—–
Note: The Bedrock Sports Hawaii girls pound-for-pound rankings will be out soon, within the next few days.
—–
The voting from 13 trusted coaches is in, and so it’s time to let the Hawaii wrestling community know who Bedrock Sports Hawaii has chosen for its final Top 10 pound-for-pound boys.
Two seniors from Moanalua combined to earn 10 of the 13 first-place votes and were ranked high enough on all other ballots to finish as Nos. 1 and 2 on the list.
And more specifically, we’re talking about Na Menehune’s Karter Nitahara at No. 1 with six first-place votes and Blaze Sumiye at No. 2 with four first-place nods.
Nitahara went 16-0, pinning his way through the regular season and all but one of his four 182-pound state tournament matches to earn the title in one of the most stacked divisions. The only decision was a 6-0 win over Punahou’s Will Straton in the semifinals.
When Bedrock Sports Hawaii showed up for the first OIA match of the season, it was Sumiye — the returning 145-pound champ from 2020 — who pointed out Nitahara, saying something to the effect of “that guy is a beast.”
And indeed, a super hero’s cape was the only thing missing from Nitahara’s uniform when he upended Lahainaluna’s Keawe Kane-Keahi by fall in 0:42 in the state championship match (the fastest pin of the finals).
Sumiye was the only boy in the whole tournament to capture a second state title, and he did it dominantly at 160 pounds. Like his training partner Nitahara, Sumiye pinned all except one state tourney opponent, including previously unbeaten ILH champion Ayden Coronil of Kamehameha in the final.
There was some skepticism over Sumiye’s choice of weight class. One inquirer to Bedrock Sports suggested that he ran from the tougher 170 division.
“While 160 was an easier path to a title, 160 was also where he felt like he could move the best without that extra weight,” Moaanlua coach Lucas Misaki said.
And Sumiye did look quite nimble (maybe not exactly like John Travolta in “Saturday Night Fever”) in the team’s warmup/dance routine before the tournament.
Sumiye (15-1), who will wrestle for the University of Providence in Montana next season, lost the possibility of attaining three state titles when COVID-19 wiped out the whole 2021 season.
Sumiye’s only loss came early in the season when he wrestled up (at 182) against eventual 170-pound state champ Brycen Pagurayan of Kapolei, a wrestler he also beat (by injury default) in a match he was leading 11-4 in the third period.
Checking in at No. 3 is Saint Louis senior Cyrus Bucsit, who did nothing but win convincingly this year, finishing 10-0 at 113 pounds. All four of Bucsit’s state tourney matches were won by fall, including in the final against 2019 state placer Khansith Chantabouasith of Leilehua.
Here is one voter’s assessment of Bucsit’s performance at states: “He wrestled to perfection.”
In addition, Bucsit received two first-place votes in the balloting.
Pagurayan (15-2), a junior who received one first-place vote, won in dominant fashion, 7-2, in the 170 final against previous No. 1 p4p wrestler and two-time state placer Pookela DeSantos of Leilehua. That victory avenged a loss by fall to DeSantos in the OIAs and elevated Pagurayan to No. 4 p4p.
A Little About The Criteria
Many voters sent in ballots that contained a few wrestlers who did not win state championships, and that was certainly OK, but ultimately, in deciding what constitutes a pound-for-pound ranking, Bedrock thought it was best to go with state champions only in the final accounting.
With that being the case, many, many excellent, tough wrestlers did not make it. However, later on in this article, some of those vote-getters, including a handful who would have been shoo-ins had they took home a state title, will be acknowledged.
There is also the matter of losing during the season and somehow still being on the list, and that is indeed the case for four boys, including Sumiye and Pagurayan mentioned above. The other two situations will be explained later.
Three Freshmen Enter The Pound-For-Pound Scene
Three of the next four spots in the p4p rankings were taken by freshmen — No. 5 Tyger Taam (17-0) and No. 8 Joseph Lathwood of Moanalua (19-0) and No. 6 Mikah Labuanan (15-1) of Kamehameha-Maui.
Taam, the younger brother of 2019 160-pound state champ Boltyn Taam of Na Menehune, left little doubt that he’s “the man” at 132, pinning three state tournament opponents in under a minute, including the second-fastest pin of the finals in 0:48.
Lathwood was dominant in three of his four matches and earned his p4p wings with an impressive 7-5 overtime sudden victory tiebreaker in the 120 semifinals over previously undefeated Logan Lau of Mid-Pacific (who came into states ranked No. 10 p4p) followed by a 21-3 major decision over Mililani’s Kulika Corpuz in the championship match.
Labuanan’s only loss came in the 126-pound MIL finals against 2020 113-pound state champion Tobey Ravida of Baldwin. But Labuanan avenged that 9-6 defeat with a 7-4 victory over Ravida (who was ranked as high as No. 1 p4p this season) in the 126 state final.
Along his tournament ride, Labuanan also took out Punahou’s Kaistin Vasquez (previously No. 9 p4p and as high as No. 2 this season) by fall in the semifinals.
Watch for Taam, Lathwood and Labuanan over the next three years as they work toward a possible four-year slam. Maybe they can all meet up in one grand state tourney shindig in the same weight class.
McBrayer, The 138-Pounder Left Standing, Is No. 7 p4p
Kapolei’s Kinau McBrayer suffered three losses this season, but got through the toughest bracket among the 14 boys weight classes.
In that loaded division, McBrayer (16-3) upended the previously undefeated and previous No. 6 p4p Kade Okura of Kalani in the final. It was a rematch of the OIA final, where Okura prevailed 5-4 on a stalling call against McBrayer.
There was no stalling by the Hurricanes’ senior in the state championship match — one of the best of the night among the 14 boys finals — where McBrayer wound up winning in a 3-2 overtime sudden victory tiebreaker. The tourney road beforehand was far from easy, with McBrayer taking down highly regarded competitors Josiah Lum, the ILH champion from PAC-5, Jeremiah Borce, the BIIF champion from Hawaii Preparatory Academy, and Keegan Goeas of Castle.
The Heavier Weights Get A Slice Of The p4p Pie
Two juniors — Waianae’s Vanderlei Yong and Kamehameha’s Scotty Dikilato — are the Nos. 9 and 10 pound-for-pounders.
Yong (16-0) made easy work of his tournament opponents on the way to the 220 state title until the final, where he edged previously unbeaten ILH champion Zachary Kaliko of Saint Louis, 7-4.
Said one voter about Yong: “I was very impressed with his arsenal of attacks this year. He is a big man who wrestles like a lightweight.”
Dikilato (9-0), a state placer in 2020 as a freshman, also came through after three relatively easy wins when things got rough in the 285-pound championship match, winning 4-2 over OIA champion and previously unbeaten Kanale Coelho of Leilehua.
Deserving Of Mention
The following seniors were undefeated heading into their state championship match before losing:
>> Leilehua’s DeSantos (19-1), now a three-time state placer
>> Baldwin’s Ravida (7-1), now a two-time state placer
>> Kalani’s Okura (15-1), now a two-time state placer
PAC-5’s Xander Erolin (152 pounds, 16-0) was the only boys undefeated state champ who did not make the pound-for-pound list.
Other boys champions who did not climb into the Top 10 are Saint Louis’ Blaze Holani (195), Punahou’s Justyce Mercado (145) and Kamehameha’s Evan Kusumoto (106).
One coach spoke about the job Erolin and Holani did: “Erolin had two nail-biting wins against tough wrestlers, and Holani won impressively against the wrestlers who were put in front of him.”
Campbell’s Holden Soares (21-1), whose only defeat of the year was 8-7 against Erolin in an overtime sudden victory tiebreaker in the 152 final, was another p4p candidate who did not break into the Bedrock rankings.
Erolin’s other dramatic win was a 5-3 overtime sudden victory tiebreaker in the semifinals against Baldwin’s Nai Hasegawa.
Mercado, meanwhile, avenged his loss to ‘Iolani’s Kai Yawata in the 145 ILH final by beating Yawata 10-6 in the state championship match.
Mid-Pacific’s Lau (15-1), the 120 ILH champ, was primed for a Top 10 ranking until his 7-5 overtime sudden victory tiebreaker loss to Lathwood.
Saint Louis’ Dreddin Villalpando, a previous state placer who died tragically the night before the state tournament, rose as high as No. 4 with a 4-0 record on the p4p list this season.
Those in the know in wrestling circles were awaiting a possible power-packed 132 final between Villalpando and Taam.
Villalpando was acknowledged on ballots by two Bedrock voters, and this is a comment from one of them:
“Might be the best wrestler on the list, technically speaking.”
Check back with Bedrock Sports Hawaii for an upcoming story about Villalpando, who was the editor-in-chief of his school newspaper and who will be sorely missed by all of his wrestling brothers and sisters in Hawaii.
2022 BEDROCK FINAL TOP 10 POUND-FOR-POUND BOYS WRESTLERS
>> 1. Karter Nitahara, senior (Moanalua) 2022 182 state champ, 2020 170 state third place … (16-0)
>> 2. Blaze Sumiye, senior (Moanalua) 2022 160 state champ, 2020 145 state champ … (15-1)
>> 3. Cyrus Bucsit, senior (Saint Louis) 2022 113 state champ, 2020 106 third place … (10-0)
>> 4. Brycen Pagurayan, junior (Kapolei) 2022 170 state champ, 2020 145 state fifth place … (15-2)
>> 5. Tyger Taam, freshman (Moanalua) 2022 132 state champ … (17-0)
>> 6. Mikah Labuanan, freshman (Kamehameha-Maui) 2022 126 state champ … (15-1)
>> 7. Kinau McBrayer, senior (Kapolei) 2022 138 state champ … (16-3)
>> 8. Joseph Lathwood, freshman (Moanalua) 2022 120 state champ … (19-0)
>> 9. Vanderlei Yong, junior (Waianae) 2022 220 state champ … (16-0)
>> 10. Scotty Dikilato, junior (Kamehameha) 2022 285 pound state champ, 2020 220 state fifth place … (9-0)
—–
ALSO AT Bedrock Sports Hawaii:
