Kamehameha's Teshya Alo is the top seed in the girls 132 pound division and is seeking her fourth state title. Steve Erler | Special to SL

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Two years ago Kamehameha won its first girls state crown. Last year it was Lahainaluna to achieve the feat.

This year it figures to once again come down to the Warriors and Lunas when the prep wrestling season comes to a close at this weekend's Chevron Hawaii/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships.

The two-day tournament gets underway Friday morning at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena.

By most accounts, Kamehameha appears to be a slight favorite in the team competition, but Lahainaluna is not far behind.

The Warriors have a tournament-best 14 wrestlers entered — one in each weight class. Nine of them are Interscholastic League of Honolulu titlists and are among the top four seeds in their bracket — five of them are No. 1 seeds this week.

"It's nice to have that kind of seeding with the number of seeds but wrestling is a sport where you have to earn it," Kamehameha coach Bill Venenciano said. "My take is to not look into the numbers, try to keep them underwhelmed and not get ahead of ourselves."

Perhaps no wrestler is as decorated as senior Teshya Alo, who will try for her fourth individual title this weekend. Alo already has a prestigious FILA Cadet World Championship to her name was selected as High School Wrestler of the Year by ASICS last July — the first boy or girl from Hawaii to do so.

"Just being able to watch her possibly get her fourth title and maybe move on to bigger and better things, that's kind of exciting to see," Punahou coach Yoshi Honda said. "Hawaii was one of the first states that brought in girls wrestling and wow, to give a girl like that an opportunity ... I'm happy to see that the sport has done that, so good for her."

Alo won her first two state titles at 130 pounds before moving up to 132 last year. She is the top seed in the same weight class this week.

"I think with Teshya's experience and the years of experience behind most of the seniors we feel comfortable, but a lot can happen so we're just trying to take the time to put in the preparation for whatever may come," Venenciano said.

In addition to Alo, the Warriors have four others pegged as No. 1 seeds in Ashley Gooman (102 pounds), Zion Vierra (127), Callan Medeiros (168) and Leilani Camargo Naone (184). Medeiros is looking for her second straight title.

"I know how tough Kamehameha is going to be to beat," Lahainaluna coach Todd Hayase said. "They've got a senior-laden team and they've got a couple of their wrestlers that didn't wrestle last year that are back so they're pretty deep."

Ten of the Lunas' 12 participants are seeded in their brackets, including four No. 1 seeds.

The headliner of the bunch is heavyweight Lalelei Mataafa, who has gone undefeated in her prep career and has won the 220-pound division each of the last three years.

Also drawing top seeds for Lahainaluna are Iverly Navarro (107 pounds), Alexis Encinas (112) and Kaile Kron (117). Encinas won at 107 last year before moving up a weight class.

"What I'm hoping for for our team is that not just our No. 1 seeds do well, but we also have four freshmen that we have high hopes for so we'll see how they step up throughout the state competition," Hayase said. "So far they have; They've wrestled real well. We went to four (preseason) tournaments in December so they all know what the competition is like."

Other teams expected to contend are Pearl City, Campbell and Roosevelt.

"I think Lahainaluna and Roosevelt have a shot," Honda said. "Roosevelt has a handful of girls that they can put in the finals, but top to bottom, Kamehameha is still the team to beat."

Individually, Punahou's Bailey Hoshino (97 pounds), Iolani's Teniya Alo (122) and Pearl City's Asia Lien Evans (127) will be seeking back-to-back championships.

Two others — Campbell's Kalissa Pundyke and Kamehameha's Donavyn Futa — won state titles as freshmen in 2014. Pundyke won at 101 pounds before finishing second at 102 last year and is unseeded at 112 this week. Futa claimed the 113-pound division two years ago but did not wrestle last season. She is the third seed at 117 pounds.

Matches begin at 10 a.m. Friday. Saturday's championship finals are expected to begin around 4:30 p.m.