what if hakari didn't participant previous exchange event.
he did. he was a second year then and the exchange events is only for 2nd and 3rd years.
infact yuta was added to match numbers.
the exchange event happens in september every year if you work out the timeline.
in vol 0, yuta was brought in as a transfer student to jujustu high in september. he participated in the tournament after weeks of jujutsu training.
and hakari wasnt suspended until december when geto's parade happened.
to put things into perspective, hakari was overshadowed by a noob yuta who just joined.
and he didnt even manifest rika fully. [ofcourse yuta was hard carried by rika partially manifesting but that isnt the point here]
the current yuta, who has control over his cursed energy and rika is levels ahead of the noob yuta.
no matter how you see it, yuta outclasses hakari. hakari might be an exceptionally strong grade 1, but the special grade sorcerors are just built different.