St. Louis finishes strong to finish off other contenders
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
The St. Louis School wrestling team used strength in numbers — and strength in its strength — to win its second consecutive state championship last night at Blaisdell Arena.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Crusaders entered the finals with the slimmest of leads, 136.5 points to 135 for Kamehameha and 130 for Iolani. But St. Louis got individual titles from Ben Wilmore at 112 pounds and Jonathan Spiker at 145, to go along with runner-up placings by Chris Sokugawa (189) and Prince Brown (215).
Iolani's Brent Kakesako has King Kekaulike's Ryan Porter all tied up during the 125-pound semifinal. Kakesako won to advance to the final, where he beat Emile Suehiro of McKinley, 4-3.
Added to a third-place finish from Raymond Peabody at 119, a fourth from Sam Kaneshiro at 130 and fifth-place finishes by C.J. Peabody (135) and Kai Kwon (171), the Crusaders ended up with 154.5 points, outdistancing Kamehameha (144) and Iolani (143).
"I've been coaching for about 20 years, and I don't think I've seen it that close between three teams," St. Louis coach Todd Los Banos said. "We had some great finals matches, so it was exciting for the fans."
The team title was fought out between three private schools, but four public school boys threatened to play spoilers.
Mililani had only two wrestlers in the finals, but both scored big upsets. At 130 pounds, the Trojans' Justin Kawamata rallied for a stunning 14-6 victory over Iolani's Owen Yonehara. Kawamata had upset No. 1 seed Ryan Wong of Kamehameha in Friday's quarterfinals.
At 140, Mililani's Jamie Ke'ehu handed Kamehameha's Christian Kikuchi his first loss of the season, 14-3. At 135, McKinley's Rene Suehiro defeated No. 1 seed Kyle Muraoka of Iolani, 6-3.
And at 215, Moloka'i High School's Justin Luafalemana shocked defending state champion Brown of St. Louis, 3-2.
Iolani scored an upset of its own at 119, with Jared Wakayama defeating No. 1 seed Nick Galloway of Waiakea, 6-4. Iolani also won titles at 125 (Brent Kakesako) and 171 (Robert Yamashita). Kakesako edged McKinley's Emile Suehiro, 4-3, and Yamashita defeated Waiakea's Marcus Busch, 14-5.
The victories at 119 and 125 put Iolani into position to make a major move, especially with Raiders in the 130 and 135 finals. But the Iolani wrestlers lost in the latter two matches.
"We gave ourselves a shot," Raiders coach Yoshi Honda said. "But (the Crusaders) have too many athletes over there."
The best is Spiker, who became only the second wrestler in Hawai'i history to win state titles as a freshman, sophomore and junior. Spiker pinned Punahou's Kevin Takasaki in 4:51. His feat matches that of Iolani's Patrick Higa, who won four state titles from 1983-86.
Fittingly, St. Louis clinched the team title after Spiker's victory and Kwon's win in the fifth-place match, which was going on simultaneously.
Correction: The 215-pound boys champion is Justin Luafalemana of Moloka'i High School. He was named as a member of another team in a previous version of this story.
