The Titans had an outstanding year – capping it off with another Far East Championship!
Click here for a recap of the Far East Championship
Seniors Riku Osawa (158), Lucas Shiraki (115) and Alberto Orsara (129) all capped off their final year in a Titan singlet by providing the backbone for a team that set new standards for future Titans to aspire to.
With standout sophomore wrestler Chang Young Lee (108) finishing his second consecutive undefeated season; underclassmen Ryo Osawa (122), Ryan Vascancellos (135), Kazu Kawashima (141), Itsuki Shibahara (148), Rio Lemkuil (115) all either winning or taking runner up in key tournaments; Eshan Singhi (101) and Mitchell Krcelic (168) coming through with strong “end of season” performances and developing heavyweights Nilay Hingarth (180) and Leon Arara (215) the Titan’s should remain a force to be rekoned with next year.
To celebrate the season and recognize the contributions of wrestlers, coaches and parents, the Titans held their annual HS/MS Wrestling Award Banquet at the Tokyo American Club on February 18th. As Coach Yabui commented prior to recognizing his individual high school team members, “It’s difficult selecting recipients of these awards when you have 6 Far East Champions and 2 Runners up but only 7 awards to give out. Every one of these wrestlers deserves an award because this was truely a team effort in winning Far East this year.”
The 2014-2015 Titan Wrestling Award winners were:
Middle School
High School
Wall of Fame Inductees:
Varsity Lettermen:
2014 – 2015 Major High School Tournament Results:
Beast of the East at Kinnick High School – January 10
The Beast of the East tournament is the second largest tournament next to the Far East tournament. Teams of the Far East and a Japanese school were represented including the 6 Kanto schools, Kubasaki, Seoul American, MC Perry, Edgren, and EJ King.
The Titans took Second Place as a team with some standout performances by:
Knights Invitational at CAJ – January 31, 2015
Although this tournament saw a few of the top wrestlers in the league being rested in preparation of the Kanto Plain tournament as they were nursing injuries, the field remained strong and the Titans had 5 champions. Perhaps a window into what we’ll see from some of our lighter weight wrestlers in the future, the Titans dominated the 122 lb weight class with our grapplers sweeping all 4 places.
Kanto Plain Tournament at St. Mary’s – February 7, 2015
Even with 7 Champions and 2 Runner-ups, the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler (Kazu) and hosting the event in the Titan gym – this title remained an elusive one. The 100 – 97 loss to Kinnick came down to the final heavyweight match of the tournament (one which St. Mary’s did not have a wrestler in), so as the Kinnick wrestler took out his opponent the Titans once again left this one saying “next year.” Although not a full slate of JV matches, the Titans continued to show us more of what we can expect from our underclassmen next year by sweeping the 122 lb and 129 lb weight classes.
Team Scores:
- Kinnick 100
- St. Mary’s 97
- American School in Japan 38
- Christian Academy Japan 31
- Zama 26
- Yokota 13
Individual Results:
Varsity
Outstanding Kanto Plain Tournament Wrestler: Kazuho Kawashima
Junior Varsity