Kapolei's Kaulana Narciso avenged a loss to Brandon Burgos at last week's Western Division finals and improved upon a runner-up finish at last year's league championships. Brien Ing | SL

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WAHIAWA — Kaulana Narciso can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The Kapolei senior seized his first league title with a win by ippon (full point) over Aiea's Brandon Burgos in the 178-pound final at Saturday's Oahu Interscholastic Association boys judo championships at Leilehua's Paul T. Kobayashi Gymnasium.

Narciso avenged a loss to Burgos at last week's Western Division finals and improved upon a runner-up finish at last year's league championships, which was just the latest in three years of heartbreak.

As a freshman in 2013, Narciso finished third in the OIA at 114 pounds. He missed the league championships altogether as a sophomore and was within a yuko (quarter-point) of winning last year.

"It's good for me to end on a good note for my senior year," said Narciso, who led for all but the first 30 seconds of the match. "It was a tough opponent. He threw me last week for Western's and I had to get him back. I wanted to show who's on top."

Narciso got ahead early with an uchimata (inner thigh throw) for a yuko. He added another yuko with the same technique with about 45 seconds remaining. In the final seconds of the match, Burgos reached for an osoto-gari (major outer reaping throw) in desperation and Narciso perfectly timed a counter for the ippon to end the match with five seconds left on the clock.

"I knew I would see him again this week," said Narciso, whose father Marc is the Hurricanes' coach. "All I had to adjust was I had to not ride any of his throws, which I didn't today."

Narciso was one of three titlists Saturday for the Hurricanes, who have won the last two OIA and state team championships. Fellow seniors Anthony Brett and Rodman Salangdron each claimed their second consecutive league title by winning the 132- and 161-pound brackets, respectively.

Brett worked quickly in his finals bout, defeating Moanalua's Chase Wusstig in 45 seconds. He scored an early yuko on a right uchimata just 10 seconds in and finished the match with a right ogoshi (major hip throw) for ippon.

"Me and Chase played twice last year and this (was) our second time playing this year and I knew that going into this tournament that I was going for my two-time OIA title so I had to be as prepared as possible, but then again Chase is my really good friend," said Brett, who won at 121 in 2015. "We grew up doing judo together from like eight years old."

Brett and Wusstig at one time were both members of the same judo club.

"We know each other so well that I was surprised that I caught him because I use uchimata all the time. I thought that maybe he would catch on and he would try to block it," Brett said.

Wusstig, who placed third in the OIA and fourth in the state as a freshman last year, left the gym shortly after the match due to an apparent shoulder/arm injury. He was taken to a hospital for precautionary X-rays.

"I felt so bad," Brett said. "Once I heard that I was just so shocked and I'm hoping he gets better by states, because he has a lot of potential of becoming a state champ and being on top."

Salangdron's championship bout against Mililani's Paxton Horiuchi went the full four minutes. He got on the board with a tai-otoshi (body drop) for a yuko about midway through the match and added another yuko with a second tai-otoshi about a minute later.

"I was pretty confident going in, but I did expect something different out of him because we've played four times already this year and he already knows what I'm going to do, so during that match I had to switch up my strategy in order to get points on him," said Salangdron, who won an OIA title at 145 and was second in the state last year.

Kapolei's dynamic junior duo of twins Jayson and Andre Pagurayan — both defending league and state champions — each came up short in their repeat bid. Jayson, who was seeking a third OIA title, finished sixth at 121 pounds and Andre was second at 114.

Salangdron said he wanted to come through for the twins, just as they have for the Hurricanes so many times over the years.

"That just made me more hyped for my match," Salangdron said. "It inspired me more to win my match and just go out there with all my might, one hundred percent, putting everything I've got in that match just for them."

Brett made sure to do his part, as well.

"Oh yeah, definitely," he said. "Because they lost, you know, maybe winning would bring the spirits up because they're a big part of the team and they're all about the team."

Kahuku was the only other school to have multiple champions. Lerod Tongi repeated at 220 pounds with a win by ippon over Kalani's James Lawhn and Lennex Alo defeated Kapolei's Alapai in the 285-pound final.

Kalani's Micah Tateyama also claimed his second straight league title. He defeated McKinley's Daeniel Tiamzon for the 145-pound crown after moving up from 132 last year.

Pearl City's Matthew Keopuhiwa improved upon a second-place finish at 198 pounds last year with a 220-pound title Saturday. He beat his Chargers' teammate Elijah Turell by ippon in the championship round.

Other winners were Kaiser's Justin Yuen at 108 pounds, Mililani's Tayler Otsuka at 114 and Moanalua's Noah Wusstig at 121.

The top seven place-finishers in each weight class qualified for next Saturday's Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships at the University of Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center.