Hawaii Grown: Iowa State teammates meet on the mat

Dominated high school wrestling in Hawaii, Kysen Terukina and Corey Cabanban ranked # 1 on the Hawaii Prep World pound-for-pound rankings for four consecutive years from 2017 to ’20.

The hypothetical “what if” question should they ever wrestle is now answered daily as they fight for the state of Iowa in the same weight class.

These daily practice bouts took to the main stage 11 days ago when the two nationally rated wrestlers defeated to the £ 125 finals of the Daktronics Open in Brookings, SD. to reach

Terukina, a 2020 Kamehameha alumnus, defeated the 17th wrestler in the Nebraska division, while Cabanban, a 2018 Saint Louis graduate defeated the No. 6 from northern Iowa to advance to the finals.

“I never thought something like this would happen for the same school,” said Terukina. “We both make it through the tournament and then meet in the final as the two top dogs – I never thought it would go so quickly.”

The final went to the end when Terukina scored a takedown five seconds from time to make the decision.

“There’s nothing like having two Hawaiian kids here and outdoing each other and competing against each other,” said Cabanban. “We’ve grown up wrestling together all our lives, so we know each other’s style – it’s literally like a game of chess.”

Cabanban grew up with Terukina’s older brothers and Kysen’s father, Darryl, was their club coach.

They both made the high school slam and won four state titles before getting together in college in Iowa.

Cabanban, a Redshirt junior, wrestled once last season after fighting unbound at 15-10 in his sophomore year and 23-7 as a freshman.

Cabanban said he made the most of his summer time to focus on the upcoming season.

“I think I needed to be home and back with my family, refocus my mind and find my love for the sport,” said Cabanban. “When I came back here everything came together when I needed it. I was pretty confident in my training because I was pretty focused and I want to go out and show what I have to offer. “

In the first double games of the season last weekend, Terukina took the nod at 125 against Army and won a 12-3 majority decision.

Cabanban was selected to wrestle the California Baptist at 125 and won 2-0.

Competitive wrestling in the same division did not affect their friendship, according to either of them.

“Of course it’s on your mind that your really good friend is the one you are wrestling, but at the end of the day you know what’s at stake and it’s a starting point that you don’t want to lose.” said Terukina. “Especially when you know if you take it easy against him you will lose.”

Terukina graduated from Kamehameha during the COVID-19 pandemic and started his college wrestling career in a barn about 20 minutes from campus because the school’s facilities were not available.

Since every wrestler received an additional year of eligibility due to the pandemic, all newcomers arriving were allowed to fight for starting places instead of wearing red shirts.

Terukina beat enough of his teammates to land at £ 125 and qualified for the NCAA championships as a true freshman.

“I mean, I always wish I could do better, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to wrestle in the NCAAs,” said Terukina. “I planned to do a red shirt this year. I shocked myself how quickly I could compete with so many good wrestlers. “

The Cyclones have two duals and a tournament later this month before ending the year on a two-week hiatus.

They’ll be returning for a home game in 2022 before embarking on a much-needed road trip across our west that starts in Tempe, Arizona and gives Terukina a chance to escape the cold.

“Yeah, (the snow) was cool for about a week and after that I thought, ‘I have to go home or the snow has to go,'” he said.

COREY CABANBAN

>> school: State of Iowa

>>Great: Junior (red shirt)

>>Weight class: 125 pounds

>>Secondary school: Saint Louis (2018) Kysen Terukina

>> school: State of Iowa

>> Great: Second year

>> Weight class: 125 pounds

>> Secondary school: Kamehameha (2020)