HONOLULU — Wrestlers from the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation made a strong showing during the Motown Throwdown high school preseason wrestling tournament presented by Moanalua High School over the weekend.
HONOLULU — Wrestlers from the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation made a strong showing during the Motown Throwdown high school preseason wrestling tournament presented by Moanalua High School over the weekend.
One female wrestler, Meleana Rita of Kaua‘i High, finished with the silver medal in the girls 155-pound division. Rita was the sole female representative shown in the tournament results posted by Nicholas Abramo and Bedrock Sports Hawai‘i Tuesday.
Rita opened strong with a pin of Eden Baguio of host Moanalua with 33 seconds showing in the round to advance against Aubrie Molina of Pearl City, the eventual division winner. During their match, Molina was declared the winner over Rita on a technical fall, 18-1.
On the boys’ arena, Kapa‘a High’s Nathan Marovich was the sole representative to find gold upon winning the boys 170 division after outscoring Kamuela Puahala of Pearl City 7-2 in the final round. Marovich opened by outpointing Bravery Gladman of host Moanalua 7-5 in the second round to advance to the finals against Puahala.
Jayden Manibog from Kaua‘i High finished with silver in the boys 120-A division after getting pinned by the eventual division winner Joseph Lathwood of host Moanalua High with 30 second remaining in his round.
Manibog rebounded to take round two by outscoring his opponent, Draiden Mabuti of Pearl City, 2-1. Lathwood came back in round three to pin Mabuti in the first minute of their round to claim the gold.
Other KIF wrestlers showing in Moanalua included Thomas Ramos of Kaua‘i High, who dropped his opening match to Joshua Estabilio of Moanalua by pin in the boys 120 division. Walker Turpin of Kaua‘i High was also pinned by Cole Johnson of Pearl City in the boys 220 division.
The KIF wrestling season starts on Jan. 29 with a tournament at the Bernice Hundley Gym on the campus of Kapa‘a High. The first matches hit the mat starting at 10 a.m.
