By Nathan Park
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Junior Dayton Furuta reached a wrestling milestone at the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) Varsity Wrestling Championships, held at Leilehua High School on Feb. 22 and 23. With the help of his family and friends, Furuta won the tournament for the first time in his three-year wrestling career with a score of 7-4.
“I was happy because this was the first year I earned the OIA championship. Freshman and sophomore year I won the West but was always a runner-up in the OIA (championship),” expressed Furuta.
The tournament consisted of a multitude of matches, the final being the closest. “When it started I had an early takedown and then (my opponent) had an escape and ended the first round with the scores 2-1. In the second round, he took me down and I got an escape. Then I hit a throw in the end which, the score was 4-3, ended the second round. In the final round he got an escape so it was tied 4-4,” explained Furuta. Going into double-overtime, Furuta was hit with a tackle, but then escaped and hit his opponent with the final takedown, which ended the tournament.
In practicing for the tournament, Furuta trained with partners with different wrestling styles. “I’d give him different players, maybe one guy would wrestle strong and another would wrestle fast. That way, when he steps onto the mat he would be prepared,” explained varsity wrestling assistant coach and Alumnus Jeffrey Sanchez, who was Furuta’s wrestling partner for two years while he was a team member.
In addition to the regular wrestling practices, Furuta worked with coach James Millwood to get extra training. “He wakes up at 6:00 a.m. and he goes to the gym and Coach Millwood helps him out with weight training, kind of like speed increment drills and he kind of uses that to cross train for wrestling,” said his father Dayne Furuta.
With practices being so time consuming, Dayton Furuta had to carefully plan out each day so he could balance his schoolwork and chores. “We have him write down everything he wants to do and we try to make it as simple as possible,” said his mother Lii Furuta.
During the season, Dayton Furuta’s four siblings Palyia, Tia, Tayzha and Teahani Furuta worked with him to lessen his workload. “If they see heís involved down with the books then he might ask them to feed his dog, take out the trash, help him out, you know. Just to take something off of his plate,” added Dayne Furuta.
As Dayton Furuta continues his high school wrestling career, he hopes to one day achieve his ultimate goal of winning the Varsity Wrestling State Championship.
