Some first round and quarterfinal action from Day 1 of the HHSAA Wrestling tournament at the Neal Blaisdell Center. There was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking structure when I arrived in the area at 9:45. Fearing I would miss the start when most of our wrestlers were scheduled to compete, I decided to park on the street. Unfortunately, only had 1-hour parking at the meter. Long story short, apologies to Ira Navarro for missing your 56 second pin. I did mana...ge to get some shots of Sami Saribay (36 second pin), Ivy Navarro (21 second pin), Alexis Encinas (1:57 pin), Nanea Estrella (4:40 pin) and Ashley Taguiam (4:30 pin) before I had to run out to Beretania Street to feed the meter. Unfortunately, that meant I missed Tayler Pelegrino-Hayase's 42-second pin. The remaining lady wrestlers Kauanoe Keahi, Shannon Jaramillo and Ailani Lanoza earned victories to advance to the quarterfinals. After Ailani's match, I had to take a piss - which resulted in me missing Alan Sanchez' 1:36 pin (Alan finished in 4th place). I managed to get shots of Ikua Tihada, Kawehi Gillcoat (5th place), Kainalu Estrella (2nd place) and Zeff Dudoit's matches. By that time, I had to leave to go to the Stan Sheriff Center to shoot the boys basketball 3rd place game. So apologies to Reeno Pascual, Enoka Phillips, Ty Bates (5th place finisher), Apakasi Felemi and Nate Beard for missing your matches.
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In all, the Lady Lunas blitzed the competition out of the gate, registering 7 pins from their first 7 girls and overall 10 of 10 advanced, leading the Lady Lunas to their SECOND STATE CHAMPIONSHIP in 3 years! There was no doubt in this one, as they outdistanced #2 Kamehameha-Kapalama by 45 points! (191.0 to 146.0). The Lady Lunas ended up with 4 individual state champions (Iva Navarro, Alexis Encinas (2-time), Nanea Estrella and Kauanoe Keahi). Ivy Navarro finished 2nd, Tayler Pellegrino-Hayase and Shannon Jaramillo finished 4th and Sami Saribay finished 5th. Apologies to Ira and Tayler for not getting shots of any of your matches - I feel badly about that. Congratulations to the Lahainaluna wrestlers, coaches and family - and especially to my fellow shooter Jason Hayase for being there for the kids and getting the shots that I couldn't.