Judo
Mililani's Wise prevails in battle of state champions


 



WAHIAWA — In a showdown of state champions, Mililani's Mayu Wise did just enough to come out victorious.

Wise, a Trojans' sophomore, edged Pearl City senior Mikayla Abe in the girls' 122-pound final to claim her second straight Oahu Interscholastic Association judo crown at Saturday night's individual championships at Leilehua's Paul T. Kobayashi Gymnasium.

Both Wise, who moved up from the 115-pound division, and Abe, who competed at 109 as a junior, won OIA and state championships last season.

Neither judoka was able to score on the other Saturday. Abe, who finished second to Wise in last week's Western Division championships, was penalized about 90 seconds in — for non-combativity — and again in the closing seconds of the four-minute bout, this time for a false attack.

"I knew it was going to be hard," Wise said. "She's a hard opponent; she's good."

Wise out-gripped Abe and controlled her right (power) hand, which led to a minimal amount of effective attacks by the latter.

"My coaches were really helping me and coaching me to really kill her power hand down to disable her moving, so gripping was a big thing because I knew it was going to be hard to throw her with a big throw, so I just had to work with the gripping and kind of grind it out," Wise said.

Roosevelt junior Macy Higa captured her third OIA title in as many tries. She defeated Kalani's Zoe Tateyama by waza-ari (half point) in their 129-pound final.

After a scoreless regulation, Higa won in walk-off fashion with a left uchimata (inner thigh throw) about 50 seconds into extra time.

"I was just telling myself that I've got to go and that I couldn't let up at all, because if I let up there could be the possibility of getting a (penalty), so I was just trying to attack as much as I can, but at the same time play smart so I wouldn't get caught," Higa said.

As a freshman Higa won at 98 pounds. Last year she claimed the 115-pound title before moving up two weight classes this season — despite being underweight.

"We're trying to get another qualifier for the state tournament, so we had to spread out and there was a lot of people at the lower weights and we talked about it and I was OK bumping up, because I want to do whatever I can to help my team out," Higa said.

It was a rematch of last week's Eastern Division final, which Higa won as a result of Tateyama being unable to continue due to injury. Earlier in the day, Higa outlasted Moanalua's Faith-Joy Okubo in a grueling semifinal bout.

"I feel like every year I had to work as hard, but I don't know, I think this was probably the hardest matches I had physically," Higa said. "Their technique and stuff is all really good, but because I'm playing up, physically they're so much stronger than the lower weights so it was harder on my body and being able to move people and stuff."

Higa's Roosevelt teammate, Xiaolin Mai, finally got to the top of the podium by winning the 103-pound bracket. Mai beat Aiea's Nicolle Nishimura by shido (penalty) in the championship round.

"I was kind of nervous going in there, thinking about how she's going to move and everything because I had to bump up and play 109 (pounds) all the time during the dual meet season," Mai said.

As a freshman two years ago Mai finished sixth at 103 pounds before placing third at 98 last season.

"I'm really happy that I was able to get this win for the team. It's exciting," Mai said.

Pearl City's Jackie Fuamatu won her second individual league title by defeating Kahuku's Cassandra Tongi in the 154-pound final. She won at 172 pounds last season.

The Chargers, who won their 13th OIA team title two weeks ago, had two other champions in 109-pounder Kayla Odo and 172-pounder Michelle Tanuvasa.

Other individual winners were Mililani's Meagan Funasaki (98 pounds), Kalani's Czarina Pineda-Abaya (115), Kahuku's Teniya Alo and Moanalua's Kyrah Hughley (220).

The top eight girls in each weight class qualified for next week's Atlas Insurance Agency/HHSAA Judo State Championships at the Stan Sheriff Center.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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