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Desi Lockhart is national women's wrestling champion

By Patrick J. Sullivan
Leader Staff Writer 3/24/04

National collegiate champion.

Few Jefferson County natives have ever had that title attached to their name, an honor earned March 20 by Desi Lockhart of Adelma Beach.
Lockhart, 21, a 2001 graduate of Port Townsend High School, won her 55 kilo (121 pounds) weight class at the first-ever Collegiate Women's National Championship Tournament.

A junior at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., this is Lockhart's third year of college wrestling. She has finished as high as third in national tournaments, but her goal has been to become a champion.

"I really wanted a national championship," she said Tuesday. "I wanted it for my college coaches and my coaches back home."

The youngest child of Kim and Dan Lockhart has always been athletic. She stuck with volleyball and fastpitch softball in high school, but gave up basketball as a ninth-grader to try wrestling. "I wanted something more physical than basketball," she noted.

Midway through her sophomore year, she began competing with the boys' team - the fourth female ever to do so. She thanks coaches Joey Johnson and Nick Harper for their encouragement. As a sophomore, she became the first PTHS female to win a wrestling match.

When choosing a college, she focused first on academics, then on athletics. At Pacific University she thought about turning out for softball, then learned the school had a women's wrestling program.

"I decided to turn out just for fun, but it soon became my goal to be a national champ," she admitted.

She competed well the previous two seasons, placing in national events that involved Canadian athletes, and adults. Last year she earned All American status.

This season, her college coaches joined with others to start a national tournament just for females attending American colleges. This first-ever event was hosted by Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. Most of the colleges involved are Division III institutions.

This has been an abbreviated wrestling season for Lockhart. She studied in France last fall as part of an exchange program, and returned to college competition in January.

While in Montpellier in the south of France, she used her "wrestler's radar" to spot a guy at a gym who looked like a wrestler. Sure enough, he introduced Lockhart to a wrestling club where she kept in shape wrestling against a mix of high school and college wrestlers.

"I had more experience than most of them, so I actually got to teach a bit," she noted.

Back in Oregon, she compiled a 2-5 win-loss record before sweeping to three decisive wins last Saturday. She won her first match by a pin, won her second match 16-5, and won the final 10-0. Her eight-member team placed third overall. She was gratified to see that two women who had defeated her earlier this season were competing in much heavier weight divisions, confirming her suspicion they were not equal opponents in the first place.

There is a possibility this could be Lockhart's swan song for collegiate wrestling. Approaching her senior year, she must decide if dedicating the time for wrestling is possible, considering the academic load and internship responsibilities she faces to graduate in 2005.

She is earning a degree in social work. Her eventual goal is to work with juveniles and prison inmates, and someday open her own drug rehab facility on a ranch.

"I feel good having accomplished my goal of becoming national champion, so there's less stress as I make the decision of what to do next year," she said. "Of course, it would be nice to come back as a defending national champ and win again."

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Braves' Borowski holds her own on the mats

By DAREN TOMHAVE
Times Herald 3/25/04

When Brittney Borowski speaks, her teammates listen.

Her coach, Ken Meinhardt, describes the Chippewa Middle School eighth-grader as a leader -- a quality he spotted two years ago when Borowski was a student in his gym class.

"In gym class, she was the one yelling at the kids on all of their stretches," Meinhardt said. "I turned to the other teacher and I was like, 'Man, check her out.'"

So, Meinhardt approached Borowski about trying out the sport he coaches -- wrestling.

Four of Meinhardt's wrestlers this season were girls, and he said a few of the teams the Braves wrestled had similar rosters.

Borowski, for one, doesn't look at wrestling as a chance to challenge stereotypes, or to make a statement.

Rather, the best part about wrestling, Borowski said, can be summed up in a word.

"Winning," she said.

She has done her share of that, finishing 11-1 at 105 pounds as the Braves rolled to a 10-0 record -- their second undefeated season in as many years -- en route to a St. Clair County Intermediate Athletic Association title.

Borowski's only loss came Saturday against teammate John Knisley in the 105-pound final of the SCCIAA tournament at Croswell-Lexington Middle School.

She also will compete this weekend in the United States Girls' Wrestling Association National Championships at Lake Orion High School.

Borowski competed in the championships last year, finishing eighth at 95 pounds.

"The girls there are going to be way better than me," said Borowski, who finished second in her weight class in the USGWA Midwest Championships in February, as well as the USGWA Michigan Girls Wrestling State Championships on March 14. "You go there for the experience. I don't expect to come in first against girls who have been wrestling for five and eight years."

As a seventh-grader, Borowski wrestled about half the season on Chippewa's varsity team before she was beat out for her spot in the starting lineup.

That drove her during the summer, which she spent working out and developing her skills.

"It felt really good," Borowski said of landing a starting spot. "I'm a girl, and it's a lot harder for me. Being a girl, I don't have the strength that boys do, so I have to be more technical in my moves."

That, Meinhardt said, is Borowski's strength.

"Her improvement has been great," he said. "She's actually one of our better wrestlers in going from move to move. If one move doesn't work, she'll try something else."

Borowski not only emerged as a staple in the lineup, her leadership skills also have been a plus.

"She was a leader in class," Meinhardt said. "She made the girls and the boys listen to her (in class), and the boys were kind of afraid of her. She's got that personality, and the wrestlers like her from that point of view."

As far as meshing with a predominantly boys team, it apparently hasn't been an issue.

"There's no difference," said Chippewa 130-pounder Andy Pesta, whose sister Heather also is on the team. "It actually makes it better ... just that there's girls on the team beating guys from the other schools."

Borowski already has an eye on her freshman year at Port Huron High. In addition to working out, Borowski is watching what she eats and continues to hone her skills on the mat. She also plans to keep active -- Borowski also plays softball -- and avoid "hanging out with the wrong crowd."

"It's hard work, but you have to work hard to be good," she said. "It's never easy."