It’s tough enough repeating as a state judo champion in Hawaii.
That is, unless you are Joshua Terao. The Mid-Pacific senior completed his mission on Saturday, throwing all four of his opponents to capture his fourth individual title at the HHSAA State Judo Championships at the Stan Sheriff Center.
That makes it eight individual titles in all, counting his four championship gold medals in wrestling. Going back to 2008, when his older brother David was on the judo mat for Mid-Pacific (and Pac-Five), a Terao has won a state judo crown every year since the inception of the state championships.
"There’s discipline and self-control. I went out there and did my job. I know I can cycle through all my attacks. It’s the state tournament, so I have to be a little bit more cautious than usual," said Terao, who won his first state judo title at 108 pounds, and then won the last three at 132. "I still wanted to be aggressive."
Terao was tenacious, winning by ippon against Robert Yamasaki (Pearl City), Aaron Nakama (Kapolei), Randy Mizuno (Kalani) and Chevy Tabiolo Felicilda (Moanalua) in the final.
By taking the 132-pound boys title, he became only the 11th judoka to win four crowns.
"It’s nice to leave a legacy behind as I graduate. It’s going to be a fun memory and a fun historical fact, too," Terao said.
This is how difficult it is just to get close to a feat like this: Of the six defending state champions who competed on Saturday, only Terao and Kamehameha’s Jaclyn Fontanilla managed to win. ‘Iolani’s Jordan Ng, a two-time titlist at 108 pounds, was seeded No. 2 at 114 after winning the ILH. However, he lost to Kapolei’s Andre Pagurayan (wazari) in the quarterfinals. Pagurayan, who placed third in the OIA, reached the final before losing to the fourth seed, ILH champion Weston Kogachi of Punahou (han soku make).
Kekua Marumoto of Kapolei won the 145 class a year ago. He captured the OIA 161 title this spring and was seeded fourth for states. He defeated John Kainoa of Kamehameha (ippon) and Troy Williams of Castle (han soku make) but lost to top-seeded Alan Ikehara of Waiakea (ippon) in the semifinal round.
The difficultly of navigating a repeat championship road was tough on the girls side, too.
Last year’s 109-pound champ, Kaylin Castro of Mililani, was stopped in the final by her nemesis, Chastyne Dolor of Pearl City (shido). Dolor had previously beaten Castro in the OIA final.
Having that proverbial bull’s-eye on your back as a champion is never easy.
"That’s why you never let up. I put my mind to it and I didn’t want to slack off this year, so I kept training to stay on top," Terao said.
Fontanilla is only a sophomore, and with two state titles in just two years, she’s already hearing the talk about a possible four-peat.
"Last year was kind of a shock to me. It was interesting to even get far in this competition because I was a freshman," Fontanilla said. "This year, I wanted to prove it wasn’t a fluke. I wanted to work harder. It’s my team and my coaches, the motivation they gave me to work harder."
The boys team standings were much closer. Kapolei won a tight race, finishing with 57 points. Waiakea (54), Pearl City (52), Moanalua (49), Mid-Pacific (48), Punahou (44), ‘Iolani (40), Kamehameha (33), Mililani (24) and Roosevelt (22) rounded out the top 10.
Pearl City dominated the girls team standings with 104 points. Kamehameha and Moanalua tied for second place with 41 points each, followed by Punahou (40), Aiea (37), Mililani (31), Kalani and Roosevelt (27), Waiakea (19) and Hilo (17) in the top 10.
