‘Iolani’s Ng rallies to capture his fourth league title

Jordan Ng did it.

The ‘Iolani judo captain defeated Ian Matsumoto of Mid-Pacific to capture the 121-pound title in the ILH judo championships Friday night at Punahou’s Hemmeter Fieldhouse.

The victory gave Ng his fourth league title, joining Maryknoll’s Brandan Chang, Kamehameha’s Dane Pestano and Mid-Pacific’s David and Josh Terao.

Ng will be going for his third crown in the upcoming state championships.

Matsumoto caught Ng by surprise 14 seconds into the scheduled four-minute match with a hip throw for a 1-0 lead.

But Ng recovered.

"I kept my composure after that," he said. "He caught me off guard. I knew I still needed to score points to win the match."

Just 32 seconds later, Ng tied it up 1-1 with a throw of his own, and then 51 seconds after that he ended it with a seo nagi.

Ng was concentrating so much on his opponent that he nearly forgot about his four titles.

"I’m happy, I guess," he said. "I wasn’t thinking about that (four titles).

"All of my opponents (in the earlier rounds) were tough and I need to get through them. I knew he (Ian) was a tough guy, too. He had good hips."

‘Iolani coach Dan Nishita was proud of his student: "He has been a captain for us for two years. He was also a captain in wrestling. He’s a good kid, a strong student and he has drive. He’s been with our program since the seventh grade."

Kamehameha’s Jaclyn Fontanilla won her third ILH championship later Friday night in the 154-pound class against Tara Labanon of Damien.

Teshya Alo of Kamehameha, a three-time wrestling state champ, won her second ILH judo championship in a 139-pound match against Wisdom Matsuzaki of Punahou.