A four-time wrestling state champion, Nanea Estrella was honored on the national level with the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award.

LAHAINA – In a school year that has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lahainaluna High School’s 2020 athletic achievements will nonetheless be highly regarded in the long and illustrious history of the Valley Isle’s oldest learning center.

High school sports across the state saw the spring sports season cut short, but the winter and fall schedules played out and the Red Tide of the West Side stood tall once again.

On the gridiron, the Lunas extended their Maui Interscholastic League and Hawaii High School Athletic Association championships to four consecutive titles, and on the hardcourt, the Lady Lunas captured another MIL championship trophy. And on the wrestling mat, both the boys and girls teams took home MIL gold.

The Lahainaluna Athletic Awards Banquet is usually held at the end of the school year to honor the teams and individual leaders of all of the sports teams. There will be no ceremony this time around, but Athletic Director Scott Soldwisch was determined to honor the student-athletes across the board that contributed to the torch of excellence and continued to lead and define the Lunas.

“I’m really disappointed that we were unable to hold our athletic banquet this year. We will be honoring the recipients in a different way this year. I look forward to seeing our student-athletes back in action representing our school and community soon,” said Coach Scott.

Josh Tihada was selected to the HHSAA Hall of Honor 2020 Class.

Leading the way in the 2019-20 school year were two of Lahainaluna’s outstanding student-athletes. Honored as the Outstanding Athlete of the Year: Male/Female, and Most Distinguished Senior Athlete: Male/Female were Joshua Tihada and Nanea Estrella.

Both were also selected to the HHSAA Hall of Honor 2020 Class, and Estrella was further recognized, this time on the national level, for the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award that recognizes the nation’s most outstanding female wrestlers for their achievements in wrestling, scholastics, citizenship and community service.

Nalu Ho from the boys soccer team, and Hailey Bogar representing the water polo and swim teams, were honored as the 2020 Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

In the individual sports awards, the honorees were Noa Bauchman and Maydelyn Sajor for riflery; Kealula Medeiros for baseball; Abby Akamine and Tre Rickard for basketball; Shayla Bosque in cheerleading; Hailey Cardon and Johann Flores for cross country; Tuipulotu Lai and Joshua Tihada for defense and offense in football; Joa Navarro, Ian Chapital and Gretchen Olson for golf; and Sean Freitas and Jadyn Neary for paddling.

Makena Cowan and Nalu Ho were recognized by the soccer teams; the softball award went to Lily Kamaunu; girls surfing honored Madison Runyon, while the boys team recognized George Rocha; Lexi Anderson and Jaden Yip were the outstanding swimmers; Challys Pascual and Kekailoa Cajudoy are the tennis honorees; MJ Domingo is the boys volleyball selection, while Aulani Casco DeLeon and Taylor Ganer were the girls volleyball winners; the water polo team recognized Hailey Bogar, Tyli Cherry, Makena Cowan and Lele Oliveira; and the wrestling coaches honored Nanea Estrella and Jesse “Fatty” Dudoit.

Congratulations to all, and especially to the senior-athletes for their contributions to the integrity and honor of all sports programs at Lahainaluna. Imua!