Kamehameha boys capture first ever state judo title

Kamehameha boys celebrate by raising the trophy after the claiming the schools first ever state title in judo. Evan Asato | SL

> HHSAA Judo Championships: Boys division final day results and video replays of every match

Kamehameha-Kapalama boys brought home the first state title in school history at the HHSAA Judo Championship, besting three-time champion Moanalua and OIA counterpart Kapolei to take home the win at the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus.

"I'm just glad the boys worked hard and finished off on top," said Kamehameha head coach Christian Aarona.

"It meant a lot. Moanalua's been winning it all, so it feels good to win a team title. I don't know how to describe it, it just feels unbelieveable." remaked Dane Pestano.

Pestano certainly did his part in the title win, becoming a four-time champion with a dominating win over Dayton Furuta in the 200 pound final. His ippon at the 3:05 mark in the match was a scary display of power and finesse.

"I knew he was very strong because I challenged him in wrestling this year, so I knew I had to move a little quicker and use my technique more and I just kept it moving." explained Pestano.

Pestano's four-peat was kind of the icing on the cake for the Warriors, who had all but wrapped up the title prior on the strength of three runner-up placings by Jaycob Deguzman in the 132 pound class, Jonah Hoshino in the 161, and Joseph Hoshino in the 198.

Mid-Pacific's Joshua Terao won his third straight title competing in the 132 pound class, but got all he could handle and then some from Deguzman, a very familiar opponent.

"I was trying to focus on getting my grips, and for the first part it was working, but he was playing really defensive so I was like looking for any score I could get." said Terao.

Terao's yuko with about 2 minutes would be the margin of victory for the Mid-Pacific junior.

Damien made a strong showing at the tournament, taking home two individual honors to finish in fifth in the field. Jacob Lewis won by wazari in the final match of the night over Roosevelt's Weston Akamine and Royce Mori made short work of Kapolei's Justin Bumanglag by way of ippon just 15 seconds into the final in the 178 pound division.

"Well, I came into it today with the mentality that I'm not going to leave it in the hands of the referee's, I'm not going to leave it up to anybody, I'm just going to go in there and throw them as fast as I can." said Mori.

"Considering where we came from in my freshman year, to where we are now, it means a lot to me. I gotta thank my dad and my coach Robin Mori for really bringing this program around. We went from underdogs to fifth place in the state which is very admirable."

Reach Brien Ing at [email protected].