KAHULUI — While Baldwin and Lahainaluna high schools fought the battles for the team titles at the Maui Interscholastic League wrestling championships on Saturday, separate individual contests filled the Shine Matsui Athletic Center with drama all night long.

Perhaps the most intriguing storyline of the night involved the pursuit of history by Lanai High School’s Diesel Del Rosario, who rolled to the boys 120-pound title.

Del Rosario won the MIL crown at 120 last year — becoming the first sophomore in Lanai history to win a league wrestling crown — but he missed the Texaco/HHSAA state tournament due to a concussion he suffered in the MIL tournament.

On Saturday, Del Rosario beat Maui High’s James Ibuos 17-2 in the first round, pinned Baldwin’s Noah Vida-Paet in 1 minute, 27 seconds, in the semifinals, and beat Baldwin’s Keona Holokai-Basa 20-5 in the final.

This week at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie, Oahu, Del Rosario is chasing his school’s first state title of any kind, in any sport.

“It’s big, I really want it, I want it bad, to be the first state champ from Lanai,” Del Rosario said. “I hope it would be big. I have, like, the whole island behind my back, basically. I just want to win it for the whole island.”

With just four practice days between arriving home via ferry on Sunday and the state tournament beginning on Friday, Del Rosario said practice is key this week.

Del Rosario knows who will be his biggest obstacle at the state tournament: Logan Lau of Mid-Pacific Institute dealt the Pine Lad junior his only loss this season, in the Officials tournament semifinals on Oahu on December.

“I feel like I can get better in the few days we have,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty confident I can make it pretty far in states.”

The MIL championship match that followed Del Rosario was Happy Nitahara of Kamehameha Maui claiming the 126 crown. After two pins, Nitahara won the final 4-0 over Baldwin’s Randy Esperanza.

It was the senior’s first MIL crown and started a run of three straight titles for the Warriors–defending state champion Mikah Labuanan followed with the crown at 132 and Nainoa Silva won at 138.

“It feels good, like, that (finals) match, I knew I could just do better after, but a win’s a win for now,” Nitahara said. “We’ll work on it this week.”

Nitahara plans to go on a two-year chuirch mission following graduation in May, meaning this week may mark the end of his wrestling career.

“The way I performed, I know I can do better,” Nitahara said. “If I bring the performance that I do at practice, I’m guaranteed to win. I know I can. … Right now, this is the main priority. We’ll see what happens after that.”

Anjolie Manaba, a Molokai sophomore, she won the Farmers’ only MIL crown, at girls 102, in five finals for the school. Manaba’s teammates and coaches swarmed her with congratulatory hugs after her pin of Maui High’s Hayley Sedino in the final.

“I’m really proud of myself, I didn’t think I could do it, but I had my teammates cheering me on,” Manaba said. “This whole season I’ve been talking about how scared I was and how I didn’t want to wrestle, but I’m glad I really have a good support system.”

With the state tournament this week, Manaba admitted, “I’m still scared, but, you know, I think it’ll be OK.”

Sedino beat Manaba twice in their previous meetings two weeks ago, avenging a win for Manaba in the early season.

“I told my teammates, maybe I will tie it up 2-2,” Manaba said. “I have no words.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.