Kapolei's Jayson Pagurayan is the top-seed in the 108-pound bracket and one of five seeded judoka for the Hurricanes. CJ Caraang | SL

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As Kapolei's Marc Narcisco and Pearl City's Robin Puahala know, even the best-laid plans can quickly go awry. That's why — despite their respective teams being pegged as the favorites to repeat as boys' and girls' team champions heading into Saturday's Hawaii High School Athletic Association Judo State Championships at the Stan Sheriff Center — neither is taking anything for granted.

The Hurricanes' boys, who captured their first state title last year, and Chargers' girls, who made it three straight last season, are once again considered by many coaches as the frontrunners in the team competition.

Kapolei returns five of its seven state place-finishers from a year ago, including five Oahu Interscholastic Association individual champions. Three of them — Jayson Pagurayan (108 pounds), Anthony Brett (121) and Kekua Marumoto (161) — are the top seeds in their weight classes this week. Two others — Andre Pagurayan (114) and Rodman Salangdron (145) — are No. 2 seeds.

"We're putting our best foot forward. All the kids are ready," Hurricanes' coach Marc Narciso said. "As long as they go out and give their 100 percent, which makes our percentage of winning (as a team) higher, that's all we can ask for. I just told them to have fun because there's no pressure after that. They don't have to worry about losing weight or practice after that, so they can just go out and have fun."

In all, the Hurricanes qualified 12 judoka in nine weight classes. The only bracket they are not represented in is at 178 pounds.

"Even though I know we're coming in strong, you've got to play your best game at states and states is always a different beast," Narcisco said. "I have a lot of faith that they will come out and play well, especially my five OIA champions, but anything can happen. Even though people might think we're the favorite, for us, it's just like we've got to go in there and hope for the best."

Kapolei's most likely challenger to the throne is a familiar one in Moanalua, which won a string of three consecutive team titles from 2010 to 2012. The same two teams faced off in the finals of the OIA team championships last week, with the Hurricanes coming away with a narrow 50-45 win for their second straight league title.

Na Menehune qualified a tournament-best 18 judoka and are represented in all 10 weight classes.

"We feel pretty good about qualifying most of our guys, but we have a lot of tough seedings in the brackets, so although we're happy about that, we know the road ahead is a tough one," Moanalua coach Brandon Maki said. "We know we're close. The (team championships) is not an exact gauge, but now our boys know that we can play with (Kapolei) and at least it will give them confidence going into the state championships. I think it was a good warm-up for the state tournament."

Other teams expected to be in the mix for the team title are Iolani and Punahou from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Both teams qualified eight judoka in seven weight classes and have three league champions.

The Raiders, who won their second consecutive league crown last week, have the top seed at 285 pounds in Dane Yamashiro, along with Jordan Ng, the second seed at 121, and Brian Pascua, the fourth seed at 161. Ng won back-to-back state championships at 108 as a freshman and sophomore.

"We have a younger team — although we have a senior in Jordan — but the team around him is fairly young, so we don't have as many guys in the tournament as we'd like and we have a lot of work ahead of us," Iolani coach Dan Nishita said. "We hope to be amongst the contenders, but it will take a lot of breaks going our way to keep up with (Kapolei and Moanalua)."

The Buffanblu are led by Weston Kogachi, the top seed and defending state champion at 114 pounds, along fellow-ILH champs Nicolas Nakaoka and Ian Ramirez. Nakaoka, a freshman, is the No. 2 seed at 132, while Ramirez is seeded third at 220.

"States is a tournament of your superstars, so it's not really one of depth or toughness and I'd have to say Kapolei has more of the guys likely to finish high," Punahou coach Greg Chow said. "I think Moanalua will be up there with them and I think Iolani will do pretty well, because they have a good share of good players. We'll be OK, I think. I'm hoping we'll be in the top five."

Individually, Mid-Pacific senior Cole Chandler, who is the top seed at 145 pounds, is seeking his third state crown. He won at 108 pounds as a freshman at Kaiser before sitting out his sophomore season due to ILH transfer rules and won at 145 last year.

Also, Moanalua's Zorich Palimoo is the top seed at 198 pounds, where he won a state championship last year.

Meanwhile, the girls' team race appears to be a bit closer on paper between Pearl City and a pair of ILH teams in Kamehameha and Punahou.

The Chargers qualified 12 judoka in nine weight classes (all but 98 pounds), including five state place-finishers from a year ago. However, they will be without four other medal winners in Chastyne Dolor, Ashlyn Antonio, Adrienne Nazareno and Netanya Kang. Dolor, who won at 109 pounds as a freshman last year, and Antonio, who placed third at 220, moved in the offseason and changed schools, while Nazareno, who was fifth at 98 last year, and Kang, who was second at 129, both failed to qualify after missing weight at the OIA championships two weeks ago.

"They're both juniors, so they'll be back, but it's brutal to lose them both," Pearl City coach Robin Puahala said. "The girls that did qualify are focused, so we're happy there, and the ones that didn't make it are still at practice trying to push them and that helps because I'd rather not the state qualifiers practice with each other because we can risk injuries being down two key starters for us."

Mana Borden was the lone Pearl City player to win at OIA's and is the fourth seed at 172 pounds this week.

The Warriors, who won the ILH crown this year, qualified 13 judoka in nine weight classes, including six league champions. Hilinai Meyer and Jaclyn Fontanilla are top seeds in the 109- and 154-pound brackets, respectively. Fontanilla is a two-time state champion. However, they will be without superstar Teshya Alo, who won 129 pounds as a freshman two years ago, but missed out on the state tournament as a sophomore. She will participating in a national wrestling tournament on the mainland this weekend.

"I just look at it as with or without her we're going to try our best," Kamehameha coach Ernie Miyamasu said."We'll be up there — I don't know how any points we can score — with all the competition being real close and every school having one or two people who can win now days, so it's hard to imagine. I'm just going into it with an open mind and see what happens."

The Buffanblu also qualified a tournament-best 13 judoka and are represented in eight weight classes, but have just one seeded player in freshman Bailey Hoshino, who is the No. 2 seed at 98 pounds.

"It should be an interesting tournament, because it's a year where you can't pick the state championship team way in advance and will come down to seeing how they perform," said Chow, who gives the edge to the Chargers.

"Pearl City is probably the favorite having been real solid the past few years," Chow said. "I don't know who their stars are, but they have a big team and they cover a lot of weight classes with quality, but not necessarily superstars. I can't really pick out any weight where Pearl City is destined to be the state champ — maybe in the heavier weights — but you can count on them being in the top four, five placers and all of that adds up."

Other teams expected to contend for the team title are Roosevelt, Moanalua, Mililani and Aiea.

Individually, six other judoka are eyeing a second individual title Saturday. Moanalua's Jackie Agena won at 98 pounds last year, but is unseeded at the weight this weekend, as is the case with Waipahu's Sabrina Hollins, who captured the 220-pound crown last year. Aiea's Kari Okubo, who won at 139 pounds a season ago, but could be on a crash course with Fontanilla in the 154-final.

Also, a pair of former state champs are in the 115-pound bracket in Roosevelt's Kristen Kojima, who won at the same weight in 2013, and Mililani's Kaylin Castro, who claimed the 109 crown two years ago. Castro's teammate, Haylie Shinsato beat Kojima in the 115-pound final last year, and is the top seed at 122 this week.

Judoka earn 16 points toward their team's total with a first-place finish. Second-place is worth 12 points, third place nine, fourth place seven, fifth place five and sixth place three.

Doors to the arena will open at 9:30 a.m. with matches getting underway at 10:30 a.m. The finals are expected to begin at 4 p.m.