LAHAINA — Saturday, May 16, 2009, will long be remembered in wrestling annals here on the West Side, as the Lahaina Roughnecks of Maui Style Wrestling captured the Hawaii AAU State Championships title at Lahaina Civic Center.

Keyed by nine first place finishes, the Roughnecks piled up 84 points to edge Valley Isle rival Central by two points and bring home the first state championship ever for West Maui.

Molokai was close behind with 75 points, followed by Napili in fourth place with 64 in the field of nearly 500 competitors from all across the state.

But this was a day for the Lahaina boys and girls. The gold rush began early in the day as Liam Chandli took first place in the Menehune Division for kids ages 5-6.

Daisha Ann Kahoalii-Kalilikane beat all comers in her Bantam (age 7-8) group; Kauila Medeiros, Souta Nardi, Dean “Aki Boy” Miyamoto and Kaonohi Hamakua won gold medals in the Midget (age 9-10) Division; Ansen Cabanilla and Lalelei Mata‘afa took first place in the Novice (age 11-12) class; and Tytus Lucas won a crucial championship match in the School Boy Division.

Also picking up important points for the Roughnecks were Menehunes Noah Lorenz-Bradley and Austin Saribay; Bantams Isaiah Niles, Ty Bates and Davyn-Lee Ching; Midgets Josiah Sombelon-McEwen, Lotu Pulu and Shiloh Lopez; and Novice wrestlers Izaak Domingo, Christian Balagso and Conrad Bolor.

The long list of Lahaina point winners in the School Boy/School Girl Division included Noah Camara, Jansen Domingo, Gio Perez, Dylan Bartolome, Bronsen Leopoldino, Jina Miyamoto, Ho‘o Cabanilla, Kele Balagso, Wayne Alybin and Alisha Costen-Chung.

Lahaina head coach Conrad Bolor, finishing his 12th year in leading the Roughnecks program, was visibly pleased with the club’s first AAU State Championship.

“This is awesome for our club, and awesome for the Napili group as well,” he said last week. “I told (Napili coach) Doug Wyckoff that this win was not only for Lahaina, but that WE won this.”

Coach Conrad, who was assisted by Todd Hayase, Ashley Hayase, Steve Marugaki, Terry Shibao, Chris Nardi, Nathan Williams, Isaiah Pulu, Neal Nakata, Nick Nakata, Shane Cunanan, Christian Carbajal, Victor Chimal and a long list of high school helpers, praised the work of Kim Ball, as well as Lindsay and Momi Ball, in promoting and organizing all of the meets this year.

“Kim Ball is just a crazy worker,” said Bolor. “He is the behind the scenes guy who is up late at night and up early in the morning getting things organized, and Lindsay and Momi are the ones that keep things going on the event day.”

“I am just so happy that the foundation set by former Roughnecks Travis Okano, Ryley Mayo and Lake Casco has led to this championship. The Lahaina and Napili programs just keep growing and growing with a total of around 130 kids coming out for this season. We had to add another day of practice for Lahaina because we had so many kids registered. The fourth day made it a little tough, but it’s all worth it in the end,” Coach Conrad said.

“It looks like we’re really set for the future in the high school team with so many eighth-graders coming up to wrestle. It’s really good for the West Side, and our only problem is finding a room big enough for all the kids!”