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Hawaii wrestler Tanner Higa had an outstanding freshman year for Dubuque University in Iowa.
The former PAC-5 athlete and 2022 Maryknoll graduate capped off the season with a seventh-place finish at 125 pounds in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association national championships — a club level tournament in Puerto Rico in March.
Higa was a starter for the Spartans during their NCAA Division III season. At season’s end, though, he lost his starting role to Brady Koontz, who went on to place seventh at the NCAA D-III national championships.
Higa, who was named a NWCA Academic All-American, also earned a first-place finish in the Jim Fox Invite and a second-place finish at the Great Lakes Conference Championship.
In his senior year of high school, Higa placed fifth at 126 pounds at the Hawaii state championships.
Higa will be competing at the U.S. Open later this month in freestyle and Greco-Roman in Las Vegas.
One of Higa’s coaches is Dennis Hall, a three-time Olympian who won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and who also won a world championship along with 10 national championships.
Hall, incidentally, will be coaching Dubuque’s newly announced women’s program.
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