LAS VEGAS — Taylor Takata's dream has become reality.

For that matter, so has Clarissa Chun's.

Takata won the 145.5-pound men's judo division and Chun captured the 105.5-pound women's freestyle wrestling division at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling and Judo at the Thomas and Mack Center yesterday.

Takata, 26, becomes the third judoka from Hawai'i to represent the United States in the Olympics and first since Clifton Sunada in 1996.

"It's an honor," he said. "I've been training so hard for this, I just tried to do everything right."

Takata, from Wahiawa, lives and trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The top-seeded Takata beat No. 2-seed Jeremy Liggett in the 5-minute final. Takata drew a penalty on Liggett for stalling to open the scoring with 3:10 left. He then threw Liggett with a left uchimata (inner thigh throw) midway through the match, which was called an ippon by the center referee. However, the two side judges overruled and down-graded the score to a waza-ari. Takata added a yuko on a leg pick and drew another stalling penalty to hold off the 19-year old Liggett.

After the match, the 2000 graduate of 'Iolani and member of Liliha's Shobukan Judo Club, pointed to a Hawai'i contingent of about 50 in the crowd.

"They made me feel like I could do it," Takata said. "It's humbling to see how many people came to support me."

Takata pinned eighth-seeded Tanner Singh, of Dallas, in the quarterfinal round to win by ippon then held off No. 4-seed Justin Flores in the semifinals, to win by two yukos. Takata, a three-time U.S. senior national champion and two-time World Team member, scored on a tomoe nage (circle throw) and inside foot sweep.

"He's a great player. That was the guy I was focusing on the whole time I was training," Takata said of Flores, who he had never beaten before. "I knew I was going to have to play at my best to beat him."

Chun, a 26-year-old from Kapolei, beat longtime rival Patricia Miranda to punch her ticket to Beijing. Chun also avenged a loss to Miranda in the finals of the 2004 trials.

"I'm so happy. I was almost going to cry (on the mat)," Chun said. "It's been an incredible journey, but it's all worth it."

Chun, a 1999 Roosevelt graduate, becomes the first wrestler from Hawai'i to earn a spot on a U.S. Olympic Team.

"In 2004, I was an alternate and I got to go to Athens and see everything and I was jealous, I wanted to be there," Chun said.

Chun was the third seed in the Challenge Tournament, which Miranda — who won a bronze medal at the Athens Games — sat out as the senior national champion, to set up the best-of-three final.

Miranda beat Chun at April's Senior Nationals in a controversial match.

"A lot of people told me after that I won that match," Chun said. "I drew confidence from that."

Chun won the first bout, taking two of the three 2-minute periods. In the second match, the two wrestled to a scoreless tie after one period. Chun won the period on a tiebreaker. She successfully defended Miranda's takedown attempt for 30 seconds to win it.

"I heard her say that my head was down, so I knew that she was asking for that point," Chun said. "I just knew that I could not give up that point, because if she doesn't score then I get the point and win the tiebreaker."

Chun held off another takedown try by Miranda in the second period, which also drew controversy. The referee ruled that Miranda did not earn any takedown points and that the wrestlers were in a neutral position. However, the decision did not go over well with Miranda's coach, who requested — and received — a video-replay review with 22 seconds left in the period.

"My coach told me 'Just wrestle.' Even though I had won the first match, I just kept thinking it was zero-zero," said Chun.

Chun sealed the win — just her second over Miranda and first since 2002 — with a quick takedown at the restart and ran out the clock to take the second period and match.

Chun, a three-time University Nationals champion, beat Alyssa Lampe by technical fall in the quarterfinal round, then topped Sara Fulp-Allen, two rounds to one, in the semifinals. She also beat Mary Kelly in the Challenge Tournament final in two rounds.

Eight others from Hawai'i fought in yesterday's divisions.

Thirteen-year-old Mindy Chow — the youngest competitor at the trials — may have made the biggest splash of the bunch, finishing as first alternate at 115 pounds. She won three matches and lost one.

However, because the U.S. team did not qualify in that weight for the August Olympics, the champion (Washington's Tracy Nagai) will only go to Beijing on a "contingency basis." That is, if there are enough declinations from qualified countries, a spot would open for Nagai. If she cannot attend, Chow would then replace her.

Mindy's older sister (Chrissy) and brother (Daniel) lost their opening-round matches in the women's 115-pound and men's 145.5-pound divisions, respectively.

Waimanalo's Christian Aarona fell in a quarterfinal upset to seventh-seeded Victor Jean-Baptiste.

Honolulu's Sadie Kaneda, a 2004 graduate of Roosevelt, lost both of her matches in the 105.5-pound women's freestyle division. Kaneda was pinned by Mary Allen in the quarterfinal round then lost a decision to Fulp-Allen.

Wailuku's Shyla Iokia went 3-2 in the women's 121.5-pound freestyle division and Pearl City's Cherae Pascua went 2-2 and defeated Iokia in the preliminary round.

Honolulu's Stephany Lee finished third in the women's 158.5-pound division after a first-round upset loss.

Three others with local ties take the mat today.

Pukalani's Grant Nakamura will compete in the 121.5-pound men's freestyle wrestling division while Melinda Swanson fights in the heavyweight (over 171.75 pounds) wrestling division and judoka Andrew Hung takes on the 178.5-pound weight class.

Nakamura is a 2001 Baldwin graduate. Swanson, who is originally from Minnesota, is a graduate student at UH-Manoa while Hung is a 2003 Pearl City graduate competing out of San Jose State.