Wrestling
Terao wins fourth state title, Pearl City boys win first-ever crown


 



> Full boys results

> Photo extra: HHSAA Wrestling - boys podium

Joshua Terao did it for the fourth time, while the Pearl City boys did it for the first time.

Terao, a Mid-Pacific senior, became the sixth wrestler and just the fourth boy to win four individual state crowns, and the Chargers captured their first-ever team title as the Chevron/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Wrestling State came to a close Saturday.

In his final match of a decorated prep career, Terao went out in dominating fashion with a 15-0 blanking of Mililani's Zackary Diamond in the 132-pound championship bout.

"This was an ultimate goal that I never thought was possible," said Terao, who is the first wrestler to accomplish the feat since Kamehameha's Randolyn "Hoku" Nohara from 2004 to 2007. The last boy to win four times is Saint Louis' Brandon Low (2003 to 2007). "I used to dream about this moment freshman year, (but) I never really thought about it as a goal until like last year. It's just been a process of grinding it out everyday and I can't believe it's here."

Terao held a 7-0 lead by the end of the first period on a take down and two near-falls. He racked up eight more points in the second period en route to the 15-0 lead, which induced a technical fall and the stoppage of the match.

"The last match meant everything," Terao said. "I wanted to go and spend everything I have in that wrestling match and leave it on the mat for my last match. It came out in the way I wanted to and it was fun.."

Terao won as a freshman at 110 pounds in 2011, at 125 as a sophomore and 130 as a junior. He forfeited a match earlier this season — one of the very few losses he has in his prep career — and missed over a week of practice due to a concussion.

"That was tough — I felt like it was a trial for me to go through since it was my senior year and I took it in stride," Terao said.

Pearl City rallied past Lahainaluna in the boys' team race with three individual champions. Alex Ursua won at 126 pounds, Blake Cooper at 160 and Jordan Fuamatu at 285.

"We worked so hard as a team," Ursua said. "We were struggling during dual meets and Westerns because we would always lose to Campbell, (but) I guess states is where it counts. We all followed through; we trained very hard for this and it paid off."

The Chargers accumulated 155.5 points to the Lunas' 146. Defending champion Kamehameha was third with 118 points, Campbell fourth with 105.5 and Punahou fifth with 102.5.

"I'm not going to say surprising, but it's gratifying," Pearl City coach Mike Lee said. "The nine boys we had entered, they worked so hard — the seniors, they've been together for four years, plus getting Alex back after his freshman year and then he left — they worked for it and they earned it."

Ursua, who won the 120-pound state title while attending University High last season, defeated Moanalua's Chevy Tabiolo Felicilda, 9-4, in their title match.

"It was an intense match because he's my friend, so it's nothing personal, but I wanted it more," Ursua said. "I wanted it. I wanted that two-time state title."

Cooper captured his third consecutive individual title with a first-round pin of Punahou's Christian Agmata in one minute and 59 seconds. With the win, Cooper matches older brother Raynald III, who won three state crowns of his own from 2009 to 2011.

"I wanted to feel him out first, so I put the half in to see how he'd react to it and he just stayed there, I guess, so I just kept cranking it and cranking it until he gave out," Cooper said of Agmata. "I feel very good right because my brother won it and I just had to try to beat him."

Fuamatu narrowly edged Leilehua's Maake Muti in a marathon heavyweight championship final. The pair needed seven rounds — four rounds of overtime — to decide a winner when Fuamatu escaped the grasp of Muti in the 30-second sudden-death seventh period.

"I had 30 seconds left and all I had to do was stand up and that's what I did," said Fuamatu, who won the OIA championship a week ago. "That's the best feeling in the world man, being state champs. I love my coaches, I love my team. Without them none of this would've happened."

Pearl City is the first public school to win the boys' state title since Kahuku in 2006. The Chargers finished runners-up to OIA-West foe Campbell at the league individual championships a week ago.

"We had momentum from OIA's," Lee said. "They were discouraged, but they realized that comes states, as long as you come in and battle — everybody else had about 12 or 13 wrestlers, we came in with nine — and they just had that mentality that we're just going to grind it out and battle and see what happens. We weren't going to worry about the team (standings), we were just going to worry about individually just getting there, battling and who knows what happens and surprisingly it worked out."

Like Cooper, Mililani's Braydon Akeo also won his third individual state title Saturday. Akeo, a senior who expects to sign with Northern Michigan University soon, defeated Iolani freshman Brian Pascua, 8-3, in the 138-pound final.

"I felt like I had the experience on him," said Akeo, who is the only Trojan wrestler to ever win three times. "It helped being older, having that experience inside this arena, being here before having won the tournament."

Bubba Jaramillo won his second straight state title by edging Radford's Liam Corbett, 3-1, in the 145-pound championship, but it was a somewhat bittersweet celebration afterward. 

"Our team was working so hard this year for this team title and we were doing really well, we just had some heartbreakers in the quarterfinals and semis that we really needed to win," said Jaramillo, who was the only one of three Lahainaluna finalists to win their title bout. "All in all, it was a good experience, not only for me, but for my teammates. We have a young team, so they'll be back, hungry for more."



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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