PRESS RELEASE – The Father Duenas Friars Wrestling team travelled to Honolulu, Hawaii the day after Christmas to compete in the Moanalua High School Holiday Dual Meet Wrestling Tournament.
FD Friars with host team Moanalua boys and girls teams. (courtesy photo)
The varsity wrestling tournament took place on December 27-28, featuring top high school teams in Hawaii, including the defending state champion, Kamehameha-Kapalama and the six-time state champion Punahou. Also participating in this year’s tournament were AC Davis from Yakima, Washington and a team from Samoa.
The Friars travelling roster consisted of 18 members, combining varsity and junior varsity wrestlers of the recently completed IIAAG season. The first day of the tournament had teams separated into four pools, with FD facing Pearl City, Pac-5 and St. Louis.
The Friars completed the day with a 1-2 record, beating St. Louis and losing by a narrow margin to Pac-5. Pearl City finished top in the pool and ended up taking 3rd place in the tournament.
In the consolation bracket, on the second day of the tournament, the Friars won their first match over Kahuku-Samoa and lost by 4 points to AC Davis of Washington. In the final match, for 3rd place in the consolations (10thplace overall), the Friars and host Moanalua wrestled to a 34-34 tie, with an official tie-breaker point going to the host, for more 1st points scored during the dual.
This may be the first time that a high school team from Guam has participated in an “official” interscholastic high school sports event in the U.S. Considering that this tournament featured high school wrestlers that are nationally ranked, the outstanding performance of these wrestlers was true evidence that our island’s wrestlers are clearly capable of competing at a national level.