The wrestlers who won their respective weight classes at the Kauai Interscholastic Federation wrestling championships last weekend were named league all-stars.
The official list of standouts was released by the KIF on Thursday.
Kauai High School and Waimea High School each have seven all-stars. Kauai has three girls and four boys. Waimea has two girls and five boys.
“It’s been a long season. Wrestling’s a really hard sport, and we lost a number of wrestlers throughout the season. But these guys and girls stuck it out,” said Kauai High wrestling coach Paul Shindell on Thursday. “They have shown tremendous improvement over the season. I’m looking forward to getting some wins out at states. Just hopeful that we can perform well at an even higher level at states.”
Waimea wrestling coach C.J. Threat said: “I think they deserved it. There’s some kids that it’s easier to become an all-star than others, but our high school, they all support each other. It’s just as much a reward for all of us for them to be in that position.”
Kapaa has six all-stars this year — five girls and one boy.
Kapaa High School won the KIF girls wrestling championship last weekend at Kapaa High School.
“We’re really excited, especially for our senior girls. I think they got a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see what they can do at the state level,” said Kapaa High wrestling coach Jess Jensen. “Danielle Santos, Ini Marshall and Joji Miner-Ho had really good preseasons. They did well. In KIF, there wasn’t a lot of competition. There wasn’t a lot of girls in their weight class. They’ve been competing against each other quite a bit. So, I think they’re excited to get off the island and compete on the state level.”
Jensen said of his one boys all-star, senior Raffy Perono: “Raffy is an incredibly athletic boy. You’ve seen him compete in football. He’s had a pretty good football season as well. He just has natural athletic ability. I wish he would have wrestled his entire time through high school, but he missed a few years. He’s missed some with injury. But overall, he’s a very standout athlete and a good kid.”
Kapaa won the girls title with 58 team points. Kauai had 34 points, and Waimea had 20 points.
Waimea High School won the KIF boys championship with 78 points. Kauai was second with 68 points, and Kapaa was third with 26 points.
The league individual champions will compete at the 2019 Texaco Wrestling Championships state tournament, which starts Feb. 20 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu.
Shindell said his goal for his wrestlers is to get more wins than they got last year.
“Last year, we had three wins at states — one win by three individual kids. I think it’s very, very doable that we get more wins than that,” Shindell said. “The goal for me is at least four wins, but I’m confident that will be easy to get. We got some talented wrestlers.”
Jensen said he’s not changing much in preparing for states.
“We’re not really introducing new techniques or anything. We’re really working on refining everything that they know, and then working on their conditioning as well,” Jensen said. “When they get in those tough matches, their physical shape comes into play. So, we’re just making sure that they’re in the best physical shape as possible.”
Threat said leading up to the tournament, workouts will be kicked up a few gears.
“This week and the couple of practices we have before we leave, it’s going to pretty much really intense — really try and test them and a lot of wrestling,” Threat said. “We’re coming along, but we have a lot of youth. … The youth definitely outnumber the older athletes. Just trying to get them used to it, and hopefully they can build off of that.”
KIF Wrestling All-Stars
Girls 102 pounds: Shaelin Manibog, Kauai, senior
Girls 112 pounds: Kaya Akana, Waimea, junior
Girls 117 pounds: Ashlyn Agena, Waimea, sophomore
Girls 122 pounds: Janessa Llego-Finney, Kauai, sophomore
Girls 127 pounds: Danielle Santos, Kapaa, senior
Girls 132 pounds: Ini Marshall, Kapaa, senior
Girls 138 pounds: Jolette Miner-Ho, Kapaa, junior
Girls 145 pounds: Tessa Jensen, Kapaa, junior
Girls 153 pounds: Alana Takata, Kauai, sophomore
Girls 184 pounds: Bernie Lindsey, Kapaa, senior
Boys 113 pounds: Kylen Aana, Waimea, junior
Boys 120 pounds: Mason Stoll-Tolentino, Kauai, junior
Boys 126 pounds: Ian Sok, Waimea, sophomore
Boys 138 pounds: Jaiden Ogata, Kauai, senior
Boys 145 pounds: Lowen Matsusaka, Kauai, senior
Boys 152 pounds: Adrienne Quetela, Kauai, senior
Boys 160 pounds: Raffy Perono, Kapaa, senior
Boys 182 pounds: Zayden Sarmiento, Waimea, junior
Boys 195 pounds: Kauwila Kaneapua, Waimea, freshman
Boys 285 pounds: Rogerland Dela Cruz, Waimea, senior
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
