Kamehameha senior Kayla Araki lay on a Las Vegas wrestling mat dejected and defeated, and, by her own admission, sportsmanship wasn’t first and foremost on her mind.
Until she got heckled.
“My body felt dead and I wanted to quit,” Araki said, “but someone yelled at me.”
Araki, who was joined by a handful of supportive Warriors’ teammates, would go on to finish second at the amateur national wrestling tournament in late October, but as she prepares to embark on her final BIIF wrestling season and another relentless push for elusive state gold, it’s the snapshot of that moment that she lay on the mat that she remembers most.