CJ Caraang | SL

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WAHIAWA — Returning state champions found the going pretty tough at this weekend's Hawaii Wrestling Officials Association Scholarship Tournament.

Four of them — Punahou's Bailey Hoshino (97 pounds), Lahainaluna's Alexis Encinas (112), Pearl City's Asia Evans (127) and Kamehameha's Callan Medeiros (168) — reached the championship round of the two-day tournament, but Encinas was the only one to have her hand raised at the end of the night.

Encinas, who moved up a weight class after winning the 107-pound state title last year, defeated Punahou's Taryn Ichimura, 8-7, Saturday night.

Roosevelt's Menjam Tamang got things started with a bang in the 97-pound final, upsetting Hoshino by a score of 4-2 in overtime.

Tamang, a sophomore who placed third at states last season, did not compete in the HWOA tournament last year due to a prior commitment.

"I wouldn't say I expected myself to win, (but) you just wrestle hard and not exactly hope for the best — you want to win — but I didn't come in here expecting myself to win because I know she's a good wrestler as well," said Tamang, who only picked up the sport in high school.

It was a rematch of a quarterfinal-round bout in last year's state tournament, which was won by Hoshino, 4-2.

"From that match I learned that I've just got to wrestle to my full potential and just wrestle to the whistle and try not to give up anything and just fight for yourself, fight for your team and fight for the people who are here to support you," Tamang said.

Saturday's match got off to a slow start. Neither wrestler managed any points in the first period, but both drew a stalling warning.

Hoshino started the second period from the bottom position and scored the first points of the match on a reversal near the midpoint of the two-minute period.

Tamang said entering the third period trailing 2-0 forced her to refocus.

"It's a lot of pressure when you're down even by just two points, because two points is a lot," Tamang said. "You can lose by just that little bit and you think ‘If I had done this, if I had done that,' so you just gotta persevere and fight hard."

Tamang got an escape about 20 seconds into the third period to make it a one-point deficit.

"I was thinking reversal at first because its one more point and it would have tied it up, but I got the escape," Tamang said.

A second stalling violation against Hoshino resulted in one point awarded to Tamang and tied the match with just 24 seconds left — unbeknownst to Tamang.

"I didn't even realize what was going on until later and I didn't even realize that we were going into overtime," Tamang said. "I thought I had lost, but then I realized that the score was 2-2 and we were going into overtime and I had another chance."

The wrestlers started the one-minute, sudden death fourth period in the neutral position. Tamang secured the win with a takedown about 45 seconds into extra time.

Although Tamang described the final period as "a kind of a blur," she hopes to parlay the tournament title toward the rest of her season.

"Because I got to wrestle other people in my weight class, I got to know what the competition was like and I got to know how my opponents wrestle and now I know what I need to work on and what works, what doesn't work," said Tamang, who won an individual state judo championship and helped the Rough Riders claim their first-ever team title in the sport last Spring. "Even though not everybody from my weight class wrestled, I can kind of speculate the moves I can use and what not."

Evans and Medeiros competed at the same weight classes they won states at last year. Evans lost to Kamehameha's Zion Vierra, 6-4, while Medeiros fell to Baldwin's Sadie Kala, 10-8, Saturday.

Despite being without its top wrestler in three-time state champion Teshya Alo — who won gold at 58 kg. in the U.S. Senior Nationals in Las Vegas just a few days prior — Kamehameha cruised to the girls' team title.

The Warriors had 166 points to hold off defending state champion Lahainaluna, which finished with 137 1/2 points.

In addition to Vierra, Ashley Gooman (102 pounds), Pomaikai Yamaguchi (132) and Jaclyn Fontanilla (155) also won for Kamehameha, which saw four other wrestlers place in the top six of their respective weight classes.

Roosevelt scored 117 points to finish third, Pearl City was fourth with 116 points and Kapolei fifth with 81 points.