By the second day I was rooting for team OIA (Kapolei) over Team ILH. Kap has a good group of upper weights led by Brycen, and they are all good kids. Hard to root against their success. Both Kapolei and Kam graduate a lot of points (very senior heavy teams), so i'm curious who they have on the bench. Kam seems to be on a slow and steady decline, and this group is the last of Coach Rob Hesia's. The rest of the top 5, Mililani, Saint Louis, and Moanalua seem to have very young teams. Team race seems to be wide open with no clear favorite next year.talloola25 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 5:09 pm That was a fun couple of days. I'm glad the finals were able to be televised. Looking forward to rewatching a couple. A tight team race up until the finals for the boys and a dominating performance by the Moanalua girls.
Even though it was one sided, I thoroughly enjoyed the 170 finals. I always enjoy "revenge" match stories. Also happened at 145 and 152. Was hoping 106, 182 and 195 would play out that way as well, with them avenging their only season losses. Opponents proved too much for them though.
At 113 and 113 I didn't really see a route to victory for either of the runner ups. 126,132, 138, and 285 I thought were in the balance and could go either way. I was excited to see how the 160 final would go down and it didn't disappoint.
Which finals or other matches got you excited? Most outstanding wrestler? Boys and girls side?
Moanalua absolutely dominated the girls. Nothing to really talk about here. In fact every time I see Moanalua in the finals, boys or girls, I assume they will probably win. That's what they do -Bo.
At 170, giving Brycen some extra motivation early in the season was probably not the best thing to do... Only thing that could've beat him this year is injuries or boredom.
145, I don't like how that match went down. Kaihi wrestled that entire match like he was concussed. A slam like that is worth a lot more then 1 point.
152, was probably the most skilled match. These guys make Hawaii wrestling proud.
120, what happened to Joseph Latewood? I assume he moved due to military? Logan Lau seems like he only has one move and two periods in him. A school like Kapolei could've easily game planed for him if they had a guy.
195 was a lot closer then I thought.
126, Sekulich definitely earned this one. Had the toughest tournament of all the state champs.
138, Tyger had 5 mins of riding time in a 6 minute match.... It seems ridiculous that score was only 4-2.
285, Scotty won but I am almost more impressed with Lauifi. What HWT does a slide by to Osoto?
106, 113, hopefully Hunter and Evan meet next year. I'm always skeptical of the lightweights continued success as they grow.
182, 220 were pretty much expected.
Tyger Taam is definitely my pick #1 P4P. Although it is a little unfair to Dikilato because he doesn't have a higher weight class to wrestle at.