MANOA — The big story out of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Judo State Championships Saturday was Josh Terao completing an unprecedented run of eight individual championships between wrestling and judo, but for a handful of other judoka it was about making the most of a second chance.

Of the 20 individual state champions crowned at the Stan Sheriff Center Saturday, five were runners-up from a year ago.

That group included Mililani senior Dayton Furuta, who beat Pearl City's Jackson Fuamatu by han soku make (disqualification) in the boys' 220-pound title bout. It was a long-awaited moment for Furuta, a three-sport star headed to the University of Hawaii to play football in January of 2015.

"I wanted to finish with a bang," Furuta said. "I wanted to win a state championship for my dad and my family."

Furuta was happy to put an end to a streak of second-place finishes. In addition to judo last year, Furuta placed second at wrestling in February. Whatsmore, he has been a member of four state runner-up teams (judo twice, wrestling and football once each).

"The past three state tournaments I've been in, I was always runner-up, so it felt good to finish in first place," Furuta said. "It's a great feeling, knowing that all the hard work paid off after four years and I finally came out on top."

One of Furuta's Mililani teammates, junior Haylie Shinsato, also experienced the feeling of coming so close and falling short. After losing to Roosevelt's Kristen Kojima in the state final a year ago and again at the Oahu Interscholastic Association individual championships two weeks ago, Shinsato upset the top-seeded Kojima to win the girls' 115-pound bracket Saturday.

"It's like the best feeling in the world because that was like my revenge from last year — only lasting six seconds — and then coming back and winning, it was really sweet." Shinsato said. "I went back after every loss and I trained and I practiced. Even after practice I would just keep on training and working on it and I guess it paid off."

For Waiakea senior Skye Matsuura, it may not have been the opponent she expected to see in the girls' 129-pound title match, but the result — and subsequent feeling of gratification — was all the same. After losing to Kamehameha phenom Teshya Alo in the state title match last year, Matsuura got her turn at the top of the podium after throwing Pearl City's Netanya Kang just six seconds into their girls' 129-pound final.

"I wanted this so bad and I trained so hard for it, so it couldn't end better," Matsuura said.

Two others — Punahou's Cameron Kato and Campbell's Cole Kido — also improved upon runners-up finishes from a year ago. Kato beat Kapolei's Jason Pagurayan by han soku make to win at 108 pounds — where he also competed last year — and Kido moved up to 121 this year after placing in the 114-weight class in 2013.