St. Mary's heavyweight Chidi Agbo gets the upper hand on Yokota's Jesse Hogan during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. Agbo, one of four reigning Far East tournament gold medalists, pinned Hogan in 2 minutes, 55 seconds. (Hannah Mae Greer Hicks/Special to Stars and Stripes)
St. Mary's heavyweight Chidi Agbo gets the upper hand on Yokota's Jesse Hogan during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. Agbo, one of four reigning Far East tournament gold medalists, pinned Hogan in 2 minutes, 55 seconds. (Hannah Mae Greer Hicks/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Nile C. Kinnick 115-pounder Quincy McCants gets the upper hand on Zama American's Eric Otero during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. McCants won a two-period decision 8-0 and 6-1. (Hannah Mae Greer Hicks/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Yokota 101-pounder Shintaro Clanton grapples for the advantage with St. Mary's Ray Okuno during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. Clanton pinned Okuno in 3 minutes, 54 seconds. (Hannah Mae Greer Hicks/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Zama American 180-pounder Mitchell Harrison wrenches the shoulders of Nile C. Kinnick's Aaron Stravers to the mat during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. Harrison pinned Stravers in 3 minutes, 34 seconds. (Sheina Marie Staley/Special to Stars and Stripes)
St. Mary's 129-pounder Soma Yoshida tries to lift Christian Academy Japan's Yuma Fuseya during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals at St. Mary's International School, Tokyo. Fuseya won by two-period decision 4-1, 4-2 over Yoshida, one of four reigning Far East tournament gold medalists, and improved to 3-0 against Yoshida this season. Fuseya was voted the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler by the coaches. (Sheina Marie Staley/Special to Stars and Stripes)
TOKYO – From Yokota’s section of the stands at St. Mary’s International School gym came a shout: “Far East, here we come!”
The spectator had good reason. Four Panthers won titles and three others took second as Yokota won the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools wrestling finals team title for the third time in five years.
While it stamped Yokota as one of the teams to beat going into the Far East tournament Feb. 13-16 at Yokosuka Naval Base, Panthers coach Brian Kitts refused to take that for granted.
“We knew a year ago it would come down to Yokota and St. Mary’s,” Kitts said of his Panthers and the team that won the Far East team championship last February. “Right now, it’s a dogfight. In another week, we go do it all over again.”
Shintaro Clanton (101 pounds), Trenton Traylor (135), Stanley Speed (168) and Jake Jackson (215) paced Yokota’s gold rush, while Jesse Hogan (heavyweight), Chantz Yazzie (122) and Seth Wall (148) settled for runner-up finishes.
Yokota netted 84 points to 80 for St. Mary’s, which finished second for the third straight year. Nile C. Kinnick, Kanto team title winners in 2009 and 2010, finished third with 70 points.
The Panthers and Titans have traded team titles throughout the season. St. Mary’s won last month’s “Beast of the Far East” invitational at Yokosuka and the All-Japan dual-meet event at Zama American, while Yokota won the American School In Japan Invitational in December.
“The entire Yokota and St. Mary’s teams (are) stepping up,” Kitts said, adding, however, that the Titans still claim the biggest prize.
“St. Mary’s is the (Far East) champion until somebody knocks them off. They’re still the team to beat. It will take a lot to beat them, the luck of the draw, some upsets here and there.”
“I hope it works out just like last year,” Titans coach Ian Harlow said. “It’ll make my kids hungry again.”
The Titans finished second despite winning just two golds, reigning Far East heavyweight champion Chidi Agbo and Kaimi Miyazawa (108). Quincy McCants (115), Zach Lacaria (148) and Alex Banks (158) won titles for Kinnick.
Coach Gary Wilson referred to his Red Devils, Far East individual freestyle team champions in 2010, as a Far East “darkhorse.”
“We’re on the outside looking in,” Wilson said. “We have a very young team. We have a long way to go. Yokota has really been impressive the last couple of weeks. We need a lot of things to go right, some intervention between Jesus and Tim Tebow.”
Zama American, fifth with 23 points, got titles from Chad Wilder (141) and Mitchell Harrison (180).
Yuma Fuseya (129) of fourth-place Christian Academy Japan (31 points) beat reigning Far East champion Soma Yoshida for the third time this season and was voted the Kanto tournament Outstanding Wrestler by the coaches.
