If all goes according to plan, Hilo High senior Lilliane Toledo will toss her opponents around all season, then get a ride of her own from coach Ryan Taniguchi.
BIIF wrestlers hit the mats for the first time in almost two years Saturday at the Vikings’ gym, where the smiling Toledo shared a steely and singular focus.
“The goal is to be state champion at 184 pounds,” Toledo said.
She does have a family legacy to uphold.
Toledo placed fourth at the HHSAA championships two years ago, the second-best result in her ohana that day. Leona Toledo, then a senior, claimed the crown at 225 by defeating a two-time state champion, then she got a celebratory hoist courtesy of the 140-pound Taniguchi.
“I honestly want to be better than my older sister,” Lilliane said.
She’s the second-youngest of Lukas and Toafa Toledo’s six children, and each has carved out their own niche with the Vikings. Evalani (Class of 2014) was a standout volleyball player and won a BIIF shot put title; Taulelei (2016) played on BIIF championship football teams and then at Linfield College; Kuresa (2018) was the BIIF Defensive Player of the Year for the 2017 state football champion; and Pamata is on the girls basketball team.
Having four older siblings “has helped me a lot,” Lilliane said. “It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations. It honestly makes me tougher. Being a Toledo is a great push.”
Competing at 225 pounds Saturday, she earned three easy pins, but the plan is for her to begin her decent plan to 184 this week.
During a normal wrestling season, Hilo would have sent a contingent of wrestlers to various preseason tournaments on Oahu to sharpen their skills against the best in the state. Leona Toledo, for example, had the benefit of having already faced Kahuku’s Tangiteina Niutupuivaha when the two met in the state final two year ago. Leona used some of that experience to pull off a 7-2 win after being pinned Niutupuivaha a few months earlier at the Pa’ani Challenge.
Lilliane won’t have that luxury this season, though she’s not taking her BIIF competition lightly.
“That just means I’ll have to train harder and put in extra work in the weekends,” she said
While all BIIF wrestlers were working out the kinks after a lost 2021 season because of the pandemic, the situation for Kamehameha’s Luke Klask was as little different. Klask, a junior, had to sit out last season anyway after transferring from Waiakea. Instead of falling behind any of his competition, everyone had to sit.
“It was a relief, but I felt bad for my (senior) friends who didn’t have their last season,” Klask said. “For me, it was good timing. It gave me a lot of time to train, mentally and physically.”
He’s put a lot of work in the past two years, he said, on a wrestling mat in his garage, and it showed.
Competing for the first time since breaking his collarbone his freshman season, Klask reeled off three pins Saturday at 132, and he hopes to use the effort as a springboard toward winning a state title.
“It felt fantastic to be wrestling again,” he said “I can’t even put into words. It just felt good to be home.”
“Home” this Saturday is a meet at Keaau High, and Cougars coach Keith Fernandez has at least three prime contenders.
Zysha Pavao, fourth in the state at 132 as a freshman two seasons ago, could make her season debut, and two transfers to watch are Akeakamai Cariaga (145) and Arionna Beatty (138).
Cariaga is a sophomore from Oahu who has a Las Vegas tournament win in Las Vegas on his resume.
“High hopes there, lot of room to improve,” Fernandez said. “He’s one of our more confident, experienced wrestlers.”