KA-BOOM!!!! Lahainaluna’s Nanea Estrella Is In Coach Clarissa Chun’s First University of Iowa Recruiting Class

Some news lasts in the readers’ minds for a day or two. Not this time. This one is likely to have long-lasting importance for the Hawaii wrestling community.

Let The Pipeline Begin

It didn’t take long for Clarissa Chun to make an effort and land someone from the deep pool of female wrestling talent in her native Hawaiian Islands.

Chun, who was named coach of the newly formed University of Iowa women’s wrestling team in November, announced her first recruiting class on Thursday, and on the list was, sure enough, is four-time Hawaii state champion Nanea Estrella from Lahainaluna.

Nanea Estrella is Iowa-bound. (Image credit: YouTube.com).

It was no surprise that Chun would actually get someone from Hawaii. The only surprise is that it came so quickly. And the fact that she has recruited one girl from Hawaii already leads one to wonder how many others will follow. And how soon? Maybe some of it will depend on how Estrella fares in her time with the Hawkeyes.

Estrella is transferring to Iowa from Menlo College in Atherton, California, where she spent last season as a sophomore, finishing as the national runner-up at 130 pounds, a Cascade Collegiate Conference champion and an all-conference selection while finishing 18-2.

Chun, who won the 98-pound Hawaii state wrestling titles in 1998 and 1999, went on to win a bronze medal at 48 kilograms in the 2012 London Olympics and a 48kg gold medal at the world championships in Tokyo in 2008.

“Being from Hawaii, I have watched Nanea wrestle since she was in ninth grade,” Chun said in a news release. “When I was announced as Iowa’s head coach, Nanea reached out and went through the transfer process. I am excited to add her to our program as I have seen her grow in the sport. She’s a tenacious competitor and likes challenging herself. When she was in high school, she’d move up in weight classes because she wanted to be the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the state. She is a competitor that will embrace the Iowa philosophy and expectations.”

And, indeed, Estrella finished as the No. 1 pound-for-pound wrestler in Hawaii as chosen by Hawaii Prep World in her graduating year of 2020.

“I chose the University of Iowa to optimize every opportunity I have, academically and athletically” Estrella said in the release. “I can’t imagine a better fit for me. (Iowa is) the Mecca of wrestling.”

In 2021, Estrella took third at the United World Wrestling U23 national championship and won the UWW junior national title in 2020. Among her other important victories are the freestyle and Greco-Roman titles at the 2019 Western Regionals.