Swimming,
By Pat Bigold
wrestling meets set
Star-BulletinThe last two tournaments of the winter prep sports season will be held Friday and Saturday on different islands. In the 31st Hawaii High School Athletic Association Wrestling Tournament, sponsored by GTE-Hawaiian Tel-Data House, Iolani will seek its 11th overall title with heavy pursuit from Kamehameha, McKinley, Moanalua and Aiea.
The tournament will be held at the McKinley gym, beginning at 11 a.m. Friday and noon Saturday.
Iolani won the ILH this year despite losing twice to Kamehameha during the dual meet season. The Raiders' win was by a slim margin: 171-161.
Iolani brings five champions into the tournament: 103-pounder Travis Motosue, 130-pounder Rik Arita, 135-pounder Sean Kido, 140-pounder Jason Brown and 152-pounder Vail Minn.
"It would be foolish to predict who'll win this tournament," said Iolani head coach Carl Schroers, who is also his school's athletic director.
He led Iolani to the 1996 state title with 1221/2 points to Punahou's 107. The Raiders' streak of seven state titles was snapped in 1995 by Leilehua.
Schroers, who has coached nine of the Raiders' state championships, said the 112-pound class, with defending state champion Kahaa Rezantes of Kamehameha as the top seed, will be the toughest class in the tournament again.
He said the heavyweight class is the best he's seen since 1984 when Bern Brostek won a state title for Iolani.
The field includes four outstanding football players: St. Louis defensive lineman Sam Taulealea, Kamehameha offensive lineman Steven Grace, McKinley fullback Faatau Muagutautia and Chris Smith, a two-way lineman from Mid-Pacific who played for Pac-Five.
Grace has signed a letter to play football for Arizona. Smith will play for the University of Hawaii.
Iolani faces stiff competition from Punahou in its bid to repeat as state swimming and diving champion.
The state meet will be held at the Coach Soichi Sakamoto Pool War Memorial Complex.
Diving preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. Friday, with swimming trials at 3:30 p.m.
The diving semifinals will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and swimming finals will start at 1 p.m.
Last year, the Raiders swept both the boys' and girls' titles in a shocker.
The Buffanblu girls had previously won 22 consecutive titles and 37 of 38 overall, while the boys had taken seven in a row and 36 of 38 overall.
Three of Iolani's brightest young swimmers in the 1996 championships are back: 200- and 500-yard freestyle champion Jill Ono, 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard freestyle champion Nathaniel Dean, and 200-yard medley champion Michael Nakada. All are juniors.
But Punahou enters the meet with both the Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys' and girls' championships in hand.
The Buffanblu boys captured that distinction over Iolani on Feb. 15 with 205 points to the Raiders' 128. The girls amassed 203 points to Iolani's 128.
The local branch of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) has named goalkeeper Nate Adams of 1997 state champion Iolani as its player of the year. NSCAA TEAM PICKS
Co-coaches of the year are Iolani's Myles Arakawa and Castle's Mike Tsai.
Iolani placed five players on the NSCAA first team: forward Reid Nakamura, midfielder Tony Rania, backs Jason Mau and Brandon Teruya, and Adams.
Complete list in Scoreboard.
