Nanakuli wrestler Analu Woode makes history by capturing national title
· Yahoo Sports
Nanakuli’s Analu Woode is the king of Hawaii when it comes to high school wrestling.
Now you can call him the king of the nation.
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Woode, a two-time Hawaii state champion going into his junior year, won the 113-pound freestyle national title with a pin in the final at the prestigious U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D., on July 18.
In doing so, Woode became just the second Fargo Junior Champion from Hawaii.
“In Hawaii history, we only had one other person to ever win it (the Fargo nationals) — Travis Lee (Saint Louis’ three-time state champion) 25 years ago,” said Woode’s coach/father, Kamuela, a retired Marine.
Woode went 7-0 in the tournament, with four of his first five victories coming on technical falls (10-point differential). His only pin came in the championship against the 2025 U17 Greco-Roman World Team member Thales Silva of California.
Woode, with short blonde hair, trailed 3-0 after the first three-minute period — matches were two three-minute periods — with Silva scoring on single-leg step-outs.
But at the start of the second period, Woode shot at the legs of Silva, turned him and pinned him 15 seconds in.
“I’d say, very excited, but I knew I had it in me to win,” Woode recalled in a calm and measured response.
His reaction was much different immediately after the stunning pin.
Woode was pumped, clapping and screaming, “Let’s go!,” then did a back flip.
“That was the first time I actually did it (a back flip),” he said. “I didn’t think. I just went.”
It was a culmination of three days of high-level competition for the rising Golden Hawks junior.
Not only did he beat a world team member, Woode beat two returning Fargo champions — Nathan Schuman of Pennsylvania 10-0 and Turner Ross of Oklahoma 12-2 — to become the best out of 120 wrestlers in his weight class.
Woode was named the Outstanding Wrestler for the Junior Boys (ages 16 to 20) Freestyle Division and also was chosen Wrestler of the Week by USA wrestling.
“Pretty stoked about that,” Woode said.
“To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised (to win) because I kind of believed in myself the whole time,” he said. “I knew I was going to win because I trained really hard.”
Woode says he trains twice a day, seven days a week, except for Sundays, when he trains only in the morning.
“The morning one is mobility, with light weights, and the evening is wrestling and conditioning.”
The 5-foot-8 Woode, who won state titles at 113 pounds his freshman year and 120 this past season, combines quickness, strength and technique, but he says his super power might be his “creativity.”
He said he’s been wrestling since he was 6.
“My parents put me in soccer, but they found out I wasn’t really a team player, so they had to put me in an individual sport,” Woode said. “So they threw me in wrestling and I found out I loved wrestling.”
It was Woode’s second national title this year. He also won the National High School Coaches Association national title at 113 pounds in Virginia Beach after the state wrestling season in March.
“That’s where you get ranked in your class,” Kamuela Woode said.
“They ranked him as the No. 2 overall in the country,” he said. The No. 1 wrestler (Ariah Mills of Georgia) “didn’t wrestle because he was injured. He won the worlds last year.”
Woode was one of 27 wrestlers from Hawaii who competed in the tournament in the Junior Nationals (16-20), the 16-under (14-16) in the disciplines of freestyle and Greco-Roman. Some wrestled in both categories. Woode only wrestled freestyle.
Beside Woode, the highest finisher was Kamehameha state champion Auriana Wakinekona, who took second in the Girls 16U 115-pound freestyle division.
Leilehua state runner-up Leivelle Alejado took third in the Junior Girls 95-pound division.
Four others — Moanalua 2024 state champion Sky Ramos (100-pound division), Pearl City 2025 state champion Chloe Obuhanych (115), Kamehameha 2026 state runner-up Hepua Salter (115) and Moanalua 2026 state runner-up Ava Asing (190) got fourth-place finishes, all in freestyle.
The event, held at the Fargodome from July 10 to 18, featured matches taking place on 30 mats, with only the finals being held on one mat.
“It’s the biggest high tournament in the nation. And the hardest,” said Kamuela Woode, a youth counselor who runs the Golden Backs MRTC wrestling club in Waipahu. “Fargo is the cream of the crop.”
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