Kamehameha's Keamalu Richardson defeated Mililani's Robert Kim to win the 145-pound weight class. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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On the backs of four individual state champions, the Kamehameha boys easily won the team title at Saturday's final day of the Chevron/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Wrestling State Championships.

A crowd of 1,922 fans at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena saw the Warriors breakthrough with their first state crown since 2005 and fifth overall. Kamehameha totaled 178 points - 34 points better than runner-up Campbell - to snap Punahou's string of six consecutive state championships.

"It's awesome, it's really good," Warriors coach Chris West said. "I'm so proud of the boys and my coaching staff, my administration, my parents - it was like a big family this year. Everybody supported our program and it ended up the way it did."

Four seniors led the way for Kamehameha, which saw eight of its 13 tournament entrants earn medals. Jonathan Kamaka (135 pounds), Keamalu Richardson (145), Ikea Ikehara (189) and Dane Pestano (215) each won their respective weight class in their final high school matches.

"It doesn't get better than this," said Pestano, who successfully defended his 215-pound state title with a 6-2 win over Lahainaluna's Hercules Mataafa. "Our team worked hard - very hard - we had one team goal and that was to be the champions of state."

Jonah Hoshino (160 pounds) added a second-place finish, while Blaysen Terukina (108) placed third, Skye Yonamine (120) was fourth and Larry Himalaya (125) sixth to help bolster the Warriors, who led Campbell by just six points after Friday's opening day of competition.

"I think (the difference) was the determination of our team," Pestano said. "We refocused on what our goals were throughout the season and just thinking about how hard we trained got our minds ready."

Kamehameha had seven wrestlers reach the semifinal round and sent five of them to the championship match, while Campbell - which had a tournament-best eight semifinalists - saw just three of its players wrestle for first.

"I told the boys that the (semifinal) round is where we're going to separate the men from the boys," West said. "I had a lot of confidence - 100 percent confidence - in all my boys; The biggest message was that the coaches believe in you, but the most important person has to be yourself, so believe in yourselves and today they came out and they did it.

Kamaka got things started for the Warriors with his 8-3 win over Lahainaluna's Wyatt Chism in the 135-pound final. Kamaka led throughout the match and scored half of his points in the third period.

"This is one of the greatest feelings in the world," said Kamaka, who was the top seed in the bracket. "A wrestler always dreams of winning states."

Richardson, a No. 2 seed, upset top-seeded Robert Kim, of Mililani, 6-5, in the 145-pound final. The match went back and forth with four lead changes and two ties. After a scoreless first period, the pair were tied at 2-2 after the second period. Richardson took a 3-2 lead on an early third-period escape, but Kim went ahead, 4-3, on a takedown with about one minute left. However, Richardson evened the score at 4-apiece with an escape and took the lead for good with 30 seconds left on a takedown. A late stalling penalty on Richardson gave Kim a point to pull within one, but Richardson hung on for the win.

Ikehara, also a No. 2 seed, didn't require as much time to win his final. He pinned Campbell's Cornelius Putnam two minutes and 37 seconds into the 189-pound championship to become the second in his family to win an individual wrestling state title. Ikea's older brother, Kazden, finished first at 215 pounds at the 2007 state tournament.

"That motivated me a lot," Ikea said of Kazden's feat. "Just to have someone like that in the family keeps you going every single day. Every morning I wake up just trying to be a little bit like him. He works so hard and he's just a role model to me."

The top-seeded Pestano was in firm control of his 215-pound title match over Mataafa. He led, 2-0, after the first period and controlled Mataafa on the mat for the entire second period, before outscoring him, 6-2, in the third period.

West said the team championship was many years in the making.

"It's been a few years (since the last championship) and it takes time to build a program," West said. "Getting the job as the head coach, the main job is to get the right coaches; Getting in the right coaches at the intermediate level, the right coaches at the JV level, awesome (varsity) assistant coaches and having an administration that wants to help our wrestling program. All of that contributed to what it came to today."

Individually, Mid-Pacific junior Joshua Terao won his third state championship in as many tries. He held a 12-2 lead midway through the second period before pinning Punahou's Joshua Crimmins 3:19 into their 130-pound final.

"I think I stepped up my training, thanks to my coaches, my partners - especially my parents, my family - everyone who helped me. I just want to thank them because they're the ones who helped me get where I am and that's a three-time state champ.

Terao also defeated Crimmins in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship match last week.

"I wanted to dominate on my feet and then when it got to the bottom, I wanted to turn him and get some more points from that, so I ended up accomplishing what I wanted to do in that match, so that was a really good match for me."

Terao won at 108 pounds as a freshman and at 125 last year.

"My first year it was pretty difficult getting there, but I realized after that when everyone knows who you are it's a lot harder," he said.

A number of other wrestlers won their second consecutive individual championship.

Mililani's Braydon Akeo avoided an upset to Pac-Five's Thomas Tawata, as he rallied to an 8-6 overtime win in the 125-pound final. Tawata had Akeo on his back in a craddle early in the first period when the referee stopped the bout due to blood coming from Akeo's nose. Tawata was awarded three near-fall points to lead, 5-1, after the first period. The score was 6-3, in favor of Tawata, after the second period, but Akeo got an escape and takedown in the third period to force a fourth, sudden-death period. Akeo took Tawata down 33 seconds into the fourth period to win it.

"I knew I got caught - we were in a little scramble and I kept my head down - and I went straight to my back so I knew I was down 5-0 and I had to come back," said Akeo, who won at 108 as a sophomore last year. "I wanted to set the tone (in overtime). I know that he came out and set the tone early, so I wanted to finish on a good note and look like I'm aggressive."

Pearl City's Blake Cooper won at 145 as a sophomore last year and beat Kamehameha-Maui's Andrew Kahalewai in the 152-pound final Saturday. Cooper, who also beat Kahalewai in the finals of the Maui Invitational Tournament in December, held leads of 2-0 after the first period and 7-0 after the second.

"I didn't want to get taken down, I wanted to keep the pressure on him and make him tired and it worked out," Cooper said.

Punahou senior Laurent Remillard successfully defending his 160-pound state crown with a 10-0 win over Kamehameha's Hoshino.

"I just came out there and wrestled my best, got on top and when I got on top, I turned him in the end to secure the major (decision)," Remillard said. "It's bittersweet ... It's bitter because I'm leaving Punahou wrestling now ... and it's sweet because the state championship is nice, but really it's because of the way that wrestling has shaped me into the person I am today. That's what it's really all about."

Moanalua senior Chaeden Grace Reyes also repeated, besting Waianae's Donavan Nelson, 17-6, in the 171-pound championship. It was a rematch of the Oahu Interscholastic Association final, which Grace Reyes also won last week.

"I reviewed my matches with him and watched what I did wrong and then I tried to figure out what I could do better so I could dominate the match," said Reyes, who attended Farrington his freshman through junior seasons. "I feel good because I thought it would be harder for me this year, knowing that I would have a big target on my back. The hard thing is not winning the state championship, the hard thing is defending it."

A total of 224 wrestlers represented 52 schools in 406 bouts over the two-day tournament.