Kapaa High School senior Danielle Santos was the only wrestler from the Kauai Interscholastic Federation to advance to the second day of the 2019 Texaco Wrestling Championships.
Santos’ day, though, ended early after she lost in her first bout Thursday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. Santos lost to Moanalua High School’s Kira Borengasser in a girls 127-pound match.
KIF tournament director Mac Pigott, who was present at the state tournament, said Santos had wrestled against Borengasser during the preseason.
“She lost to the girl at the Officials tournament, as well. (Kapaa wrestling coach Jess Jensen) had a strategy to try to keep her on her feet because the girl is dominant on the ground,” Pigott said in a phone interview Thursday. “It worked for a while, but then girl wore her down.”
Santos finished the double-elimination tournament with a 2-2 record, going 2-1 on Wednesday.
“She’s a wonderful wrestler to watch. She’s smooth and fast,” Pigott said. “We hope to see her wrestling in college. In fact, there was a college recruiter here just a few minutes ago was asking me about her information. We hope we see her wrestling in college, but whatever she does, we wish her the best.”
Pigott hoped a few more from the KIF would advance the medal rounds this year.
“It was disappointing considering we had two No. 4 seeds and a No. 3 seed, but unfortunately I guess, we’ll have to characterize this as a rebuilding year,” Pigott said. “The last three years, we got medals here from KIF wrestlers. But this year, we got skunked. We do have a lot of young wrestlers in the KIF, and they showed a lot of heart in this tournament.”
Full results at www.sportshigh.com.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
