The JV team had an even more frustrating performance, wrestling below their abilities on too many occasions.  They finished in 2nd, behind a very tough and loaded Kamehameha JV team.  We have a good  group of wrestlers who are willing to do the work, so we’re gonna have to continue pushing forward and hopefully get many of them to attend the off season training and continue to improve on their abilities.  We know we can be better in the future.

The boys and girls varsity continued to strive for their ultimate goals, and put themselves in position to finish strong.  Both qualified all possible weight classes (14 for the boys, and 10 for girls (we don’t have a 220 girl wrestler)) for the states this weekend.  Both teams were able to pull away from the rest of the teams over the course of the tournament and win the ILH Team Championships.  Though we know we still didn’t wrestle our best, which frankly excites us as we don’t need to truly peak until this weekend at states, we did have several key wrestlers work through their injuries and survive the weekend qualifying for states and with the potential to improve their health even slightly more through the week.  We expect to continue working hard this week and polishing up and improving our technique in certain positions, and know that there will be several teams pushing hard to finish on top this weekend, including us.

If at all possible, we’d love to see you either Friday and/or Saturday at the Blaisdell for the excitement of this tournament.
Thank you for all the continued support.

Saturday once again found us hosting the Intermediate and JV round robin tournament, the last of the season.  Our boys and girls varsity teams did an excellent job of setting up the brackets and running the tables, and our younger wrestlers continued to show their development.  We can definitely see the progress of the 7th and 8th graders, and also of several of the JV’s as well.

This week Friday and Saturday the JV, Vars, and Girls will be competing in the ILH Dual Meet Tournament at Maryknoll.  Next weekend, yes Distraction Weekend, will be the ILH Championships (for all levels) at Kamehameha.  As always, we’d love to see you at any/all of these if you can make it.

Friday night the boys team started slowly against Kamehameha, the weight class draw took us right to the heart of their lineup, but we were able to rebound well and string together 5 consecutive pins, from 152-215, which swung the momentum right back in our favor. We finsihed the meet pretty strong, and won decisively against them, knowing they are still missing a few key weight classes due to injury. We expect to see their lineup complete by the end of the season, so we know it’s gonna be a dogfight til the end. Kamehameha is a very tough team again this year.

On Saturday the varsity boys battled St. Louis, and were able to handle them as well, getting a few of our non-starting seniors some very well deserved matches. It was fun to see them battle at that level. On Saturday we also had the inter/jv round robin tournament at St. Louis, and our younger wrestlers showed improvements of their own, and are seemingly getting more comfortable with the battle.

With only a few weeks left of the season, it is definitely time for everyone to step up and prepare their best to finish the season strong. This weekend we’ll have boys and girls varsity dual meets at Punahou Friday night, and Saturday we’ll be hosting another inter/jv round robin tournament. We’d love to see anyone on the island there to cheer us on.

In a performance that truly defines the concept of “team”, our wrestlers pulled together and delivered a series of incredible matches to repeat as both Boys & Girls State Champions.

All season long, the coaches emphasized the wisdom of Joe Paterno, when he said “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.” In the state tournament, the wrestlers took this to heart, scoring pins when needed and grinding out tough wins when it counted, and securing the team title in spite of serious challenges.

The Boys were impressive in both the first round of the tournament and the semi-final round, racking up enough pins to pull away from second place Kamehameha in spite of a few big losses.

Several wrestlers favored to win/repeat as state champions were upset in what the Star Bulletin called “stunning losses”. But true to their character, they put their personal disappointment aside and finished the tournament with pins. The rest of the team also rallied, earning pins and crucial placement points. So solid was their wrestling that the Boys finished the tournament within striking distance of last year’s scoring record.

Whereas everyone on the Boys team stepped up their performance to counter the upsets against them, the Girls pulled together to overcome the superior numbers of OIA champions Kahuku and repeated as State Champions by an incredibly thin margin of just 2.5 points. With just 8 girls entered in the tournament (vs. Kahuku’s 10), the Girls put five into the finals and scored key pin points to earn the team victory. In spite of the numbers being stacked against them, the Girls were undaunted, believing until the very end that they had what it took to win.

Congratulations to State Champions Jordan Ng (114), Todd Murakawa (125), Galen McCleary (140), Chrissy Chow (125), Mindy Chow (130), and Kaimana Lundquist (155).

Full results can be found at the links below.

Boys Final Standings
Boys Final Results
Boys Final Brackets

Girls Final Standings
Girls Final Results
Girls Final Brackets

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

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 }

Overall we put in a solid performance this past weekend at the ILH Dual Meet Tournament. In spite of forfeiting four out of eleven weight classes, the Girls went 2–1, dropping a close match to Kamehameha on Friday but bouncing back nicely to beat Pac-5 and Iolani on Saturday.

The Boys started with wins Friday against Pac-5 and a scrappy Damien team. They really stepped up on Saturday, beating our toughest rival, Kamehameha, 54-15. St. Louis and Iolani gave us a lot of forfeits, which contributed to the lopsided scoring in those duals.

The coaches are very happy with how we’re wrestling at this point in the season. We still have some work to do (particularly on top), and know that our competition is not standing still, but with about a month left in the season we’re where we need to be.

ILH Dual Meet Tournament Results

BOYS
Win over Pac-5 66-11
Win over Damien 69-6
Win over St. Luis 73-0
Win over Kamehameha 54-15
Win over Iolani 70-10

GIRLS
Loss to Kamehameha 30-36
Win over Pac-5 36-24
Win over Iolani 36-9

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