Even More Punahou in the Press

Some nice coverage of our first day in Saturday’s Post-Bulletin:

Welcome to Minnesota

The wrestlers from the Punahou School team in Hawaii received a "warm" welcome when they arrived in Minnesota. However, Glenbard North, Punahou’s first-round opponent, wasn’t willing to roll out the welcome mat.

Glenbard North, ranked No. 9 in the nation, beat up the Punahou School — literally. Glenbard’s physical style led to a 68-0 blanking of Punahou.

Still, as expected, Punahou lost with class. Coach Matt Oney coached his first match exactly the same as his last.

"While I don’t like the result, this is what we came here for," Oney said. "That’s as physical of a team as we’ll see. My kids were able to see that you can wrestle that physical and keep your technique. They were flawless; they’re a great team. And we came here to see that type of team."

It’s unfortunate, but Punahou suffered the only skin casualty of the morning session. One of Punahou’s wrestlers did not make it through skin checks and was not allowed to wrestle.

Oney said the news rocked his team.

"They were pretty shaken up. He’s one of our starters and an emotional leader," Oney said. "To come this far and not get to wrestle is really tough."

The last match of the dual against Glenbard may have been the best one.

The final match came at 145 pounds and pitted nationally-ranked Vince Ramos of Glenbard against state champion and national judo champion Daniel Chow of Punahou.

Both were impressive, but Ramos was able to hold on for an 8-5 victory.

"I’m glad Glenbard had a kid that good at Daniel’s weight, because it was good for him to see a wrestler of that caliber," Oney said. "It was a great match, but I know Daniel’s not satisfied. And that’s a good thing. He’ll learn a lot from this one."

Punahou went 0-3 on the first day, but its final two duals were much closer. Punahou lost 47-16 to Blue Springs, Mo., then 38-28 to Carl Harrison of Georgia.

See the full article at The Clash | Top teams win, as expected