Kamehameha’s Ashley Gooman pursuing a third state wrestling title

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Kamehameha Schools wrestler Ashley Gooman.

One piece will always be missing from Ashley Gooman’s wrestling resume.

After achieving state championships in her first two years at Kamehameha, Gooman came up short as a junior last spring and it ended her goal of completing that rare four-year slam.

But all is not lost for the affable 18-year-old. She’s back for a try at a third state title, and this time, the leading challengers in the 122-pound class are not likely to be supernovas in the sport like Kaiser’s Tiare Ikei was about to become not long after her 4-1 victory over Gooman in last year’s final.

“I think about that (the loss and missed opportunity) all the time,” Gooman said at a Warriors practice last Wednesday. “Since I was little, winning four was a goal of mine. Now I just gotta look ahead and focus on the now.”

Two years earlier, when they were both freshmen, it was Gooman who beat Ikei for what was Gooman’s first state title. Nowadays, Ikei is training with Team USA in Colorado and making room in her case for international championship trophies she won in Guatemala and Austria.

“She came into this senior year very motivated,” Kamehameha coach Rob Hesia said about Gooman. “She would have been motivated anyway, but because of that loss, it’s just a bit extra. She was close to getting four. She really wants to close out with three.”

That opportunity presents itself at the Texaco/HHSAA State Wrestling Championships on Wednesday and Thursday at Blaisdell Arena.

Gooman plans to wrestle in college and is actively looking for the best fit. But wrestling is not her only passion.

“She’s super into music,” Hesia said. “Some of the kids told me that I just had to hear Ashley sing. I had never heard her. When I did, holy smokes. She’s really good. You can tell she sings how she wrestles, and puts a lot of effort and thought into it. I think that’s a really impressive thing. I’ll never forget about her. I don’t have many other wrestlers with that skill set, singing and wrestling.”

Gooman prefers the acoustic guitar, local music and R&B.

“I started playing guitar around the time I started wrestling, age 8 or 9,” she said. “My auntie taught me a few chords, but then I put it down because of wrestling. Recently, I got more into it. I play at grad parties and for my family. This is the first year I’ve entered (talent show) competition. That’s fun.”

Music also helps her relax after the physical grind of wrestling.

On the mat, Gooman is a supreme technician, according to Hesia.

“She’s worked very hard at the skill of wrestling,” he said. “She does things on point. She is one of the best wrestlers technique-wise I’ve coached, boy or girl.”

Said Gooman: “My strengths are perfecting shots, setups and takedowns, and my weakness is that I’m not the (physically) strongest, but I feel that’s something that makes me different. It is something I would like to improve on, because I don’t really lift at all. I’d rather be in the wrestling room than lift.”

Gooman admits that Ikei “overpowered” her last year and realizes that lifting is something that might be required when she moves up to a higher level.

When she was in intermediate school, Gooman was on the basketball team with the same Kamehameha players who lost 52-49 to ‘Iolani in the Division I state championship game recently, and she is great friends with Kalina Obrey, the girl who hit a 3 at the buzzer that ended up not counting.

“It was just so sad,” Gooman said. “They played their hearts out.”

Gooman gets a special kick out of defeating boy wrestlers.

“It’s a coed practice room, and when we go live sometimes me and my partner go to the boys side,” she said. “At first they would say, ‘She’s just a girl, so why do we need to wrestle them.’ They thought it wasn’t going to benefit them and we ended up beating them up. I think that’s my favorite, when they call you ‘just a girl.’ Yeah, just a girl and then I take them down and it’s so funny.”

Hesia recalls when he meet Gooman: “Here’s this basketball player I knew nothing about. She comes out a month into practice, fresh from basketball and she is ripping into whoever she is ripping into — ripping into boys — and doing it with a smile on her face and having a good time. I was blown away.”

Gooman’s brother Brock, who is a sophomore wrestler at Campbell, knows that drill.

“He actually started wrestling first,” she said. “It was so rewarding to beat him, but then he got older.”

Gooman, the Star-Advertiser’s No. 2 pound-for-pound girls wrestler, broke into a big laugh when she added, “I can still beat him, but it’s off and on. When I do, he tries to muscle me at that point.”

Kysen Terukina of the Warriors, who is the No. 1 pound-for-pound boys wrestler, is one of many in Gooman’s wrestling orbit who help her along the way.

“Kysen gives me confidence,” she said. “We’re really close, like family. I’m not the best at self-confidence. If he believes in me, then it’s like, ‘OK, if he knows I’ve got it, then I’ve got it because he’s incredibly smart when it comes to wrestling.’ ”

ASHLEY GOOMAN

>> School: Kamehameha

>> Sport: Wrestling

>> Grade: Senior

>> Accomplishments: Four-time ILH champion; two-time state champion; national champion at 2016 tournament in Reno, Nev.

>> Other activities: singing, guitar, student government, Key Club, Christian worship team

>> Favorite subject: “It used to be math and then it was science and now it’s music.”