Roosevelt girls celebrate after repeating as state champions in judo. The Rough Riders rallied to a one-point win over the Chargers, 68 to 67, in a thrilling finish that came down to the final match of the tournament Saturday. Steve Erler | SL

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MANOA — The Roosevelt girls judo team couldn't keep the emotions from overflowing Saturday night.

It was for good reason.

The Rough Riders rallied to their second straight team title Saturday at the Max Muscle Hawaii/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Girls Judo State Championships at the University of Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center.

Roosevelt edged out runner-up Pearl City by a single point, 68 to 67, in a thrilling, down-to-the wire finish.

It came down to a single match — the final one of the tournament, in fact.

Kaylah Samia, a first-year player, clinched it for her team with her win by ippon (full point) over Kealakehe's Roxie Umu in the 220-pound final.

"I'm so happy," said Samia, who threw Umu for waza-ari (half-point) with a right uchimata (inner thigh throw) and pressed her for another waza-ari and consequent ippon. "We won it last year and I really wanted to win it this year."

Rough Riders' coach Ryan Shimokawa praised Samia for toughing out the victory.

"Kaylah's win was huge. I think she was probably the only one on our team that didn't know it came down to her, but she pulled it out," Shimokawa said. "She works hard, she's super strong, stays after practice to get that extra work in and I think we got fortunate today."

Samia joined 103-pounder Menjam Tamang as individual titlists for the Rough Riders.

Tamang made it back-to-back championships after winning the 98-pound division as a freshman last year. She came back from a yuko (quarter-point) deficit to win by pin against Moanalua's Nicole Shimizu.

"Getting thrown was kind of scary, so I just wanted to make sure I kept on attacking and when I saw the position, I just went in and it worked out well," said Tamang, who improved to 3-0 against Shimizu this season.

Tamang described the moment that Samia won, securing the team title for their team.

"We all just jumped up and started screaming," Tamang said. "I think everybody just started crying because we were so proud of her and even if she won and we didn't win, we were still proud of how she did. She's only a first-year player and she was able to do so well because she works hard and we see how hard she works, so we're really just proud of her."

Roosevelt also got a runner-up finish from Macy Higa at 115 pounds. Haylee Fujioka was third at 109 pounds, Xiaolin Mai and Alex Nelson were fourth at 98 and 109, respectively, Megan Mena turned in a fifth-place finish at 122 and Shea Charles added a sixth-place finish at 172.

"Coming in here, we all wanted to do our best and we knew that there was a chance that we were able to win, but we weren't exactly sure just because in the finals we saw so many other finalists from Pearl City and Moanalua," Tamang said. "We have a few seniors that have been with us for a while, so being their last year, I'm really just glad that we got to win teams again."

Shimokawa said the leadership of Tamang and Higa — both sophomores — and senior Rhea Quezon has been a key factor to his team's success this year.

"I think most of my captains set a culture of always trying to put in the best that you can and kind of tweaking things to be better," Shimokawa said. "Macy, Menjam and Rhea, they always stay after, they look for pointers and it rubs off on the rest of the kids. Probably the last two or three weeks we've seen a lot of kids staying for an extra 20 minutes, half an hour and it showed where the rest of them all placed. I guess the work paid off for them."

Samia affirmed her coach's comments regarding the trio of captains.

"We wouldn't be here without them," she said. "They were such a motivation. They really wanted us to place on the podium and we got it."

Kamehameha's Teshya Alo completed her decorated prep career with a win by ippon in just 12 seconds over Pearl City's Sarah Kaaiakamanu in the 139-pound final for her second state judo title. She also captured four state wrestling crowns and just last month competed in the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials.

Alo's Kamehameha teammate, Jaclyn Fontanilla, was denied a third championship by Kamehameha-Hawaii's Kayla Araki at 154 pounds.

Moanalua had two individual champions in Amanda Higa (98 pounds) and Sienna Ho (122), as did Pearl City with Mikayla Abe (109) and Jackie Fuamatu (172).

Other individual winners were Mililani's Mayu Wise (115 pounds) and McKinley's Risa Higa (129).

Moanalua finished third in the team standings with 59 points, Punahou was fourth 34 points and Kamehameha rounded out the top five with 33 points.