NIIGATA, Niigata (March 27-29) – Three wrestlers from Teikyo high school in Tokyo won individual titles at the national high school wrestling invitational tourney while Kanoya Chuo from Kagoshima won its first ever national high school team title.
Toshiya ABE (50kg), Takuto OTOGURO (60kg) and Taro UMEBAYASHI (66kg), all members of the JOC Academy for elite athletes, all won their respective weight categories for Teikyo.
Abe and Otoguro both won the invitational title for a second time. Otoguro won the high school wrestling triple crown last year with triumphs at the invitational, the high school national championships, and the high school division crown at the National Sports Festival.
Umebayashi, meanwhile, won the cadet national title last year – and later earned a bronze medal at the cadet world championships in July before winning the high school nationals and the National Sports Festival.
Yuto MIWA from Wakayama Kita also repeated as invitational champion, adding the 74kg title to the 66kg crown he won one year ago.
In the dual meet championships, Kyushu regional champion Kanoya Chuo defeated Kanto winner Nirasaki Kogyo high school out of Yamanashi, 4-3, to win its first invitational title since the school’s wrestling club was established in 1995.
Kanoya Chuo was also the first school from Kyushu to win the invitational since Kagoshima Shoko high school won in 1978. Nirasaki Kogyo was also in its first-ever team championship final.
The third place trophies went to Inabe Sogo Gakuin out of Mie and Hiryu of Shizuoka.
Individual Championship Finals:
50kg – Toshiya ABE (Teikyo, Tokyo) df. Ryo MATSUI (Chukyo, Gifu), 6-3
55kg – Takuma TANIYAMA (Kyoto Yawata) df. Kaiki YAMAGUCHI (Kashiwa Nittai, Chiba) by TF, 10-0, 1:20
60kg – Takuto OTOGURO (Teikyo) df. Kojiro SHIGA (Kyoto Yawata), 2-1
66kg – Taro UMEBAYASHI (Teikyo) df. Ryo YONEZAWA (Akita Shogyo) df TF, 10-0, 0:48
74kg – Yuto MIWA (Wakayama Kita) df. Keisuke KITA (Kanazawa Hokuriku, Ishikawa) by Fall, 2:58 (7-0)
84kg – Takashi ISHIGURO (Hanasaki Tokuharu, Saitama) df. Shutaro YAMADA (Akita Shogyo), 6-4
96kg – Sota YAMAMOTO (Hiryu, Shizuoka) df. Koryo NAKAO (Kanoya Chuo, Kagoshima), 6-3
120kg – Delgerbayara PUREVSUREN (Kashiwa Nittai) df. Ushu MORI (Seijo, Aichi), 4-0
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