KAPAA — Take four schools, mix up the students and form two teams. That’s what happened Saturday during the wrestling tournament. Illness and injury made the sport’s coaches improvise, which they did by making two teams out of all the
KAPAA — Take four schools, mix up the students and form two teams.
That’s what happened Saturday during the wrestling tournament.
Illness and injury made the sport’s coaches improvise, which they did by making two teams out of all the athletes.
And the action didn’t disappoint.
The Waimea High School senior Kohana Rapozo escaped Kapaa High School sophomore Patelo Paseka with just two seconds remaining in their bout Saturday.
The maneuver earned Rapozo a point, the margin of victory over Paseka in the 285-pound boys match at the Bernice Hundley Gym in Kapaa.
Coach Mac Pigott, the Kauai Interscholastic Federation wrestling tournament director, said Rapozo’s match was just one of several bouts which got the crowd excited.
The Saturday tournament format changed due to a smaller turnout due to illness and injuries.
With just 24 wrestlers weighing in, Pigott said KIF member school coaches requested a different competition format.
The coaches selected wrestlers from all four schools to create two teams following the weigh-in, one team named “Home,” and the other “Guest.”
This was the first dual meet, Kapaa coach Tesai Seamster heading the Home team and Matt Ballard, the Kauai coach, leading the Guest team.
“Saturday’s dual match was a great experience,” said Rich Cappellino, the Waimea coach. “Not only did it give the wrestlers a chance to see another aspect of the sport, it helped to strengthen the cohesion between the KIF schools.”
Wrestlers worked through a dozen matches featuring three girls bouts and nine boys match-ups over three exhibition matches and nine bouts following National Federation rules which led to the Home team winning, 40-17 over the Guest.
Rapozo met Paseka two weeks ago and took the match, 7-4.
“It was obvious that Patela and his coaches worked hard for this rematch,” Pigott said.
Rapozo’s win preserves his undefeated status with four wins in the KIF season which has two more matches to go and four weeks before the Hawaii High School Athletic Association state championships on Oahu.
Joining Rapozo with 4-0 records, Kauai’s Nicholas Gabriel defeated Faa Tafua of Waimea, Sanoe Kalama of Kauai downed teammate Courtney Brock for a 3-0 record, and Madison Leanio, a Kauai High School freshman, defeated Ronnie Perono of Kapaa to preserve his undefeated 4-win record.
Pigott said Waimea freshman Andrew Evans and Kauai’s Raycyn Avigueterro met for the third time in as many weeks Saturday.
Pigott said there is no doubt the boys’ coaches will be working with them this week in practice as the rivalry enters Week 4 at the Island School gym at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The KIF championship wrestling match takes place at 10 a.m. Feb. 15 at Waimea High School. The HHSAA wrestling championship takes place Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Neal Blaisdell Center on Oahu.
Mixed weight exhibition
Sanoe Kalama (Kau) over Courtney Brock (Kau), 12-6
Jamin Lopez (Kap) over Zach Beydoun (IS), 20-12
Nika Tapucol (Kau) over Devyn Kilar Johnson (Wai), by fall
Individual results
120 lb. boys: Kristopher Alcos (Kau) over Mitchell Alves (Kap), by fall
145 lb. boys: Elia Leone (Kap) over David Caminos (IS), by fall
145 lb. boys: Madison Leanio (Kau) over Ronnie Perono (Kap), 25-9
152 lb. boys: John Kahananui (Kau) over Austin Cook (IS), 9-4
152 lb. boys: Nicholas Gabriel (Kau) over Faa Tafua (Wai), 8-2
160 lb. boys: Andrew Evans (Wai) over Raycyn Aviguetero (Kau) by fall
175 lb. girls: Kalelei Rogers (Kau) over Kalea Mcgurm (Kau) by fall
285 lb. boys: Ian Garcia (Wai) over Zeb Martinez (Kap), by fall
285 lb. boys: Kohana Rapozo (Wai) over Patelo Paseka (Kap), 6-5
