Sports Update
Moanalua, Kamehameha lead
By Pat Bigold
in wrestling tournament
Star-BulletinThis time they belonged. The 87 girls from 24 schools who carried gym bags into the Stan Sheriff Center at 9 a.m. Friday were not stat keepers, they were not equipment managers and they were not cheerleaders. They were wrestlers, thank you very much.
And they were about to make their debut at the 32nd Hawaii High School Athletic Association wrestling tournament.
After waiting all year for a pilot girls' state wrestling tournament they thought had been approved in May by the state's athletic directors, they were told early this month by the HHSAA executive board it was a no-go. But a groundswell of parental pressure, a petition drive by the girls and the threat of an injunction persuaded the board to reverse its decision.
"This is it," said Iolani's Jill Remiticado, top-seeded semifinalist at 114 pounds. "This is the event of the year. I worked all year for this and now I'm here. I am actually standing in the building."
Remiticado's face glowed with the exuberance that could be seen on every female competitor's face Friday.
"When I was in the terminal getting ready for my match, all I could do was smile. Usually I have a game face on, but all I could do was smile."
Hawaii Baptist Academy's Danelle Miyamoto, who beat Leilehua's Francine Anny at 103 pounds in the quarterfinals, said she will "treasure" any medal she wins.
"You can feel the energy in here with everyone encouraging you," said Kalaheo's 5-6 Hillary Broad, a first-year wrestler who won her first match in the 140-pound consolation bracket.
The first girls to compete were Cathleen Higa of Assets and Jacque Geringer of Aiea. Geringer won by a pin.
Higa said she felt welcome among the 168 boy wrestlers at the arena.
"When we circulated a petition to hold the girls' state tournament, all the guys signed it," she said.
Moanalua leads the girls' tournament with 52 points going into Saturday's semifinals, but McKinley is a point behind. Leilehua trails in third with 38 points.
Defending state boys' champion Kamehameha enters the semifinals with eight wrestlers. The Warriors have an 11.5-point advantage on St. Louis. Waiakea is third (55) while 10-time champion Iolani and Aiea are fourth with 42 points.
"If we can get eight to the finals, it'll be over by then," said Kamehameha coach Al Chee, whose 1997 championship was his school's first.
Lahainaluna senior Lia Berger, who pinned Nicole Manuel of Moanalua at 1:38 of their 140-pound quarterfinal match, said she was happy to be in her own state tournament but disappointed in another way.
"I wrestled varsity for my team all year but I was prevented from competing in the MIL (Maui Interscholastic League) championships because there is a sanctioned state tournament for girls now," said Berger.
She had beaten four of the six boys who competed for the MIL 140-pound title and was anxious for a chance at a title.
Baldwin High coach Mike Donahoo, who has seen the 5-7 Berger wrestle, said he believes she would have had a chance to win against male competition in the MIL tournament.
Berger, who has 20 victories against boys in her varsity career and has pinned every girl she has ever faced, has a multi-dimensional background. She was Miss Maui Teen 1997 and first runner-up Miss Hawaii Teen.
A 4.3 student with two advanced placement courses, she has starred in several original youth theater musicals on Maui and also plays piano.
"Wrestling is not for every girl, but if you want to stick with it, you can handle it," she said.
Kamehameha's Ashley Byrd, the No. 1 seed at 130 pounds, epitomized his team's determination to repeat.
He said the memory of how a broken finger, suffered in the 1997 Interscholastic League of Honolulu quarterfinals, kept him out of the Warriors' state championship run, fueled his desire.
About 30 seconds into the first round of his state quarterfinal match against Nanakuli's Matt Flanagan, Byrd made a move and felt his shoulder pop out of place.
Time was called while trainer Tim Freitas iced and wrapped an Ace bandage around Byrd's shoulder.
He went back in and shortly thereafter won by a pin.
"I had him in a pin and he got away but I just kept driving the pin," said Byrd. "It (the shoulder) wasn't 100 percent but it was good enough to wrestle.".
Chee said Bird had no choice but to end it as quickly as possible.
"He knew it was going to he tough to go a hard 6 minutes with just one-and-a-half arms, so he decided, 'I better turn on the jets now and get this over with,' " he said.
Volleyball 'Bows make it four wins in a week
SAN DIEGO -- Mike Wilton frequently sat with his head in his hands Friday afternoon.The University of Hawaii men's volleyball coach benched his leading passer, Naveh Milo, for a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at UC-San Diego and sat back to shuffle his lineup. Sometimes it was tough to watch.
"It got pretty shaky out there at points, said Wilton, after his team knocked off the Tritons, 15-9, 15-8, 15-8 for its fourth win of the week.
On its last regular season road trip, No. 4 Hawaii (13-2, 10-1) dropped just one game in two meetings with San Diego State and beat UC-San Diego (1-11, 0-10) in straight sets twice.
"We had a lot of guys on the court that don't normally play together," said Mason Kuo, who had 43 assists for the Rainbows. "It was a good chance for us to get experience with each other and it should help down the road."
Hawaii had dominated a Thursday match with UC-San Diego - it racked up 11 service aces and held the Tritons to just 10 points overall. With Milo simply taking a break Friday, though, the Rainbows struggled to maintain big leads.
After building a 10-1 lead in the first game, the Rainbows were outscored, 8-2. Ryan Woods had 20 kills and Zack Hite 10 for a UC-San Diego squad taht turned its game pu a level before 125 at RIMAC Arena.
"I think they played a lot better," said Wilton. "But we had some guys in there out of position - we had some trouble getting sideouts and getting things going but that was to be expected."
Baseball Rainbows drop WAC opener, 7-2
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The No. 19 Rainbows stumbled out of the gate in their first Western Athletic Conference encounter Friday night at Municipal Stadium.San Jose State ace right-hander Javier Pamus handcuffed the University of Hawaii (16-4) hitters for six innings and Ryan McDermott followed with superb relief as the Spartans prevailed, 7-2.
The game, played in cool but dry weather before 462 fans, was the conference opener for the teams.
Ironically, it was a night that UH starter Randon Ho pitched one of his best games of the season. Bothered by walks in his previous starts, Ho issued just one free pass and trailed by a 3-2 score entering the bottom of the sixth inning.
However, the Rainbows wasted a golden opportunity in the top of the sixth to take the lead. Michael Dartt's infield single, a bloop single to left by Darren Blakely and Neal Honma's bunt single loaded the bases with no outs.
Jamie Aloy followed with a single through the hole to left field that plated Hawaii's two runs and moved Honma to second.
But the UH rally fizzled after that.
"Ho pitched well enough to win," said Hawaii head coach Les Murakami. "But, we didn't play well. We didn't play defense and we didn't execute.
Punahou, Kapaa in girls soccer final
In Saturday night's final game of the 1998 Outrigger Hotels/HHSAA 17th Annual Girls State Soccer Tournament at Aloha Stadium, the Punahou Buffanblu will try to win their first state title since 1986, the last of their four consecutive championships, while the Warriors will fight to be the first Neighbor Island school to take homethe title.In Friday night's first semi-final game, the Warriors routed Kaiser, 3-1, behind the sharp-shooting of sophomore forward Arlene Devitt and thequick hands of senior goal keeper Joanna Petterson.
"We just decided that we really wanted this," Petterson said."It's time that Kapaa came and showed everyone that we could do it."
Devitt racked up two goals and one assist to junior halfback Crissy Marti in the second half, vaulting Kapaa into the finals tonight.
"I owe it to my team, my defense," Devitt said. "They're always working hard so it's my job to work hard for them."
"I was proud of her, of all my girls," Kapaa head coach Valerie Ornellas said. "I feel that soccer is a team sport and we did it together. That's the feeling I like to encourage and (Devitt) knows that the defense works hard for her, the midfield works hard for her, and her job is to convert."
Despite 23 shot attempts by the Cougars, the Warriors came up bigwhen it mattered, putting in three of eight attempts, all of which came in the second half. Devitt added her two goals Friday night to the three others she has accumulated in this tournament.
Punahou, the winner of Friday night's second semi-final game against Castle, 1-0, will work their defense around keeping the ball away from Kapaa's leading scorer.
"Part of defending a really strong player like (Devitt) is to deny her the ball rather than double-team her once she gets the ball," Punahou head coach Debbie Ching said. "We have to basically shut down the other players trying to feed the ball to her."
