Kai Harbert wrestled much of the season – and missed the better part of a month – with a left knee injury, and was just cleared to wrestle in time for the Far East tournament.
Having lost a chance at back-to-back Far East Wrestling Tournament individual weight-class titles, Haydn Peterson said he simply didn’t want lose again.
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea – Going from Florida state champion to DODEA-Pacific Far East champion in the span of a year, Colin Nation also helped Kubasaki repeat as Far East individual freestyle team champion.
Seizing three weight-class titles, including heavyweight by senior and two-time Far East champion Marshall China, Matthew C. Perry surprised the field Saturday by capturing its first title in the DODEA-Japan wrestling finals at Zama.
Though Nile C. Kinnick’s wrestling team came in third in Saturday’s Kanto Plain finals, the team standings were so close that even one early-round match could have made a difference, coaches said.
They finished fourth, losing four times in the Kanto Classic last January. But coach Daisy Whitaker-Hayes called the three-day tournament at American School In Japan a “pivotal point” in Zama’s bid for its first DODEA-Japan and Far East Division II Tournament titles.
Reigning two-time Far East champion Eiji Kasahara won the 129-pound weight class, one of five St. Mary’s wrestlers to claim weight titles, and the Titans won Saturday’s Christian Academy Japan Invitational, outscoring Nile C. Kinnick 94-70.
Meanwhile, at Yokota, American School In Japan won four weight classes, including last year’s Far East tournament Outstanding Wrestler Rin Zoot at 148 pounds, to win the Yokota Invitational.
