When an underclassman earns a state wrestling championship, it comes with a little bit more than a shiny medal.

It comes with a target.

All defending titleholders have felt it, from Don Chalmers of Waianae in 1967 to Punahou’s Mindy Chow last year. Just walking into an arena begins a moment of subtle recognition, like the champions move through the gym with icons over their heads in a computer game.

Aiea seniors Sam Higa and Darcie Manning-O’Brien have felt it all season, and will feel it again beginning Friday at the Blaisdell when they arrive to defend their titles. Higa and Manning-O’Brien deal with it in different ways.

"Their personalities are really different," Aiea coach Ason Abe said. "But the light at the tunnel is the same for both. They want to be two-time state champs, they know how hard it is to do it and they have been committed to it from the first day of practice."

Higa embraces it, quick with a smile for anyone who puts eyes on her. Manning-O’Brien couldn’t care less, she has felt it to some degree since she took up the sport her freshman season as a 175-pound tower of power.

"I like feeling all of the attention," Higa said. "I like how I am known — it feels good, but at the same time everyone wants to beat you."

Before the OIA championships last Saturday, the state champs were seated across the ring from each other during introductions before the finals began. Higa spent the time chirping with Mililani’s Quinn Nagatani, smiling and laughing right through introductions before heading to the ready room to try to get angry.

Manning-O’Brien, on the other hand, was content in her own little world. She sat punching the keys on her phone, reserving a polite smile for competitors who tried to engage in small talk but looking like she would rather be anywhere else.

Higa went on to win her match, but Manning-O’Brien lost hers. That makes Higa a top seed and Manning-O’Brien the most dangerous of unseeded wrestlers, a past OIA and state champion with something more to prove.

"That (loss) is gone," Abe said. "She will take the lessons she learned from that loss and learn from them. There is no ‘better luck next year,’ and they both know it. They feel it."

Aiea’s two state champs have styles as different as their personalities. Higa is always on the attack and would keep shooting on a girl all the way into the parking lot if officials didn’t stop her. Manning-O’Brien prefers to stake out a spot in the center of the circle and dare an opponent to move on her. Every wrestler at Aiea has her own style, from the state champs to budding champs like seniors Candice Segi, Lindsay Villarmia and Elizabeth Chong.

"You have to take their talents and show them things that will make them successful," Abe said. "Everybody is different. You can take two twins and they still might have different strengths."

Punahou is favored to get the biggest haul in both divisions, with Chow, Zoe Hernandez and Taira Kaye earning top seeds in the girls competition and Todd Murakawa, Bryan Peralta, Laurent Remillard and Zachary Hernandez seeded first on the boys side. Only Kamehameha’s boys, with Tyson Kuahine, Ikea Ikehara and Dane Pestano, and Mililani’s, with Braydon Akeo and Chase Tantog, have more than one top seed.