[ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS ]
Even in death, Andrew Delos Reyes is having an impact on the Data House State Wrestling Tournament. Kawamata upsets top seed Wong
By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comDelos Reyes came in second at the tournament wrestling for Mililani last year, but died in a car crash in April. To a man, the current Trojans wrestlers insist that he has not left the wrestling room, and accompanied the team to the Blaisdell Center as always.
"The whole team has kind of rallied around him (Delos Reyes)," Mililani coach John Robinson said. "They were all good friends."
And Delos Reyes did his job, inspiring Justin Kawamata into the quarterfinals of the 130-pound weight class. Kawamata beat Raymond Carroll of Hana 15-0 in his first match then upset top seed Ryan Wong of Kamehameha in the next.
Beating a top-ranked wrestler on the first day is never easy -- Wong was the only No. 1 seed to lose yesterday.
And it took every fiber of Kawamata's being to do so yesterday, as he found himself down 5-3 with just 11 seconds left. Despite it being the end of the match, both wrestlers were still fresh because of six stoppages due to blood or injury.
Kawamata rushed the top seed and tried to grab both his legs. Wong saw it coming though, and attempted a block but fell to the mat for a match-tying takedown with four seconds left.
Kawamata and his coaches felt that they had an advantage in overtime because of Kawamata's freestyle experience. In wrestling, overtime is a sudden-death affair, meaning a wrestler needs only a single point to win.
The wrestlers traded shots for the first 15 seconds of overtime, when Kawamata charged Wong and met him a foot inside the circle. Wong took the force of Kawamata's energy and fell in a heap out of bounds. But the referee ruled that Kawamata had managed to stay inbounds before Wong hit the mat, giving him the takedown and the ticket into the quarterfinals.
It was the same thing (as the end of regulation)," Robinson said. "We wanted to drive him to the end of the mat, where a wrestler will fall out expecting a restart. But Justin knew that he had to stay inbounds. We usually practice that because in the offseason Justin wrestles a lot of freestyle."
But for Kawamata, strategy had little to do with his win compared to the hard work that his departed friend inspired him to do every day.
"This was all for my friend Andrew," Kawamata said. "I could feel him out there with me, he has pushed me and guided me all the way."
There were few upsets on the first day of the state tournament, but Kawamata benefits from one of the other few. Kawamata wrestles unseeded Sammy Kaneshiro of St. Louis today, who went 3-0 yesterday, including a surprise win over Micah Sakamoto of Waiakea. Of the top four seeds at 130 pounds, only No. 2 Desmond Thain of McKinley survived the first day.
Heavyweight top seed Michael Mandaquit of Hilo narrowly escaped an upset in overtime against William Vanna of Pearl City.
Going into today's final round, Punahou leads in the team standings by just 2 1/2 points over Iolani, 67 1/2-65. St. Louis is in third with 64 1/2 points.
In the girls tournament, every top seed advanced and Kahuku leads Kamehameha 64-59. Punahou is in third with 51 1/2 points, followed by three-time state champion Moanalua with 45. None of the top three teams has ever won the girls state title.
Even though the top seeds cruised through without trouble, the No. 2 spot was not so lucky.
Sadie Kaneda of Roosevelt started the upsets with a quick pin in 1:13 of Dawn Haraguchi of Waiakea in the 103-pound class. Fellow Roughrider Sheri Hashiro did the same in the 114-pound class, pinning No. 2 Jaynee Kim of Punahou. Other second seeds to fall were Aimee Wakai of Punahou at 130 pounds, Selena Perez of Baldwin (155) and Melinda Bolo of Lanai (175).
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