WAHIAWA -- The Punahou boys and Pearl City girls claimed the team titles at the Hawaii Wrestling Officials Association Scholarship Tournament Saturday at Leilehua's Paul T. Kobayashi Gymnasium.

The Buffanblu ran away with the boys competition, finishing atop seven weight classes. Punahou, which had 16 individual place finishers, amassed 312 1/2 points, while runner-up Kamehameha was well behind with 214 1/2 points. Pearl City was next with 172 points, Lahainaluna fourth with 139 1/2 and Pac-Five fifth with 103 1/2.

Punahou wrestlers won at 120 pounds (Evan Yamamoto), 125 (Bryant Fukushima), 130 (Todd Murakawa), 152 (Bryan Peralta), 160 (LJ Remillard), 189 (Zachary Hernandez) and 215 (OJ Haugen), but perhaps the most entertaining final was between Pearl City's Ray Cooper and Punahou's Patrick Sheehan at 171 pounds.

Cooper opened the scoring with a first-period takedown and led 2-0. Sheehan picked up a point after a stalling penalty against Cooper and trailed 2-1 after the second period.
Cooper, working from the bottom position in the third period, managed an escape early in the final period and held on for the 3-1 win.

"(Sheehan) is such a strong, talented wrestler and Punahou always has great technical wrestling, so I knew this would be a tough match," said Cooper, who won the state title at 160 pounds last year. "We were both tired, but even after I went ahead, I tried to keep attacking him."

It was the second time the wrestlers have met this season. Sheehan, who won a state title in 2009 at 171, beat Cooper in a preseason tournament at Aiea several weeks ago.

"He beat me earlier, so I really wanted to win this one," Cooper said. "I trained hard for this."

While Cooper celebrated his individual victory, his Pearl City teammates celebrated a girls' team title. The Chargers, despite having just one titlist, beat out two-time defending state champion Punahou, 140 points to 126. Pearl City placed a tournament-high eight girls, while the Buffanblu had seven medalists, including three first-place finishes.

Nicole Taniguchi was one of those individual champions for the Buffanblu Saturday. She overcame an inadvertent blow to her head in the 108-pound final against Pac-Five's Quinn Nagatani to win by pin fall.

The match was suspended momentarily in the first period after Nagatani slammed into Taniguchi, who had stumbled while defending a shot attempt.

"Her forehead hit my head, right between my eyes," said Taniguchi, who strained a neck muscle as a result. "I don't really remember exactly how it happened, but I fell down after. I was dazed for a little bit."

Following the stoppage, Nagatani remained aggressive, but put herself in a bad spot and Taniguchi capitalized, ending the match one minute, 22 seconds into the first period with a pin. The two wrestlers also met in the championship round of the Pa'ani Challenge, hosted earlier this month by the Buffanblu, which Taniguchi also won.

Campbell's girls placed third with 90 1/2 points while Aiea, Maui and Mililani tied for fourth with 73 1/2.

This was the 10th straight year that the HWOA has put on the event, which is widely regarded as the top preseason tournament in the state. Head official Stan Ono said he expects proceeds from this year's tournament to be around $5,000, which will be dispersed in scholarships to team scorekeepers and managers.

"This started back with some officials who are no longer with the association, but wanted to reward the scorekeepers and managers because wrestlers can earn scholarships, but they cannot," Ono said. "They felt it was important to recognize these people because as officials, we rely heavily on them while we're on the mat."

Ono said the tournament has given out over $25,000 in scholarships over the years.
"We will probably give out three or four $1,000 scholarships this year," Ono said. "The other $1,000 we keep to cover the costs of the awards."

The top six finishers in each of the 25 weight classes (14 boys and 11 girls) received a plaque while the boys' and girls' team champions were given trophies. Nearly 500 wrestlers competed in over 900 matches in the two-day tournament.

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