‘Iolani’s KJ Pascua etched his name into wrestling lore on Thursday at the ILH wrestling championships at Kekuhaupio Gym.
While host Kamehameha became the first school to sweep the boys and girls team titles since Punahou in 2012, Pascua became just the eighth boys wrestler to win four straight ILH titles in the past 20 years.
Pascua pinned Kamehameha’s Chasyn Aipoalani in the second period at 170 pounds to win his fourth title in a fourth different weight class.
He’s the first wrestler in ‘Iolani’s rich history to win four league titles since Patrick Higa from 1983 to ’86 and joins a list of grapplers that includes Saint Louis’ Gerald Welch, Travis Lee, Brandon Low and Jonathan Spiker and Mid-Pacific’s Josh Terao.
“It means a lot, but it’s really just about gauging my progress and I think I’ve gotten a lot better over the last year,” said Pascua, who is ranked No. 2 in Hawaii Prep World’s pound-for-pound rankings. “It kind of shows how much I’ve been training and it’s what I wanted to accomplish.”
Pascua was one of five ‘Iolani wrestlers to win their weight class at the tournament, but the Raiders didn’t have the numbers to match up with Kamehameha.
The Warriors entered 13 wrestlers into the boys’ bracket and 12 of them made a final.
Freshman Kysen Terukina followed up his win at the Officials Tournament with a win at 113 pounds when his opponent had to forfeit in the final.
Other Kamehameha winners were Matthew Perez at 132 pounds, Amir Mirza at 195 pounds and Brock Ai at 220 pounds.
Mirza won a close match by decision, 5-3, over ‘Iolani’s Saiaga Fautanu, who was the top seed.
Saint Louis senior Corey Cabanban, ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound, won his third consecutive ILH title in his only match of the tournament, a 17-2 technical fall over ‘Iolani’s Noah Brigoli, in the final.
The girls race was much tighter, with the Warriors holding off Pac-Five by 13.5 points.
Kamehameha won its fourth consecutive ILH girls title with five individual winners.
Senior Zion-Grace Vierra, who has wrestled on all four title-winning teams, defeated Sacred Hearts’ Lainey Sanborn 7-1 in a rematch of the final at Officials also won by Vierra.
“I could have done more and expanded on my moves and techniques, but I basically stuck to one basic move,” Vierra said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be as hard, but she gave me a hard match.” Second-seeded Brooke Kawamura gave Kamehameha some key points when she upset top seed Bailey Hoshino of Punahou at 102 pounds. Kawamura won a 3-0 decision against Hoshino, who was going for her third ILH title. Punahou’s Taryn Ichimura secured her third ILH crown with a win at 117 pounds.
Kamehameha’s other winners were Ashley Gooman at 107 pounds, Paige Respicio at 127 pounds and Anela Kahuli-Apo at 184.
“Our team is like a family and that’s why I think it motivates me and it motivates others to do well,” Vierra said. “Coming to practice every day, we don’t play around, we go live and we push ourselves to go beyond what is asked of us.”
Gooman, who won by technical fall 17-1 in the final, is the only ILH wrestler in the HPW pound-for-pound rankings at No. 9.