Though months have passed since the end of the season, the pride we have in the accomplishments of our wrestlers hasn?t diminished.

Our Girls had a breakthrough season, winning their first-ever ILH and State Championships. Led by senior State Champions Jt Ojerio & Ilima-lei Macfarlane, our relatively young girls team medaled in 7 of the 11 weight classes and finished the state tournament just 3 points shy of the scoring record.

The Boys powered their way through the season, breaking their own scoring record on their way to winning a third consecutive State Championship. Their 8 finalists and 12 overall medalists were also high marks for the state tournament. The boys also finished the season undefeated in dual meet competition, capturing their fourth straight ILH Championship.

Congratulations to boys individual State Champions Reid Oshiro, Maika Nagata, Patrick Sheehan, Kolu Buck, and Sani Fuimaono.

Our JV team continued their domination of the ILH, capturing their 5th consecutive ILH Championship. They finished their ILH dual meet season undefeated and won 9 (out of 14) individual championships at the ILH tournament.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the incredible leadership of our senior class. This year?s seniors have really been the catalyst of our recent success, starting as freshmen role players in our breakout ILH championship team of 2006 and growing into the fantastic role models that made this year?s awesome performance possible.

Whether they were able to wrestle in the state tournament or not, every single one of this year?s seniors played an indispensible role in our championship season. Whether they were striving to become a state champion, or pushing their teammates every day in practice, all of our seniors set a high bar for work ethic, camaraderie, and character that makes us all proud to be a part of this program.

We bid a fond a hui hou to our graduating seniors and know that their contributions will be felt for years to come. Aloha to Shelby Asato, Lani Fonua, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (Captain), Jt Ojerio (Captain), Andrew Hirai, Erik Horn, Passi Iafeta, Kevin Kiyohara, Troy Murakawa, Maika Nagata (Captain), Reid Oshiro (Captain), Christian Sanchez, Arnold Toriumi (Captain), Kevin Ueunten, and Alex Wachi.

Mahalo, too, for the incredible support of our parents. So much work goes into keeping such a large program running ? most of it outside the wrestling room ? and our parents have always been there in force. Thank you!

We certainly appreciated everyone who came to cheer us on at the meets & tournaments this year. Competing is so much more fun when we have such a loyal and vocal group of supporters?mahalo and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!

This past weekend we took 9 of our best wrestlers to the Brute/Adidas Nationals in Kansas City, MO.? This tournament has wrestlers from across the country, but mostly the Midwest (for obvious reasons), compete against each other within the same grade level. Weight classes all had a 3 lbs allowance from the NFHS weight classes.? Here’s a recap of how they did:

We brought one intermediate wrestler, 8th grader LJ Remilard.? He wrestled very well, earning All-American honors by placing 3rd in the 158 lbs weight class, and learned some valuable lessons about chain-wrestling and wrestling with urgency.

Freshmen Bryant Fukushima (106) and Todd Murakawa (128) also earned All-American, placing 6th and 2nd respectively.? Bryant lost 2 matches to the same very tough wrestler from Team Monday (Kenny Monday-Olympic Gold Medalist 1992) in Texas, and then in his medal match, learned to “let go of the head” a little earlier, ending up stuck on his back while winning the match against a state placewinner from Missouri.? Toddie dominated every opponent on his way to the finals.? There he met an extremely tough, talented, explosive wrestler from Iowa, and when he was unable to finish a single-leg-up position with 15 second left in the 3rd period to tie, he lost a 2 point match to place 2nd.? After the match we found out that this was the Iowa boys’ 3rd National Championship in a row, and that he had recently won the Iowa state championship at 119.? Todd was right in the match with a frosh state champ from Iowa, not too shabby.

Sophomores Evan Yamamoto (106) and Evan Johnson (155) also competed.? Evan Johnson wrestled well, winning one match and losing 2, one in OT and one by 1 point.? Overall he wrestled well, and we are pleased that he has proven to himself that he is capable of competing at this next level.? Evan Yamamoto also wrestled very well, and earned All-American by placing 7th.? This is a testimony to the strength of our program and our JV team, as long as we all continue to wrestle hard in practice every day.

Junior Jordan Ng (115) also earned All-American placing 3rd.? He lost a heartbreaking match on the front-side when, while winning the match, he ended up getting stuck on his back rather than bailing out and cutting his opponent loose for one or at worst giving the reversal and fighting off his belly.? He proved that he learned some important lessons about himself and his inner preparation from that disappointment, as he went on to dominate every subsequent opponent, including an extremely tough North Dakota (I think) state place winner in the 3rd place match.? Jordan has never looked better.

Our seniors shown very brightly, and were not only the “talk of the town” by the tournament coordinators, but were also catching the eye of several college recruiters in attendance.? Reid Oshiro (122) totally dominated his weight class, finishing the finals match with a 3-point tilt off a sweet takedown against a Michigan state place winner who had been named MOW of the toughest pre-season tournament in MI (as told to us by a college recruiter who was there to watch the MI kid). Pretty cool!?

Maika Nagata (128) also won his National Championship in dominant fashion beating an undefeated Colorado wrestler who had become ill (bedridden) just prior to their Regionals (state championship qualifying tournament) and was therefore unable to compete in the state championships.? This was communicated by a very proud father who was very impressed by the way Maika wrestled his son.

The highlight of the tournament was indeed Arnold Toriumi’s (133) performances.? His first match was relatively uneventful, though it was evident that he hadn’t wrestled a competitive match in 2 years.? The rust was incredible.? His quarterfinals match was against an extremely talented, technical wrestler from North Dakota (?-my memory fades).? They banged heads the entire match, and though Arnold had hit 2 solid takedowns out of bounds, that match was knotted at 1 with 10 seconds left in the 3rd.? Arnold hit another solid single-to-Barzegaard finish, and the kid’s butt landed on the out-of bounds line, Arnold climbed up the body immediately, securing the takedown inbounds with less than 2 seconds on the clock.? His semis match was just as tight, though his takedown occurred in the first period, and the rest of the match both wrestlers attacked and countered each other extremely well.? His finals match was, believe it or not, not quite as tight, though the wrestler was a state finalist from Colorado (? again not positive I have the state correct).? He hit 3 takedowns out of bounds in the frst period, and had the kid backing up the entire rest of the match.? He eventually secured several takedowns inbounds through the rest of the match, and also got a few stalling calls against the kid, as Arnold remained relentless, as is his nature.

We brought 9 wrestlers, had 8 All-Americans, including 3 National Champs.? These seniors have now affectionately been dubbed “Murderers Row” by some of the parents in attendance.? It was a great trip, the wrestlers handled themselves respectively on and off the mat, the level of competition was excellent, and we look forward to taking this trip again next Spring.

Hope you all are well-
Coach Oney

Final Team Standings

Final Team Standings

The Punahou Wrestling Program had its most successful week ever, winning both Boys and Girls titles at last weekend?s HHSAA State Championships. The Boys earned their third consecutive state crown, winning 5 of 8 finals matches and medaling 12. The Girls broke through, winning their first-ever state title with 2 individual champions and 7 individual medalists.

The Girls got off to a pretty good start Friday, finishing the day neck-and-neck with defending champs Kahuku. We faltered a bit in the semi?s, losing three matches in a row (114, 120, & 125), but were ?helped? by Kahuku?s equally poor performance and were still in a dead heat going into the final round. We challenged the girls to refocus themselves and finish the tournament strong and, well, they came through big time. It wasn?t published in the paper but the girls? final round was so dominant, they won the state tournament just three points shy of an all-time scoring record.

The Boys had a strong, steady push throughout the tournament, wining their third consecutive crown and setting a new scoring record. Eleven made the semi-finals (one shy of the high mark we set last year), with eight making the finals. We had an uneven performance in the finals round, ?winning ugly? for a couple of titles and losing two matches by 1 point each because we couldn?t get out from bottom. But those matches should serve to keep us humble and hungry, reminding us that in spite of the outward success, we still have a lot to learn.

Congratulations to our individual State Champions:

Boys

Girls

Complete Results

2009 Girls Results
2009 Boys Results

We wrapped up our ILH season this past Saturday by wrestling as well as we have all year. JV, Girls and Varsity all saved their best wrestling for the ILH Championships, with each team winning their division.

A special congratulations to our Girls team for winning their first-ever ILH team title! The girls won 6 individual championships and outdistanced second place Iolani by 45 points.

The JV boys also dominated, with 9 individual champions and beating Kamehameha by 62. Congratulations JV, on another outstanding season!

And of course, the Varsity boys set themselves up well for the state tournament, winning 11 individual champions and qualifying all 14 wrestlers for the state tournament.

The Varsity Boys & Girls have one more mountain to climb this coming weekend — Blaisdell, here we come!

More info on the 2009 ILH Championships ? Varsity Boys
More info on the 2009 ILH Championships ? Varsity Girls
More info on the 2009 ILH Championships ? JV Boys

Team Results

Team Results

Team Results

?but unscathed. That about sums up our wrestling this past weekend, even though we secured wins at all levels in the ILH Dual Meet Tournament.

Carnival weekend has always been the bane of our season and this year wasn?t much of an exception. We wrestled flat on all levels, though of the three teams ? jv, varsity, & girls ? the girls wrestled the best. Still, the really important tournaments are yet to come and the coaches are hopeful that our distractions are behind us and we can commit fully to wrestling our best for the next 11 days.

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Results

Varsity Boys

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Varsity Girls

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Junior Varsity Boys