Led by captains Jake Nakasone and James Mizota, the Iolani boys wrestling team beat Hillcrest of California to win the Moanalua Duals on Tuesday night.
Fellow captain Brian Pascua was not needed, winning his finals match by forfeit in the 42-27 win.
Iolani, which won the Officials tournament, is 2-0 in the ILH dual meet season with wins over Punahou and Pac-Five so far and impressed Hillside coach Ernie Ledesma with their effort on Tuesday.
“Really good team, technical, smart out there,” said Ledesma, who brought about half of his team to Hawaii for the tournament.
“The style out here is a little bit different, a lot faster pace than in California. Coming out here our boys had to speed it up. Once we got adjusted to it we had to press the action instead of sitting back.”
The Raiders beat ILH rival Pac-Five 38-29 in the semifinals while Hillcrest topped Kapolei 31-29. Pac-Five beat Kapolei 39-33 for third place.
Kamehameha won the Silver bracket with a 37-36 win over Punahou.
Kamehameha won the girls title with a 43-36 win over Lahainaluna with most of the Warriors moving up a weight class. Teshya Alo had three wins in the tournament including a pin in 37 seconds in the final.
The Warriors beat Roosevelt 31-24 in the semifinals and the defending state champion Lunas beat Pearl City 57-21. The Chargers beat the Rough Riders 42-33 for third place.
For the Hawaii teams, the Moanalua duals represented a signficant step toward the state championships in February.
“Moanalua duals is just an awesome setting,” said Lahainalua coach Todd Hayase, who helped lead the Lunas to their first title last season. “Probably the most important thing we gained is how the kids bond.
“We wrestled four tournaments in the last two weeks so this kind of culminates our preseason and we can go back and just work on the details and be ready for states in February.”
The P4P should reflect one’s current status and past accomplishments should be weighed to judge the level of the competition and toughness of the weight classes. The MIT tournament in general this year was very weak the results don’t prove much. If you look over the returning placers from last year most of the upper weight classes are very weak with the exception of maybe one top wrestler. 285 only Eldredge (5th), 220 Sullivan (2nd), Tynanes-Perez (195) and Nobody (182). While 170 may have 3 placers in Villarmia (1st), Waki (4th), and Arakawa (5th), It should be noted that Villarmia loss to Slaven (145) and Stevenson (152), Arakawa (Kaiser) beat Fantanu (Iolani) at 182. I don’t believe Ilabon should be ranked a head of Pascua and Corey Cabanban with a loss to Blaysen. KJ has mowed through top level competition including Stevenson, Bailey, and Gallarde. I think 113 might stack up to be just as tough as 132 with 5-6 deep of quality wrestlers, 120, 138, and 145 (with Diamond) are pretty deep as well. 106 seems pretty weak without new comers Stefanelli and Nishigaya. The Pagurayan twins and Morisato twins are quality wrestlers and are always in contention as well as Cody Cabanban who has had some tough losses but should not be overlooked. Although 195 looks weak I think Tynanes-Perez (Campbell) belongs until someone beats him. Christmas wish list for match-ups would be Corbett vs Pascua at 160, and Terukina vs Kato at 132.