Kysen Terukina and Corey Cabanban dominated high school wrestling in Hawaii, combining to finish No. 1 in Hawaii Prep World’s pound-for-pound rankings for four straight years from 2017 to ’20.
The hypothetical “what if” question should the two ever wrestle is now being answered on a daily basis competing in the same weight class for Iowa State.
Those daily practice battles were elevated to the main stage 11 days ago when the two knocked off nationally ranked wrestlers to reach the 125-pound final of the Daktronics Open in Brookings, S.D.
Terukina, a 2020 Kamehameha alumnus, beat the 17th-ranked wrestler in the division from Nebraska, while Cabanban, a 2018 Saint Louis graduate, knocked off the No. 6 guy from Northern Iowa to reach the final.
“It’s something I never thought was going to happen for the same school,” Terukina said. “We both make it through the tournament and then meet in the finals as the two top dogs — that’s something I never thought was going to happen so quickly.”
The final came down to the very end, with Terukina scoring a takedown with five seconds to go to pull out the decision.
“There’s nothing better than to have two Hawaii kids here and bettering each other and competing against each other,” Cabanban said. “We grew up wrestling together our whole life, so we know each other’s style — it’s literally like a chess match.”
Cabanban grew up wrestling Terukina’s older brothers and Kysen’s father, Darryl, was their club coach.
Both of them pulled off the high school slam, winning four state titles, before coming together in college at Iowa State.
Cabanban, a redshirt junior, wrestled once last season after going 15-10 as a sophomore and 23-7 wrestling unattached as a freshman.
Cabanban said he made the most of his time back over the summer to refocus for this upcoming season.
“I think I needed to go back home and be back with some family and refocus my mind and find my love for the sport again,” Cabanban said. “Once I got back here everything was falling into place when I needed it to be. I was pretty confident in my training because I’ve been pretty focused and I want to go out and show what I have to offer.”
In the first dual matches of the season last weekend, Terukina got the nod at 125 against Army and won a 12-3 majority decision.
Cabanban was selected to wrestle at 125 against California Baptist and won 2-0.
The competition wrestling in the same division hasn’t affected their friendship, according to both.
“Of course it’s in your head that it’s your really good friend you’re wrestling, but at the end of the day, you know what’s on the line, and it’s a starting spot, and you don’t want to lose that,” Terukina said. “Especially when you know if you take it easy against him you’re going to lose.”
Terukina graduated from Kamehameha during the COVID-19 pandemic and began his college wrestling career wrestling in a barn about 20 minutes off campus because the school’s facilities weren’t available.
With each wrestler getting an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, all of the incoming freshmen were allowed to compete for starting spots instead of redshirting.
Terukina beat enough of his teammates to earn the starting spot at 125 pounds and went on to qualify for the NCAA championships as a true freshman.
“I mean, I always wish I could do better, but I was definitely not expecting to wrestle in the NCAAs,” Terukina said. “I was planning on redshirting that year. I shocked myself how I was able to compete with so many good wrestlers so quickly.”
The Cyclones have two duals and a tournament later this month before a two-week break to end the year.
They’ll return in 2022 for a home dual match before taking a much-needed road trip our West beginning in Tempe, Ariz., giving Terukina a chance to get out of the cold.
“Yeah, (the snow) was cool for like a week and then after that I was like, ‘I gotta go home or this snow has to go,’ ” he said.
COREY CABANBAN
>> School: Iowa State
>>Class: Junior (redshirt)
>>Weight class: 125 pounds
>>High school: Saint Louis (2018) Kysen Terukina
>> School: Iowa State
>> Class: Sophomore
>> Weight class: 125 pounds
>> High school: Kamehameha (2020)
