Raiders, who trailed the Buffanblu by 12 points before the tournament, were led by three individual champions. Jordan Ng won the 121-pound bracket, Brian Pascua claimed the 161 division and Dane Yamashiro won the 285 weight class. They also got runner-up finishes from Hunter Fujiwara (108 pounds), Colby Watase (114), Jake Nakasone (132) and Charles Kam (220), as well as a third-place finish by Dayne Torigoe (108). Saiaga Fautanu (178) placed fifth and James Mizota (132) sixth.

"We were down, (Punahou) had two more wins than us (in the regular season)," Iolani fourth-year coach Dan Nishita said. "In fact, our last dual meet against each other they beat us by three points. In the last match that night, our kid lost by ippon in the last 13 seconds. If he would have not lost by ippon, we would have been tied going into this tournament, so it was close all season."

It was the Raiders' second consecutive league championship.

"It feels great," said Ng, a senior captain. "You know, when I first started here, I didn't think that we would be anything much, because we were really small back then. From seventh grade to senior year, it's pretty cool to see how far you can come within a short time."

Ng threw Mid-Pacific's Ian Matsumoto for ippon, 1:37 into their 121-pound final with a left morote seoi-nage to claim his fourth individual league crown.

"Yeah, it was a pretty big goal (to win four), but I didn't really think about it each time," Ng said. "I kind of just thought about it as like kind of a stepping and if I want to do my best at states, I have to do my best at ILH."

Pascua, who has already won two state championships this school year, beat Maryknoll's Luke Horiuchi by ippon in the 161-pound final. Pascua helped the Raiders' football team win the Division II state championship as a running back in the fall and won the 147-pound boys wrestling state title in the winter.

Yamashiro made quick work of Kamehameha's Rusty Nakayama, throwing him for ippon in just 22 seconds in the heavyweight final.

"They were very impressive," Nishita said of the trio. "They came in as favorites, they were all top seeds. Jordan had a lot of scares tonight and he had a real bad call in his finals on a score that shouldn't have been a score and he kept his composure and stayed with the game plan and pulled out the win."

Nishita said it took a total team effort to overcome Punahou.

"Twelve points is a lot to come back from, so it took everyone to come back and contribute," Nishita said. "Like our second-string 108 he won his third-place match to block Punahou from getting third place, so everybody contributed. It took everybody."

The Buffanblu finished 11-1 in the regular season with 66 points, while the Raiders were 9-3 with 54 points.

"Winning the ILH again was one of our goals, but we're always looking for states, so it's a stepping stone to states," Nishita said. "We look at it as qualifying as many places as we can for states and if we get ILH, then hopefully that comes with the game plan, but it wasn't our main goal. I'm very happy for the kids. They were looking forward to it."

Mid-Pacific, in its first year of varsity competition, finished third with 91 points, Damien was fourth with 73 points, Pac-Five fifth with 52 points, Kamehameha sixth with 51 points and Saint Louis sixth with nine points.

Other individual boys' winners Friday were Punahou's Weston Kogachi (114 pounds), Nicolas Nakaoka (132) and Ian Ramirez (220), as well as Damien's Landon Obra (108) and Kauanoe Kaili (178). Mid-Pacific's Cole Chandler (145) and Kamehameha's Joseph Hoshino (198) also won their weight classes.

The Kamehameha girls erased a six-point Punahou lead entering Friday and ended up winning by a margin of 144 points to 124.

The Warriors won five of the 10 girls' weight classes. Hilinai Meyer won at 109 pounds, Brooke Kawamura at 115, Kayla Gaspar-Takahashi at 129, Teshya Alo at 139 and Jaclyn Fontanilla at 154. They also got runner-up finishes from Tiare Lyons (129 pounds), Kamalei Marrotte (172) and Pakalana Agliam (220), as well as third-place finishes by Alai Takushi (122), Tammi Titcomb (129) and Kainoa Ah Quin (172). Remany Sanchez (98 pounds), Nataysia Francisco (115) and Kelia Horswell (139) provided fifth-place finishes and Raven Rafael (98) placed sixth.

"We were trailing Punahou way down, (but) I knew that my middleweights and heavyweights we had a good chance to score a lot of points and the girls did come through on that," Kamehameha coach Ernest Miyamasu said. "A couple of them played each other (in the finals), but our repeat champions are going to make it and we had a lot of second-year people come up and contribute a lot to the team and that's, I think, what put us over the top."

The Warriors went head-to-head with the Buffanblu in three championship finals, winning all three bouts: Meyer pinned Megan Lam for ippon in their 109-pound final, Kawamura beat Tia Inoue by waza-ari at 115 and Alo threw Wisdom Matsuzaki for ippon at 139.

It was the second ILH title for both Meyer and Alo, and the first for both Kawamura and Gaspar-Takahashi.

Fontanilla, a junior and two-time state champion, claimed her third consecutive league crown with a win by ippon over Damien's Tara Lebanon. She threw Lebanon with a right tai-otoshi near the midway mark of their 154-pound final.

"That is my throw that I've been working on since I was a freshman, when I realized what I liked to do best and that's pretty much what I throw," Fontanilla said. "Honestly, I felt that I really needed to work hard for this one, because I knew it wasn't going to be just handed to me, so I felt a little nervous, but after my first match, I picked up a little bit of a confidence boost and I was getting excited for my finals match."

Punahou, which won the ILH title a year ago, went undefeated in the regular season with a 9-0-1 record, but had just one individual winner Friday in 98-pounder Bailey Hoshino, who beat her teammate Jenna Enoka in the final.

Damien finished third in the standings with 65 points, Pac-Five fourth with 56, Iolani fourth with 29 and Mid-Pacific fifth with 18.

Other individual girls' winners Friday were Damien's Kilinoe Gora (172 pounds) and Frances Nosis (220), as well as St. Andrew's Priory's Taylor Miyao (103) and Iolani's Teniya Alo (122).

The top four boys and top five girls from the ILH championships qualified for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships next Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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