Pearl City Lady Chargers capture 2017 OIA Team Wrestling Championship, 3 individual GOLD

Feb 13, 2017 | PC Sports

Congratulations to the Pearl City Lady Chargers who captured the 2017 Oahu Interscholastic Association Girls Wrestling Team Championship by outscoring runner-up Moanalua 190-171 on Saturday, February 11 at Leilehua High School. The Lady Chargers led in team standings after completion of competition on Friday, and pulled away from top team competitors in Saturday's OIA team championship finals.

Five Lady Chargers made it to the individual championship finals, picking up three Gold and two runner-up finishes.

Lady Chargers Individual Champions:

Mikayla Abe 124 Lbs. (3X Champion)

Michele Tanuvasa 170 Lbs.

Jennie Fuamatu 186 Lbs. (2X Champion)

Runner-up Finishers:

Rachel Hunter 129 Lbs.

Jacqueline Fuamatu 157 Lbs.

It's been a very successful OIA regular and post-season led by Charger Head Coach Todd Los Banos and his coaching staff who have guided the Lady Chargers to a trio of championships in 2017 which include; OIA Varsity Dual Team Championship, OIA Western Division Team Championship, and the OIA Team Championship, in that order.

They have their sites set on this weekend's HHSAA State Wrestling Individual and Team Championships scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 17-18 at the Blaisdell Arena. Coach Los Banos is proud of his coaching staff and Lady Chargers who set out at the beginning of the season with the number #1 goal of staying focused and finishing strong.

"Overall, the girls stayed focused this year," said Los Banos. "This whole season, the goal was to stay focused They taught me how to relax and have fun, but hopefully the coaches and I taught them to stay focused, and you know what, they did it. Each round we got better and we got more focused on what we needed to do. The other thing that I told them was that a lot of people set goals, 10% of them actually finish their goals. The last statement to them going to this round was, "let's finish" and they finished well."

My observation is that the team and coaches have a special bond and respect for one another. They also have fun, just like Coach Los Banos mentioned above (not much fun for their opponents while on the mat).