Kubasaki's Joshua Cope, voted the Rumble tournament's Outstanding Wrestler, uses a gut wrench to tilt St. Mary's Luke Kojima in the 127-pound final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – At just 5 feet tall, Annika Farin is about as diminutive as one might find on a wrestling mat.
But on Saturday, the junior and the rest of her Red Devils teammates towered over the opposition. Farin won her weight class and Kinnick captured the team title in the 10th Rumble on the Rock, outscoring host Kadena 60-45.
It was the first Rumble tournament and the first DODEA-Pacific inter-district tournament to feature an official girls division. And Farin and her teammates said they were proud of their achievement.
“It’s crazy,” Farin said after pinning Sayako Yamaoka of Seisen in 1 minute, 5 seconds in the 103-pound final. Four Kinnick girls won their weight divisions.
“There’s a future” for girls wrestling in the region, Farin said, “and there’s a place now where girls can thrive.”
Farin was joined by Red Devils weight-class champions Julia Blackwell (124 pounds), Audrey Snyder (131-138) and Holly Albright (145) in a girls division that featured six weight classes.
Girls wrestling got the green light this season from DODEA-Pacific as a pilot program at Kadena and Kubasaki on Okinawa. The Red Devils have seven girls on their varsity and will wrestle multiple teams as a team.
Rumble was the first Pacific in-season invitational to feature a girls division; a second one is expected at the “Beast of the Far East” tournament to be hosted Jan. 11 by Tokyo’s St. Mary’s.
“I love getting to wrestle girls. It’s awesome,” Snyder said, adding that in years past it has been “frustrating to wrestle guys” who tend to physically dominate matches against girls. “Any match, no matter whether I win or lose, I learn something every single time.”
Kadena’s Jasmine Kinney captured the girls 160-180-pound division and Serenity Carney of the Panthers won at 110-117 pounds.
On the boys side, Kadena’s island rival Kubasaki won the team title with 104 points, far outdistancing the Panthers (72), St. Mary’s (63) and Kinnick (57). Two Japanese schools, Hokubu Norin (42 points) and Urasoe Technical (24) were also entered.
In a title bout between teammates, Kadena's Serenity Charney lifts Reagen Pellerin airborne en route to a pinfall victory in 5:46 in the Rumble's girls 110-117-pound final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kinnick's Julia Blackwell looks to finish off Seisen's Olivia Erdos in the Rumble girls 124-pound final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Two-time defending Far East champion Josiah Drummer gains the advantage on Kinnick's Joseph Mauldin, whose left hand is taped following a dislocated finger suffered during the 145-pound Rumble semifinal. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki's Tim Cope, a reigning Far East tournament champion, gets sent airborne by Yuu Tamashiro of Hokubu Norin in the 133-pound Rumble final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kinnick wrestling coach Stan Hovell keeps a list of his Rumble wrestlers’ performance as well as eyeing the live stream of the tournament at Matthew C. Perry, where 21 of his athletes wrestled. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
The Red Devils divided their numbers, sending 12 boys and seven girls to Rumble, while 20 boys and one girl traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni for a DODEA-Japan six-school individual tournament.
It meant a long day of multitasking for Red Devils head coach Stan Hovell, who kept an eye on the two mats in the Ryukyu Middle School gym as well as the live stream from the Perry event on two computers.
“We’re doing well,” Hovell said about halfway through the Rumble. His Red Devils took third place behind Zama and Yokota at the Perry tournament.
The Rumble boys division featured six returning Far East tournament champions, and they met with mostly successful results.
Two-time reigning Far East champion Josiah Drummer, a Kadena junior, may have come upon his most fierce rival this season in Red Devils senior Joseph Mauldin.
In the 145-pound semifinal, Mauldin suffered a dislocated finger on his left hand. He had it put back in place. Then, shaking off the pain, he nearly pinned Drummer twice before losing by technical fall 20-10.
“There’s definitely people who are going to be coming after me,” Drummer said of being a known entity. “I know I might wrestle him again” at “Beast” and perhaps at Far East as well.
“I need to better my conditioning and my tie-ups,” Mauldin said, adding that his shot entries were sub-par against Drummer. “Next time, if he’s on the ground, I’ll get him.”
Drummer ended up winning the weight class by pinning Kubasaki’s Justin Higgins in the final. The other two-time Far East champion entered at Rumble, Nathaniel Twohig of St. Mary’s, took the 152-pound title.
Max Lundberg of Kubasaki was victorious at 160 pounds and St. Mary’s Roman Leyko at 189.
The lone returning Far East champion who did not win his weight class, Kubasaki’s Tim Cope (133), took his finals opponent Yuu Tamashiro of Hokubu Norin to the wire before losing 12-12 with Tamashiro scoring the last point.
Cobras basketball teams sweep WJAA tournament titles
E.J. King basketball teams of both genders enjoyed a splendid weekend in the Western Japan Athletic Association tournaments, the boys at Senri-Osaka and the girls at Canadian Academy.
Jeremy Phillips scored 30 points and the Cobras boys pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Yokohama International 72-38. It’s the Cobras’ third WJAA title in the last four tries dating back to 2019; the 2020 tournaments were called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the girls final, twin seniors Miu and Moa Best combined for 51 points and the Cobras downed Matthew C. Perry 58-42 for their third straight WJAA crown and fourth in the last nine years.
