Punahou emerged as the boys front-runner heading into Saturday’s Chevron/HHSAA Wrestling State Championships.
On the girls side, Kamehameha and Lahainaluna are tied for first place with 88 points after Friday’s quarterfinals at the Blaisdell Arena.
"It’s not about a few wrestlers winning individual state championships," said Lahainaluna head coach Todd Hayase, whose boys team is in second place and trails Punahou by 11.5 points. "It takes everybody to win the team state championships."
The Lunas’ Carly Jaramillo, who is going for her third individual state title after making it through the 138-pound quarters, said, "I have a positive attitude that we’re going to win the team championship."
Jaramillo is one of five top-seeded Lahainaluna girls who made it through to the semis. Teammate Lalelei Mataafa (225-pound class) is also going for a third state crown.
Added Hayase: "We got second place last year (in both boys and girls). We’re sick of second place."
Leilani Camargo-Naone, the 184-pound top seed, leads Kamehameha.
Two No. 1 seeds fell on the girls side in the quarterfinals. Waianae’s Ilysia Sharai Sana took out top-seeded Iverly Navarro of the Lunas in Girls 102, and Nanakuli’s Tyzandria Wells knocked off No. 1 Taj-Destiny Vierra of Kamehameha in Girls 155.
Wells met her match in Cendall Manley of Molokai, who stopped Wells in the quarters.
"I didn’t really believe in myself before states," Manley said. "I still can’t believe I beat her."
Sana was also shocked that she beat Navarro, 7-6. "In the beginning, I felt like I was going to lose," she said.
Top-seeded Joshua Crimmins gave the Punahou boys a grand day of wrestling in the 138-pound class. In the first round, he defeated Mililani’s Zack Diamond — who was the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s top pound-for-pound boys wrestler most of the season before hurting his knee and losing at the OIA championships.
Then, Crimmins scored an escape to beat Alika Kalilikane Delos Reyes of Baldwin 1-0 in the quarterfinals.
"You have to seize your opportunities against high-level opponents," Crimmins said. "That was my opportunity, an escape and it was worth one point and it won the match."
Three boys top seeds fell in the quarterfinals — ‘Iolani’s Kaysen Takenaka pinned top-seeded Joshua Roy Gallarde of Campbell at 132 pounds; Kaiser’s Jordyn Kannys got past No. 1 Cameron Kato of Punahou, who reinjured a knee in the 113-pound class and ran out of injury time; and Campbell’s Matthew Aguigui defeated top-seeded Tyler Yoshikawa of Mid-Pacific at 160 pounds.
Punahou coach Yoshi Honda isn’t letting a first-day lead cloud how important the second day is. He knows Lahainaluna can make up the 11.5-point advantage quickly.
"We wrestled well today," Honda said. "Crimmins looked good. He did his job. He took care of his No. 1 seed. Joshua Rosen (a quarterfinal winner over Mililani’s Isaac Diamond, who kept going despite his shoulder popping out) wrestled a great match. I’m so happy for him that he made the semifinals.
"We’re going to try (for the school’s ninth boys team title)," he added. "Lahainaluna is really good and they’ve got a lot of kids."