Punahou Repeats as both Boys & Girls State Champions
March 1, 2010 by Jimmy
Filed under Varsity, Girls, Featured Content
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