American School In Japan 133-pounder Cadell Lee, a former Virginia state champion, takes control of St. Mary’s Nathaniel Twohig en route to an 11-0 technical-fall victory in the final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – Different locale, same result.
Cadell Lee, a former Virginia state champion now at American School In Japan, trumpeted his entrance to the Pacific wrestling scene, capturing the 133-pound title Saturday in his first major tournament appearance.
The junior beat Nathaniel Twohig of St. Mary’s 11-0 in 2 minutes, 47 seconds in Saturday’s 133-pound final of the 31st Nile C. Kinnick Invitational “Beast of the Far East” tournament.
“I’m in a different country doing the same thing when I was in Virginia,” said Lee, who wrestled the last two years at Brooke Point High School in Fredericksburg, Va. “It’s kind of cool to go to a different country and put up the same result.”
Lee and his freshman brother, Malcolm, a 121-pounder, helped lead the Mustangs to a sixth-place finish in the “Beast.”
The top six teams finished just 19 points apart. St. Mary’s won with 51 points. Kubasaki was the top DODEA-Pacific finisher with 48 points, host Kinnick and Kadena shared third place with 45 points and Shonan Military Academy took fifth with 35.
Lee’s parents are affiliated with the State Department in Tokyo. Lee has already earned an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
His ASIJ coach, Adam Carlson, said Lee began wrestling at 4 years old “and just took to it.” As an eighth grader in 2021, Lee took second at 94 pounds in the prestigious USA Wrestling tournament at Fargo, N.D.
“He’s got a great attitude and is a good teammate,” Carlson said. “He knows how to help people get better.”
Kubasaki's Gavin Ocampo takes charge of American School In Japan's Malcolm Lee en route to a 10-0 technical-fall victory in the 122-pound final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki's Tim Cope puts away Kadena's Samuel Valdez in 52 seconds to win the 129-pound "Beast" final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Nile C. Kinnick 145-pounder Will Mitchell gains control of American School In Japan's Julian Drysdale. Mitchell won the final by pin in 2 minutes, 19 seconds. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki's 172-pounder Kaiser Armour tosses St. Mary's International's Roman Leyko en route to a win by pin in 4 minutes, 53 seconds in the weight-class final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena's 215-pounder Jeremiah Drummer repeated as a "Beast" champion, pinning St. Mary's Jimin Kim in 21 seconds. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
The ”Beast” tournament, which began as a local event featuring just Kanto Plain teams back in 1994, has long served as a region-wide tune-up for the DODEA-Pacific Far East tournament, this year scheduled for Jan. 29-31, also at Kinnick.
With the top six teams at “Beast” so close points-wise, coaches said they expect Far East to be similar.
“It will be competitive,” said Kadena coach Joey Wood, who wrestled for Kinnick during the mid-2000s.
Among the top “Beast” finishers, St. Mary’s Hiroyuki Sen (114 pounds) and Luke Yamada (160) each won their weight classes, and the Titans also got four runner-up finishes.
Kubasaki had the most weight-class winners with four: Gavin Ocampo (121), Tim Cope (127), Kaiser Armour (172) and heavyweight Anthony Finegan. Kadena’s Jeremiah Drummer was the lone repeat champion at 215 pounds and his teammate Tre Shears won at 189.
“Not a bad showing. You can’t ask for better than that,” Kubasaki sponsor David Wray said, both of his Dragons and Okinawa as a whole.
Joseph Mauldin (139) and Will Mitchell (145) of host Kinnick each won their weight classes, but reigning “Beast” heavyweight champion Bobby Crisafulli came in second to Finegan by an 8-0 decision.
The other two weight classes were won by Shonan’s Akira Kaneko (152) and Hanano Ohya (107); the latter was voted the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler by the coaches.
Wood and Wray each said their teams gained much at the “Beast,” but still have work ahead of them before the Far East tournament.
“We want our first-place guys to stay on top of their game,” Wray said. “Winning at ‘Beast’ is one thing. Winning at Far East is entirely something else. We (Kubasaki and Kadena) have two more dual meets to fine tune things. And there’s never an easy match between us.”
“We have some work to do,” Wood said, “but we’ll make adjustments.”
