Potential rematches highlight OIA championships

The OIA championships have begun and can be found at Track Wrestling

There doesn’t seem to be much drama among the best boys wrestlers, with Kaena Desantos of Leilehua (138), Noah Wusstig of Moanalua (145), Branden Pagurayan of Kapolei (152), Moanalua’s Boltyn Taam (160) and Kalaheo’s Rysan Leong (170) staying put and satisfied with being heavy favorites in their weight classes.

But anything can happen, if one of those boys falls their bracket becomes chaos.

The most populated boys bracket is 132 with 17 wrestlers, least populated is 120 with nine.

The most populated girls bracket is 102 with 16 wrestlers, least is 127 with six.

There are 170 boys entered and 160 girls.

Matches to watch, boys:
120: Koby Chun of Kaiser and Moanalua’s Elijah Asuncion are the top two seeds and slated for final despite both being from the East. Chun upset Asuncion for the East title last week.
132: Campbell’s Brock Gooman is entered and seeded fourth after suffering an injury to his ankle last week, so he would meet top seed Jedediah Borge of Kalaheo in a semifinal if they can make it that far. A rematch of last week’s classic against Radford’s Logan Leialoha can’t happen until the final but it is a long road to get there.
170: State champion Rysan Leong rules here and has a bye into the second round but Radford’s Taylor Daack or Moanalua rival Andrew Adiniwin loom in the final. Daack pinned his way through the West last week while Adiniwin has creeped closer to Leong with every match.
182: Moanalua’s Jaycen Crisostomo and Vance Keliihoomalu of Kapolei could come up with a thriller if they can make it to the final after cleaning up their divisions last week. Keliihoomalu won Officials but is seeded second here.
285: The best match of the first day of the tournament will happen with the big boys if Officials king Marcus Lombard of Kahuku meets OIA West champion Rafael Leapaga of Kapolei in the second round. That isn’t assured, though, as Lombard has a tough match with Kailua’s Kekoa Kaulukukui (with 550 pounds of human on the mat) to get there. As is often the case with the big boys, anyone can win that side of the bracket.

Matches to watch, girls:
107: Kapolei’s Allicia Mahoe is the top seed and Shantelle Mangrobang of Leilehua is third, so they can’t meet in a rematch of last week’s OIA Championship until Saturday’s final.
132: Faith Joy Okubo of Moanalua can meet second seed Phoebe Pineda-Abaya of Kalani in the semifinals, Pearl City’s Chanel Hunter is top seed.
145: A classic East vs. West battle is set up for the final with Castle’s Sadie Antoque and Tiare Carlson of Waianae.
168: Leilehua’s Kelani Corbett is the obvious queen here after moving up to No. 2 in the national rankings, but the list of wrestlers hoping to take second is a tough one with Francesca Evans of Pearl City lined up for the final and Luana Kanongataa of Kahuku and Moanalua’s Alexis Tupuola favored on the other side of the bracket.
225: Lavenia Fotu of Farrington and Kahuku’s Tangeiteina Niutupuivaha are set up for another rematch in the final, unlike at Officials when they met in the second round on the way to Fotu’s title.