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Lahainaluna wrestling assistant coach Zane Monteleone was a bit of a co-conspirator as well as an unwitting participant in Nanea Estrella’s postmatch celebration Saturday in front of thousands at Blaisdell Arena.
“We always talk about doing something (to show camaraderie) after the match,” Monteleone said. “I don’t really know exactly what’s coming and I didn’t think it was going to be that fast.”
He kind of knew that she was going to pull a wrestling move on him, but that’s it. Well, what he got was a blast double leg and Monteleone hit the mat hard.
“She jumped straight in,” he said. “I thought she was coming in for a hug and she dropped her head and ran into it.”
Boom, just like that, flat on his back, all 6 foot 3, 210 pounds of him. But that was just the icing on a much bigger cake. Estrella had just wrapped up her fourth career title in the Texaco/HHSAA Wrestling State Championships with a pin at 1:39 of the 132-pound final against Kamehameha’s Skye Realin.
Estrella, who finishes the season as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s No. 1 pound-for-pound wrestler, will compete for Menlo College next season.
“It’s pretty special,” Lunas coach Todd Hayase said Tuesday afternoon by cell phone. “You hear all the great quotes about great athletes. I was just watching a memorial about Kobe Bryant last night and those same characteristics come in when you talk about Nanea — her being very confident, a hard worker, someone who is headstrong, who loves competition. And that’s an incredible thing. Some run away from competition, but she’s not afraid of it and she’s not afraid to lose, which is a pretty special quality. She’ll take her week, week and a half off and then I’m sure she’ll be focusing on nationals in Fargo (N.D.) and college.”
Three girls moved into the Top 10 for the first time this season — Lahainaluna’s Shannon Jaramillo (No. 8 p4p), Waianae’s Tiare Carlson (No. 9) and Kalani’s Emily Paulino (No. 10) — after winning in Saturday’s finals. They replaced three who dropped out after finals losses — two-time state champs Tangiteina Niutupuivaha of Kahuku and Jahnea Miguel of Baldwin, and Campbell’s Alizeih Villalpando, who won her only state championship a year ago.
For Jaramillo, it was a second straight rise to the top of the 184-pound statewide class.
Nos. 2 through 7 in the final top 10 have 11 state titles among them. All of them won on Saturday, except two-time state titlist Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp (No. 3) of Baldwin, who lost to No. 2 Paige Respicio (a three-time state champ) of Kamehameha.
Castle’s Sadie Antoque (No. 5) and Baldwin’s Shayna Kamaka (No. 6) wrapped up second state championships, and Moanalua’s Lana Perez (No. 4) and Erin Hikiji (No. 7) got the top of their state divisions for the first time.
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