The family atmosphere among the Maui Interscholastic League wrestling ranks has always been immense, but this week for the Texaco/HHSAA state championships, the MIL family feeling has never been stronger — or more literal.

Five sets of MIL siblings have qualified for the state tournament that takes place Friday and Saturday at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie, two pairs from Baldwin High School, two sets from Lahainaluna and one pair from Molokai.

Baldwin MIL champions Toa Mata’afa-Grove, a 215-pound senior, and his sister Teata Mata’afa-Grove, a 135-pound sophomore, are seeded Nos. 1 and 2 in their weight classes, respectively.

Toa Mata’afa-Grove is 17-2 on the season and is in his second year with Baldwin wrestling after spending much of the last two years attending high school in Pennsylvania — he finished fourth in Hawaii at 195 last year.

He’s happy to be with one of his younger sisters in the same wrestling room, nestled in the back of Jon Garcia Gymnasium.

“It’s really great to spend my last year with her,” Toa Mata’afa-Grove said Tuesday. “She’s a sophomore, she’s going places, I can definitely see it. I just try to be there for her, give her good advice, just to help her keep her mindset, tell her that she needs to be focused.

“So, that’s a big thing, but also being in her corner, cheering her on.”

Toa Mata’afa-Grove expects to see his sister on the medal stand again — she was second in the state at 138 last year as a freshman.

“She has it this year, I believe … she’s going to take state champs,” Toa Mata’afa-Grove said. “She drives me to do very well. It definitely pushes me, she’s a motivator for me as well. When I see her go out there and do her thing, it just pushes me to try to one up (her) because as siblings there’s kind of like a competitiveness.

“If she does good, I want to do good. One up, but it’s all out of love.”

Teata Mata’afa-Grove, 24-3 on the season, is a little quieter than her older brother but acknowledged that she too finds motivation from her sibling.

“I’m pretty excited and nervous at the same time,” Teata Mata’afa-Grove said Tuesday, adding that her state runner-up finish last season at 138 “pushes me more to do better than I did last year.”

Teata Mata’afa-Grove said having big brother in the room, “helped me, it pushes me more. It’s cool.”

Baldwin’s Nai Hasegawa is the MIL boys runner-up at 165 and sister Sanairee Hasegawa is the champion at 120, forming the Bears’ other pair of state wrestling siblings.

Sanairee Hasegawa is seeded fourth in her weight class with a 23-4 record.

Molokai’s Kayce Dudoit, a senior who is 16-2 on the season, won the girls 105 title at the MIL championships on Feb. 10, and her younger brother Jona Dudoit was second at 120 for boys.

Kayce Dudoit is the No. 3 seed in her weight class after missing last season’s state tournament with an injury while she was at Lahainaluna — she placed third in state as a sophomore at 102.

“It feels amazing to have another relative and somebody to be there with you the whole entire way,” Kayce Dudoit said Tuesday. “You have the team, but you feel like he’s a lot closer and he understands everything.”

Kayce Dudoit moved home to Molokai after the deadly Aug. 8 wildfire in Lahaina.

“It’s all kind of hitting me now, but it’s not a time to feel sorry and show all the emotions,” Kayce Dudoit said. “Just gotta keep going.”

Wrestling has been the topic of conversation at the Dudoit household recently.

The main subjects?

“To not give up and to just give it our all,” Kayce Dudoit said. “Even if we lose we’ll both still be proud of each other.”

Lahainaluna also has two pairs of siblings who will be competing this week.

One pair of Lunas sisters are both MIL champions — Shansi Boaz-Vasquez is a junior and the 155 MIL champion, seeded No. 4 with a 15-5 record, while Siana Boaz-Vasquez is a sophomore and the 125 MIL champion and state top seed with a 13-1 mark.

“I’d say it’s pretty cool,” Shansi Boaz-Vasquez said. “She is my partner for practice, so we do butt heads a lot. We make each other better because we’re very honest. We get mad at each other most of the time, but it’s very honest. With that honesty we can then make the little corrections.”

The younger Boaz-Vasquez sister competed in Maui Style Wrestling for the Lahaina Roughnecks as a youth and with the help of their mother Leshan helped convince her older sister to take up the sport in high school.

“A lot of fun, my sister is actually my partner in wrestling, so I feel comfortable with her as my partner knowing that she is my sister,” Siana Boaz-Vasquez said. “I like that we’re both in the same household. We both know what each other needs to work on basically.”

The final pair of MIL state wrestling siblings is Lahainaluna’s Cy Yasutake, who was the MIL champion at 113, and brother Chase Yasutake was third at 120. Cy Yasutake, a freshman, is the No. 7 seed in his weight class with a 10-2 mark.

“We push each other a lot because I feel like we know what we’re both capable of,” Cy Yasutake said. “And I know that we can, like, push each other past what we think we can do and just pump each other up.”

Chase Yasutake, a junior with a 12-4 record, was in perhaps the toughest lower weight class among MIL boys, which was won by three-time MIL champion Diesel Del Rosario of Lanai, who is the top seed in the class with a 19-0 mark.

The Yasutakes are practice partners in the Lunas wrestling room.

“We definitely push each other,” Chase Yasutake said. “I’m a highly competitive person in general, so I don’t want to lose to him. … When he beats me he talks about it all the time.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.