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Females becoming fixtures in wrestling
By Matt Chaney 2/28/04
The Sedalia Democrat
Recently, when the name Ashley Larsen made the list of regional prep wrestlers headed for state sectionals, some folks did a double take.
Could that be?
Yes, Ashley Larsen is a girl, wrestling for Warsaw High, and almost always against boys.
And she is that good.
As a freshman 112-pounder for the Wildcats, Larsen logged a 10-17 record and reached the consolation semifinals of her sectional -- had she won there, she would have qualified for the state tournament.
"I think Ashley did extremely well for a freshman, regardless whether she's a female," said John Dunham, Warsaw's wrestling coach. "She's really a decent wrestler, and she's only going to get better."
Like it or not, females are now a fixture in wrestling, especially in this region, where Larsen is not unique.
In preps, Nicki Cornine wrestled at 171 pounds this year for Smith-Cotton, and Jessica Schreck competed in the 112-pound division for Tipton.
Moreover, at Marshall, the Missouri Valley College wrestling team is a national power among the handful of collegiate women's programs.
Sports Illustrated magazine recently rated MVC's female wrestling team as one of the more intriguing sports stories in our state, right up there with Bob Costas, Rusty Wallace, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Trent Green.
Meanwhile, today in Pleasant Hill is the fourth annual Missouri Girls Wrestling Championships, open to competitors ages 5 through 18 and sponsored by the United States Girls Wrestling Association based in Ortonville, Mich.
Cornine will be at that state tournament, defending her title won last year at 171 pounds.
A freshman at S-C, Cornine credits her brother Josh -- a senior who placed fourth in Class 2 this year at 160 pounds -- for inspiring her to pursue wrestling. Nicki began at age 5.
"Josh is such a great role model for me," she said. "He's made it to (MSHSAA's) state tournament three times, and he keeps his grades up."
Josh aspires to wrestle beyond high school, as does Nicki.
"Eventually, I'd love to be getting scholarship offers from colleges," she said, adding she already has her eye on MVC.
Josh believes Nicki could make it.
"She'll be tough when she gets up there (college age)," he said.
Legitimate ability, though, is always in question for girls who wrestle, especially against boys. They know some people believe they have no business in the sport.
Both Cornine and Larsen maintain they get no negative feedback from their high school teammates and coaches, just unyielding support.
And regarding any skeptics, including opponents, well, each has her own way of handling them.
"If someone has a problem with it, I don't really care," Cornine said. "Wrestling is what I love."
Larsen recalled that one opponent bragged, before their match, of how fast he would pin her.
Instead, she pinned him.
"A lot of guys, they underestimate me, and they usually end up getting their butts kicked," Larsen said.
Dunham said Larsen's strength keyed her "nice wins for us at dual meets." She said she regularly lifts weights and runs to "stay up with the boys."
Larsen is toying with the idea of dropping enough weight to wrestle at 103, the lightest division that is often marked by inexperienced wrestlers.
"I've seen some of the guys who wrestle at 103, and they don't even know what they're doing," she said.
Larsen is undecided about wrestling in college, but while in high school, she wants to become only the second girl to compete in MSHSAA's wrestling championships.
"And I want to become the first to win a match at state," she said.
I say more power to her -- and to every other female wrestler.
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Saratoga woman puts new spin on wrestling 2/29/04
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
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Colorado Springs -- Every night for the past year, the last thing Patricia Miranda sees before going to sleep inside her tiny cinderblock dorm room at the Olympic Training Center is a sign she taped on the wall near her pillow:
"I'm Gonna Win the Olympic Gold!"
If everything goes according to plan, the 105-pound wrestler might do that in Athens this summer, making history in the process. Women's wrestling is the only new sport added to the Games this year, and with a growing collection of international medals around Miranda's neck, the 24-year-old from Saratoga is one of the most promising Olympic hopefuls on the mat today.
Growing up on the Peninsula, there were no girls wrestling teams for Miranda to join, so she perfected her snap-downs and headlocks on boys. She was the first woman on the Stanford wrestling team, where she grappled for five years and beat a man just once.
Although Miranda had to fight for her place on the mat, her coaches say she could do for wrestling what Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain did for women's soccer, and inspire waves of grade-school girls to wrestle as they do in Japan and Canada.
"Most people don't realize women wrestle, and it's not even entirely accepted by men in the wrestling community," said national women's wrestling coach Terry Steiner. "But Patricia could be a hero for millions of girls who watch the Olympics."
It's overwhelming for Miranda to think about her possible place in sports history, so she tries not to dwell on it. Although she's ranked No. 1 in the United States in her weight class and has a 2003 World Cup championship trophy atop her TV, she must win at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis in May to make the Olympic team.
"I consider myself extremely lucky, but the next step after feeling lucky is complacency, and I can't afford that," said Miranda. She's worked too hard, and withstood too many jokes about female Jell-O wrestling to let the emotion of the moment throw her off her game.
In Saratoga, Miranda was the first girl to wrestle at Redwood Middle School in 1990. Miranda, whose best friends were boys, simply followed her pals when a P.E. teacher formed a new wrestling team.
"I didn't know it was a big deal at the time," she said.
She was pretty evenly matched until she entered Saratoga High, where again she was the first female to wrestle, but this time the boys were bigger than she was.
Fifteen pounds lighter than the smallest men's 125-pound weight-class wrestler in college, she had to bulk up by "lifting weights and eating cheese."
She admits she wasn't very good, and that's exactly why she refused to give up.
"I'd get scared every time I stepped on the mat. But afterward, I got to look inward and ask myself, 'Did I run, or did I fight?' "
Her only victory against a man came after she wore out an Oregon competitor in seven minutes, clinging to his leg and refusing to let go.
"After the referee raised my hand, I thought back to the first time I started questioning myself in the sport, the times I cried in the bathroom as a kid, wondering if I was just a joke," she said.
Not only did she have to convince herself to ignore defeat, she had to convince her father to let her wrestle.
"If Patricia's life were a Greek tragedy, I'd be the chorus," said Jose Miranda, a Brazilian immigrant who feared that his daughter's future in America would suffer if she put education second to sport.
That, and the fact that his girl was going up against men with more muscle.
"I'd see her with the skin on her face all rubbed from the mat, and contorting into these positions that looked just impossible. It scared the hell out of me," he said.
Her father came around after his daughter kept a promise to maintain a 4.0 grade-point average in high school. She graduated with honors from Stanford in five years, with a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in international relations. She deferred an acceptance to Yale Law School until September in her quest for gold.
Now Dad has a ticket to Athens.
"If she wins a medal, she will win it on her own," Jose Miranda said. "She didn't come from an athletic family that flew her around the country to clinics. In fact, she had the opposite. We tried to stop her."
The adversity Patricia Miranda faced on the mat and at home is what honed her into the intense athlete she is today, said her former Stanford coach, Chris Horpel.
"Patricia was dealing with huge weight discrepancies and the gender issue, but because of it she became the example on the team of how to work hard," he said. "If she didn't win, she'd work out just as hard if not harder than the men. She'd do more pull-ups, she'd run a faster mile."
Unlike most collegiate women wrestlers, Miranda was treated as an equal on the Stanford team, expected to come to every practice even though she made the starting lineup only 12 times in her college career.
While women's wrestling has not hit the American mainstream as it has in countries such as Japan, the Ukraine and Canada, it's beginning to catch on. In the past 14 years, the number of U.S. high school girls wrestling on boys' teams has jumped from about 100 to nearly 4,000, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Collegiate women now have their own teams in six schools: Menlo College in Atherton, Lassen College in Susanville (Lassen County); Pacific University in Oregon, Missouri Valley College, Cumberland College in Kentucky, and the University of Minnesota-Morris.
The first women's wrestling world championships were held in Norway in 1988, and U.S. Wrestling added women to its program the following year. Miranda wrestled on the national women's circuit while also competing for Stanford.
At the inaugural residency program for female wrestlers at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, Miranda is adjusting to what feels like special attention after so many years as the exception.
Aside from her world-caliber coach, she has a strength trainer and a sports psychologist. Gyms dot the complex, including a small training room in her dorm. A palm scanner opens the doors to a cafeteria with a host of healthy options and menus listing the fat, calorie and carbohydrate counts for each.
The 30-year-old dorms that house the athletes tell the true story of Olympic sacrifice -- Miranda's room is more like a walk-in closet, has one window at ceiling level, worn carpet and weak fluorescent hallway lighting.
She works out up to eight hours a day except Sunday, and keeps meticulous notes about her diet and exercise. Every day, she records what time she woke up and went to sleep, her meals, her workouts, goals, what she learned, how she felt, what she'll do differently tomorrow.
She keeps a spreadsheet to record how many repetitions of each exercise she does. There's the bono type leg pick, the whizzer position and the gut wrench.
To sweat off pounds in the first week of February, Miranda jogged on the treadmill in leggings, a windbreaker jogging suit, a plastic rain suit and sweats, despite having a fever of 102 degrees. She wore a neck warmer and gloves, and cranked a space heater to full blast. After 45 minutes, she peeled off the layers into a soggy pile, left to take a shower, and re-emerged in a Hello Kitty T-shirt, four pounds lighter.
She needed to drop from her training weight of 115 to 110 pounds to compete in the Dave Schultz Memorial International tournament at the Olympic Training Center two days later.
Inside the Olympic Training Center main gym, Miranda struggled longer than she usually does against her first opponent, from Mexico, but eventually pinned her to win the match. After a feverish nap in the bleachers between matches, she pinned a second competitor from India.
She outwrestled a Canadian before facing the 2002 world champion from Germany. The two women were bent at the waist, circling each other. Miranda, trying to throw her opponent off balance, shot her hands up and put her palm on the German wrestler's forehead.
"That's good! She doesn't like the face!" shouted her boyfriend and fellow wrestler Levi Weikel-Magden, seated in the coach's chair next to the mat.
Miranda executed a single-leg takedown, which earned her a point. Her opponent nearly pulled out of it, but Miranda put her in a headlock.
"NICE!" yelled Weikel-Magden.
The move helped Miranda win the gold medal, with a score of 3-1. The win makes her a two-time Dave Schultz champion.
"Wrestling sick was a good lesson for Patricia," said Olympic women's wrestling co-coach Patricia Saunders.
"I was winded," Miranda said. "I saw openings, but my body wouldn't move. But going up to Athens, this gives me more confidence that I can wrestle technically instead of relying on strength."
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Muscling up to the bar
Body Bar sponsors women's Olympic wrestlers
By Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer
February 29, 2004
The Body Bar seems to be everywhere. The fitness tool is in the neighborhood gyms, used in popular fitness programs and sold nationally through sports retailers.
Now it's in the hands of the USA Wrestling's Women's National Team.
Boulder-based Body Bar Systems Inc., which manufactures and sells the steel bar that is cushioned in foam rubber padding and varies in sizes and weights, is the only sponsor of the squad that will compete in the Olympics for the first time ever this summer.
"It's very important just to have someone back the program, and having someone like Body Bar back it brings credibility to it," said Terry Steiner, head coach of the 21-member team.
In the sponsorship terms, the wrestling squad agreed to incorporate the use of body bars in its training, said Arno Niemand, Body Bar Systems' owner.
Niemand was a former wrestler at Cornell University and has sponsored wrestling tournaments at his alma mater. Jennifer Wolfe, Body Bar Systems' special products coordinator, said Niemand has always been willing to support not only various wrestling organizations, but women's sports as well.
The recent sponsorship was a perfect fit, Wolfe said. "Their debut is extremely exciting," she said. "The women in this program are on the forefront ... it is really inspirational how they have learned this sport on their own and gotten this far."
Niemand founded the company in 1987 when he got the idea from Olympic kayaker Steve Kelly, who was using a padded metal bar in his workouts. Niemand bought the concept from Kelly and started to manufacture the bar. Niemand said the original concept was to market the product as a home workout tool.
However, Niemand and crew saw greater growth potential in the commercial health clubs. The company started doing various trade shows where it became synonymous with group exercise and muscle sculpting, he said.
The Body Bar hit the mainstream in the early 1990s when it was included in Nike's Total Body Conditioning Program alongside The Step, The Slide and The Spri Xercise Band .
"It was a big deal for us," Niemand said. "We were the smallest company on that list. It gave us another kind of push, which was found in the group exercise market."
The product was then licensed to the Step Co., and re-launched in 1999 when the license expired. Body Bar Systems took on a three-pronged effort with launching the product on video and DVD, on the Web site and in the national retail arena at stores such as Galyan's.
Shannon Griffiths, a fitness instructor at Boulder's Pulse Fitness Center, uses the body bar in her "muscles" classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.
"It's a really unique tool. It's padded and women like that a ton," said Griffiths, who has been using the Body Bar for six years. "It's very versatile in that you can sculpt your legs, arms, the full body."
Other area clubs that use the Body Bar include Body Balance, Body Dynamics, Flatiron Athletic Club, Broomfield's Lakeshore Athletic Club, the North Boulder Recreation Center and RallySport.
Jacki Gardner, a group fitness director at the newly opened Lakeshore Athletic Club in Broomfield, said Body Bar products are used in several different formats at the club, including sculpting, strength conditioning, cardio-sculpt and sports conditioning classes. She said club members tend to favor the bar because it's an alternative to the barbell.
"The Body Bar also offers a lot of continuing education. It is very easy to use at home," said Gardner, who uses the bar in three of the seven classes she teaches weekly at the club that opened in November. "I think it's a terrific tool whether it's in the gym setting at class or on the weight floor, as well as just a great piece to have at home."
Wolfe said the company's performance in different markets — including the health club, martial arts and senior markets — is what makes it stand out among its competitors.
While the company has expanded internationally to the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia, the company has more local plans, said Tim Riley, Body Bar Systems' director of business development. He said the company wants to expand to local retail stores, with the possibility of the company opening its own store.
"We want more people to know about us, because most people involved in fitness are familiar with the Body Bar, but a lot of people don't know we're here in Boulder," Riley said. "We want Boulder to be the Body Bar capital of the world."
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Lady Longhorns capture state title
By JOHN KALTEFLEITER
john.kaltefleiter@amarillo.com 2/29/04
AUSTIN - The roar wafted through the stale air of the Austin Convention Center as the public address announcer shouted Palo Duro's second-place point total Saturday evening.
That meant Caprock was on top again.
Though Caprock didn't produce one gold-medal winner at the two-day UIL state wrestling tournament, the Lady Longhorns did all their damage in the consolation brackets and captured their second state title in four years. Their 71 points were 6.5 points better than defending state champion, Palo Duro.
"Nothing could compare to this," said senior Hope Jones, whose last-minute 2-0 upset win over reigning state champ Rachel Billerbeck of Pfugerville in the third-place match proved to be decisive in the team standings.
"When I heard PD was second, my heart stopped. I don't think I've ever been that happy."
After a tumultuous Day I on Friday, the premise of Caprock winning another state title looked rather bleak. Ranked No. 1 in Texas, the Lady Longhorns watched as four of their six state qualifiers were shocked in first-round losses.
But, the Lady Longhorns regrouped in the consolation brackets and racked up point after point. That surge proved to be the difference.
"Coach (Ronnie) Johnson told us that we had to have faith," Jones said. "Faith can move mountains. We moved some mountains today."
Besides Jones, regional champ Lindsey Bohensky came through with an important third-place finish against El Paso Hanks' Awbrey Lowe.
In a rematch of a Region I final, Bohensky staved off a late surge by Lowe and garnered her first bronze medal with a 9-8 win.
"We talked about it and we decided that we were going to fight for this thing," said a tearful Bohensky, who watched as Johnson was named the tournament's most outstanding head coach after the finals.
While the Longhorns missed out on gold medals, the same couldn't be said about the Lady Dons. Palo Duro, which came into Saturday toting a first-place lead with 52.5 points after qualifying three wrestlers, departed Austin with three state-title winners.
It started with junior Brittany Owens. The 119-pounder, who captured bronze last year, used a reversal late in her finals match with undefeated Deseree Cazares and won gold with a close 7-5 victory.
Cazares, who was 35-0 entering the match, was up 5-2 when the third period started, but made a costly miscue and allowed Owens to get her on her back for one of the few times this year.
"It can change that quick," said Owens, who ends the season with a 27-2 mark. "I knew that if it could change that quick for her, it could change that quick for me. And it did."
Her teammate, 148-pound Annie Thomas, also took home gold Saturday afternoon. Tied 1-1 with one second remaining in double overtime, Thomas got up from the down position and narrowly escaped from Fossil Ridge's Emmy Thompson (33-3). The quick move gave her a 2-1 win and her second gold medal in two years.
"She had a pretty tight grip on me," said Thomas, who finishes with a 24-3 record. "I heard my coach (Steve Nelson) counting down the time and I knew I had to push myself away from her."
Perhaps PD's biggest victory, however, came in the 185-pound final. The Lady Dons' Theresa Fennell, who didn't qualify for state in 2003, was pitted against highly-touted Jessica Surratt of Hurst L.D. Bell. The two entered the finals 1-1 in earlier matches this season.
But when it counted, Fennell turned on the aggressiveness.
Surratt vaulted to a 6-0 lead, but Fennell chipped away at the deficit and eventually took a 9-8 lead that she never relinquished. It was Fennell's first gold medal.
"This was my last year and I really wanted to win it," said a relieved Fennell. "Most of my matches really get going in the third period."
Hereford's Astrid Gomez, a former state champion and a silver medalist at 138 pounds a year ago, dominated Katy's Stephanie Haver in her 128-pound finals match.
The 16-0 technical-fall win gave Gomez and Hereford its third UIL individual state title in the brief history of its girls wrestling program. She was named the tournament's most outstanding wrestler for her two-day performance.
"I knew I had to get first place," said an elated Gomez, who defeated all four state-tourney foes by way of technical fall.
"Being a senior, there's a lot of satisfaction in this."
Also turning in a breakout performance was Amarillo High's 165-pounder Clarissa Dalke. Though she was handily pinned in 3:31 by El Paso Eastwood's Tressa Yocum in the finals, Dalke's silver-medal finish was an impressive run at the two-day tourney.