Congratulations to Punahou Senior Jordan Ng, who was recently named to Wrestling USA’s Honorable Mention All-American team.  The 2010 All-American Team will be featured in the May 20 issue of Wrestling USA Magazine.

8th Place – Kory Johnson & Makana Valdez
7th Place – Patrick Sheehan
4th Place – Bryant Fukushima
2nd Place – Evan Johnson

Some good, solid wrestling (according to Coach Oney) — Congratulations!

Bouncing back from a lackluster performance last week, our wrestlers stepped up when it counted and had an outstanding ILH Tournament. Boys Varsity and Boys JV both recaptured ILH Championships and the Girls were runners-up, in spite of forfeiting three out of eleven weight classes.

Varsity put their only loss of the season behind them and rolled to a 32 point victory over Kamehameha. They won six individual championships and set themselves up very well for this weekend’s state championship.

JV also captured six individual titles on their way to 42 point victory, wrapping their season up with a strong finish. The JV started their season wrestling a bit sloppy, but honed their technique and focus as the season wore on and capped it off with a sharp and spirited championship tournament.

Although the Girls missed repeating as ILH champions by just 3.5 points, they wrestled incredibly well, winning championships in six out of eleven weight classes. The Girls team has fought hard all season long, in spite of forfeiting three weight classes, and though they face an uphill battle against Kahuku & Kamehameha, cannot be counted out to repeat as state champions this coming weekend.

We’re very proud of how our wrestlers stepped up to the challenges of the season, especially as the competition increased in the last week. They bent, but did not break and showed their strong will and discipline in the championship tournament. Congratulations to the JV on a fantastic season! To our Varsity Boys & Girls – the biggest and best week is yet to come!

Varsity Boys Team Results

Individual Champions

Varsity Girls Team Results

Individual Champions

Junior Varsity Boys Team Results

Individual Champions

After nearly 8 hours of all-out tussling and bodyslams, Punahou emerged yesterday evening as the kings of the boys Interscholastic League of Honolulu wrestling.

Punahou Boys Rule ILH

The rivalry between Kamehameha and Punahou in boys wrestling is heating up.

In the last dual tournament before the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships this Saturday, the Warriors defeated Punahou 31-24 in the final round yesterday afternoon to capture the team title.

The victory halted Punahou’s undefeated regular season to the surprise of several ILH coaches. Punahou, which features three returning state champions, has been the leader in league points all season, followed closely by Kamehameha.

See the whole article here.

Our Girls wrestled well this weekend, while the Boys (at both levels) have a lot of work to do as we head into the last week of the ILH season. The Girls looked sharp as they avenged two earlier losses to Kamehameha and repeated as ILH Dual Meet Champions. We’re particularly proud of the Girls’ performance, considering they’re still forfeiting three weight classes.

What JV lacked in execution, they made up for in tenacity as they held off Kamehameha to win the tournament. Always spirited, but often sloppy, we’ve got some work to do in this final week of their season to polish our fundamentals and get on track for a strong finish.

A very fired-up Kamehameha team simply out-hustled and out-fought us at the Varsity level to win the tournament and prevent our boys from winning for the fifth consecutive year. Individual match victories were knotted at 7-7, but Kamehameha had more pins and more major victories as they scrapped to a 31-24 victory. Like the JV, the Varsity Boys have a lot to work on in this final week of the ILH season and we hope we can make the necessary adjustments.

Boys Varsity Final Standings

1) Kamehameha
2) Punahou
3) Iolani
4) St. Louis
5) Damien
6) Pac-5

Finals Matches
1st Place – Kamehameha beats Punahou 31-24
3rd Place – Iolani beats St. Louis 51-21
5th Place – Damien beats Pac-5 38-30

Girls Varsity Final Standings

1) Punahou
2) Kamehameha
3) Pac-5
4) Iolani

Finals Matches
1st Place – Punahou beats Kamehameha 33-27
3rd Place – Pac-5 beats Iolani 33-12

Junior Varsity Final Standings

1) Punahou
2) Kamehameha
3) Pac-5
4) St. Louis
5) Iolani
6) Damien

Finals Matches
1st Place – Punahou beats Kamehameha 33-31
3rd Place – Pac-5 beats St. Louis 42-36
5th Place – Iolani beats Damien 36-28

After a slow start to the morning, the team really picked up the pace and turned in their best performance of the year in the final round. The boy’s team placed 18 wrestlers and finished the day with 9 individual champions. The girl’s team placed 8 wrestlers and finished the day with 4 individual champions.

The boys’ team’s gutsy performance in the last round propelled them to a narrow win over strong team performances from Pac-5 and Kamehameha. Though no official girl’s team’s scores were recorded we placed more girls than any other team.

Congratulations to the Punahou Intermediate Wrestling Team, 2009 ILH Champions!

{Editor’s Note: If you have a picture of the Inter Championship that we can use for this article, please send to me so we can stop using the picture of the high school kids }

The Boys wrestled much better than they did Tuesday. The JV team shook off the sloppiness they showed earlier in the week and put in a solid performance against a very good Kamehameha team. There were some hard fought matches but the JV boys fell short 30 – 45.

The much anticipated Varsity match against Kamehamea – a rematch of our final at the Iolani Dual Meet Tournament last month – didn’t quite live up to expectations due to line-up changes by both teams, but there was some good wrestling nonetheless. Even without starting line-ups in place, our rivalry with Kamehameha is always intense and always produces some exciting match-ups. This week was no exception, with great battles at 120, 189, and 215. Thanks to simple, hard-nosed wrestling, the Varsity pulled off a 38 – 18 win.

All in all, a good night of wrestling for us. We still have quite a bit to work on, but the coaches are comfortable with how we’re wrestling at this point in the season. Next up is Iolani on Tuesday (at Punahou), then the always exciting ILH Dual Meet Tournament, Friday & Saturday at Iolani.

Final Results
Varsity win over Kamehameha 38 – 18
Girls win over Pac-5 48 – 12
JV loss to Kamehameha 30 -45

We wrestled upstairs in our wrestling room, which is a great venue since the fans are right there on matside. Though it can be a bit crowded for the fans, the noise and energy level is great for the wrestlers.

St. Louis wrestled our varsity boys well, but simply gave up too many forfeits. JV boys put forth a great effort, but with poor execution and lost their opening dual. And that’s not to take anything away from St. Louis. They came out fired up and simply out-wrestled us. The girls did a great job overcoming four forfeits, but still seemed to lack a some of the fire they showed during the pre-season.

Perhaps it’s the weight of finals week, but we have a short window of time to make some adjustments before the boys hit Kamehameha and the girls take on Pac-5 this Friday. Our level of wrestling is adequate for this point in the season, but we have a lot of things to work on if we hope to repeat as champions.

Results

Varsity win vs. St. Louis 64 – 15
JV loss vs. St. Louis 24 – 47
Girls win vs. Kamehameha 36 – 27