A couple of young wrestlers recently returned home after competing on the Mainland.
Matt Tamanaha, a Kauai High School graduate, and Jolette Miner-Ho, an upcoming junior at Kapaa High School, took part at the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals tournament earlier this month in Fargo, N.D.
The tournament ran from July 12 through July 20.
“Just from flying from here (Kauai) to North Dakota, it was a lot to take in,” Miner-Ho said on Thursday. “But once I got to see where the tournament was being held, it was like, I just had to adapt really fast to it. It was super overwhelming. It’s new. I’ve never done a wrestling tournament on the Mainland before.”
While this was Miner-Ho’s first tournament on the Mainland, for Tamanaha, this was he second time wrestling at Junior Nationals.
“It was tough,” Tamanaha said Thursday. “It’s just what I expected, though, from that tournament. I was impressed. The kids, as I improved, everybody else improved, too. Competition was even better.”
Tamanaha was 0-2 in the tournament, facing opponents from Michigan and Ohio. He competed in the 138-pound class.
“My first match, I actually went against an All-American from last year,” Tamanaha said. “My second one in freestyle, that one, I don’t know who he is but he’s pretty good. He caught me in a bad position. But, yeah, I felt like I could have done better in that match. I made a silly mistake. It happens.”
He added: “He was in on a leg. I reached over for an ankle. He caught me on my back, just some scrambling position. I probably shouldn’t have caught in that position because there was another thing I could have done. But, it was just a mistake.”
Tamahana suffered an elbow injury, but it’s not a serious injury, he said.
Tamanaha, a 2018 Kauai High grad, received a scholarship to wrestle at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colo. He is set to leave Kauai next month.
“I got to get way stronger and faster,” Tamanaha said of what he learned from the tournament. “But, I did jump up a few weight classes this year from last year. I think as you go from 126 to 138, people get stronger and faster. I just got to keep going, keep getting stronger and keep improving myself.”
Miner-Ho was 1-4 at Junior Nationals. She wrestled in the 138-pound class.
In her win, she pinned an opponent from New York. She also wrestled against competitors from California, Ohio and Washington state.
“I remember it being a tough fight at first, in the first round. … I think I was still nervous wrestling up there,” she said. “By the second round, I knew I had to wrestle with all that I got. I went all the way for this. I might as well finish it right.”
She added: “It felt great. I said I wanted to win a match up there, and I won a match. I felt good. I felt like I completed something.”
Miner-Ho hopes to compete at the national tournament again.
“It was an eye-opener,” she said. “Because it was the national level, from the KIF (Kauai Interscholastic Federation) to the national level, it’s a huge difference. Just the intensity of the space over there in the Fargodome, it was completely different from the (Hawaii High School Athletic Association) state tournament.
“It was amazing. I felt like it made my adrenaline go up. It was something I never felt before. I hope to feel it again. Hopefully, I can go up there more in the future.”
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
