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Saturday, March 3, 2001

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Ekewaka Ishikawa of St. Louis, top, puts a headlock on
Shayne Ferriman of Leilehua during their quarterfinal
match at the state tournament.

Wrestling
with success

St. Louis grabs early
lead in state wrestling

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By Ben Freedman
Special to the Star-Bulletin

If you took a look in a wrestler's eye at the first day of yesterday's state championship, you saw the intensity of a warrior in battle.

Like gladiators anticipating their next fight, onlooking wrestlers stood in line waiting for their turn on the mat. Some stretched out limbs in an attempt to relax before their name was called. Others fed their minds with music to pump themselves up.

"It's a big tournament," said Iolani head coach Carl Schroers, also the tournament director. "It's running fairly smoothly. We get a lot of help from Oahu Interscholastic Association and Interscholastic League of Honolulu schools. So it's a big effort by the kids, the parents and everybody."

A big effort is needed to maintain order among the madness.

While athletes on the floor tangled with each other for six-minute matches, coaches hollered advice from the sidelines. Statisticians hurried to and from the scorers tables to post results on the bulletin boards. Photographers did their best to capture the moment while attempting to stay out of the way.

Of course, the tournament's foundation is its competition. After the first day, the favored St. Louis Crusaders are in first place. Should they maintain that lead, they will capture their first state title in 27 years.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Punahou's Dan Furuto, right, flips Kaiser's Blain Ling
and pins him in the second round of their state wrestling
quarterfinal 103-pound match.

"They're the one everybody knows they have to beat," Schroers said. "But they're not so far ahead that they have it wrapped up."

Crusaders head coach Todd Los Banos, eyes bloodshot from the duress of coaching, felt that his team did well, but said it needs to increase the intensity, especially during the latter parts of a match.

"One thing about the ILH schools, you gotta wrestle six minutes," Los Banos said. "If you don't plan on wrestling six minutes, it's gonna be tough. You can't start fading out during a match."

With a win valued at one point and a pin at three, the 11-point lead built by the Crusaders isn't nearly enough for them to rest assured. In fact, Los Banos didn't talk about the first-place status of his team after the matches.

"Punahou wrestled extremely well," he said. "Kamehameha's doing well also."

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