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2004 Olympic Team Trials - Women
Bout-By-Bout Report
WT 48
Championship First Round
1 #9 Caitlyn Chase (Unattached) DEC #8 Julie Gonzalez (DSWC) D 7-1
2 #11 Elizabeth Torres (Pacific) DEC #6 Hana Askren (Santa Monica Bay) D 9-4
3 #10 Miriam Jenkins (Marines) WBF #7 Kristen Fujioka (Team Hawaii) F 2:05
Championship Quarter-Finals
13 #1 Clarissa Chun (Gator WC) WBTF #9 Caitlyn Chase (Unattached) T 12-2; 3:48
14 #4 Laura Felix (DSWC) DEC #5 Katie Kunimoto (Gator WC) D 7-0
15 #3 Sara Fulp-Allen (Menlo) DEC #11 Elizabeth Torres (Pacific) D 7-5
16 #2 Mary Kelly (NYAC) DEC #10 Miriam Jenkins (Marines) D 9-2
Consolation Second Round
30 #8 Julie Gonzalez (DSWC) DEC #10 Miriam Jenkins (Marines) D 3-1
31 #5 Katie Kunimoto (Gator WC) DEC #6 Hana Askren (Santa Monica Bay) D 3-2
32 #9 Caitlyn Chase (Unattached) WBTF #7 Kristen Fujioka (Team Hawaii) T 10-0; 2:24
WT 55
Championship First Round
4 #10 Grace Magnussen (DSWC) DEC #8 Danielle Hobeika (DSWC) D 7-6
5 #6 Lauren Lamb (Michigan WC) WBTF #9 Courtney Martell (Unattached) T 10-0; 4:17
6 #7 Tina Pihl (NYAC) DEC #11 Cheryl Wong (DSWC) D 5-0
Championship Quarter-Finals
17 #1 Tela O'Donnell (DSWC) WBTF #10 Grace Magnussen (DSWC) T 14-3; 5:59
18 #5 Stephanie Murata (Sunkist Kids) DEC #4 Marcie VanDusen (Sunkist Kids) D 3-2
19 #6 Lauren Lamb (Michigan WC) DEC #3 Erin Tomeo (Sunkist Kids) D 4-1
20 #2 Jenny Wong (Sunkist Kids) DEC #7 Tina Pihl (NYAC) D 8-1
Consolation Second Round
33 #7 Tina Pihl (NYAC) DEC #8 Danielle Hobeika (DSWC) D 10-8
34 #4 Marcie VanDusen (Sunkist Kids) WBF #9 Courtney Martell (Unattached) F 0:51
35 #10 Grace Magnussen (DSWC) DEC #11 Cheryl Wong (DSWC) D 5-0
WT 63
Championship First Round
7 #9 Leigh Jaynes (NYAC) DEC #8 Tina Arnds (Missouri Valley) D 5-3
8 #5 Stefanie Shaw (Unattached) DEC #12 Mollie Keith (Missouri Valley) D 6-0
9 #4 Vanessa Oswalt (Simpson) DEC #13 Iris Mucha (Cumberland) D 4-3
10 #6 Tori Adams (Gator WC) DEC #11 Suekoila Shelly (Cumberland) D 2-2
11 #7 Brandy Rosenbrock (Rosenbrock WC) DEC #10 Shelly Ruberg (Cumberland) D 14-5
Championship Quarter-Finals
21 #1 Sally Roberts (Gator WC) WBTF #9 Leigh Jaynes (NYAC) T 14-4; 4:30
22 #5 Stefanie Shaw (Unattached) DEC #4 Vanessa Oswalt (Simpson) D 5-3
23 #3 Kaci Lyle (Sunkist Kids) DEC #6 Tori Adams (Gator WC) D 3-2
24 #2 Alaina Berube (NYAC) WBF #7 Brandy Rosenbrock (Rosenbrock WC) F 2:15
Consolation First Round
25 #13 Iris Mucha (Cumberland) DEC #12 Mollie Keith (Missouri Valley) D 2-1
Consolation Second Round
36 #7 Brandy Rosenbrock (Rosenbrock WC) DEC #8 Tina Arnds (Missouri Valley) D 6-4
37 #6 Tori Adams (Gator WC) DEC #13 Iris Mucha (Cumberland) D 5-0
38 #4 Vanessa Oswalt (Simpson) DEC #11 Suekoila Shelly (Cumberland) D 8-3
39 #9 Leigh Jaynes (NYAC) WBTF #10 Shelly Ruberg (Cumberland) T 10-0; 2:56
WT 72
Championship First Round
12 #8 Ali Bernard (Minnesota Storm) DEC #9 Kelly Branham (Missouri Valley) D 4-0
Championship Quarter-Finals
26 #1 Stephany Lee (Missouri Valley) DEC #8 Ali Bernard (Minnesota Storm) D 9-5
27 #5 Nina Vernon (Gator WC) DEC #4 Iris Smith (Army) D 3-1
28 #3 Katie Downing (Sunkist Kids) WBTF #6 Randi Miller. (DSWC) T 11-0; 1:28
29 #2 Kristie Marano (NYAC) WBTF #7 Elena Mena (West Side) T 10-0; 3:26
Consolation Second Round
40 #7 Elena Mena (West Side) DEC #9 Kelly Branham (Missouri Valley) D 4-0
Tournament Schedule
Friday, May 21
10:00 a.m. - Challenge Prelims
5:00 p.m. - Challenge Quarters
Saturday, May 22
10:00 a.m. - Challenge Semifinals
5:00 p.m. - Challenge Finals
Sunday, May 23
10:00 a.m. - Finals #1
3:30 p.m. - Finals #2
5:30 p.m. - Finals #3
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High school Olympic hopefuls take to the mat in Indianapolis
5/21/2004
Jason Bryant/USA Wrestling
At a glance, spectators watching Mat 1 in the first session of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Ind., might not have noticed anything different about Stefanie Shaw’s 6-0 victory over Molly Keith.
Spectators also might not have paid too much attention to the age of Vanessa Oswalt as she stepped to the mat immediately after Shaw’s win, and beat Iris Mucha 4-3.
Shaw and Oswalt are two of six high school students wrestling this weekend for a chance to make the inaugural U.S. Olympic women’s freestyle team.
For Caitlyn Chase, a sophomore at Illinois wrestling powerhouse Glenbard North, the hardest part is simply telling people where she’s going.
“My friends at school really don’t understand the training that goes into something like this. They say, ‘Oh, you’ll win it,’ but I have to explain to them just because I win at high school nationals that doesn’t mean I’m going to win here.”
The high schoolers went 5-1 in the first round, but the road got tougher … a lot tougher.
Only Shaw remains in the championship bracket and the could be the trend-setter for future women’s Olympic hopeful, should she knock off world bronze medallist Sally Roberts, win the finals of the challenge tournament and then beat Sara McMann twice.
It’s a long shot.
Jimmy Carr made the men’s freestyle Olympic team in the 1972 Munich Games while in high school and Mark Fuller made the team in Greco-Roman in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Chase fell to top-seed Clarissa Chun 12-2 at 48kg in the second round. Vermont’s Courtney Martell fell in the first round to Lauren Lamb. The only fall recorded was by Minnesota’s Ali Bernard at 72kg, as she bested Kelly Branhan of Missouri Valley.
Malinda Ripley, a resident athlete at the Olympic Training Center and former women’s high school wrestling standout, isn’t wrestling this weekend. She’s recovering from elbow surgery. But Ripley, two years removed from high school, remembers the 2000 U.S. Open in Las Vegas she entered as a junior in high school. She was the proverbial “deer in the headlights.”
“My first year in opens was the same way. I went out there in shock and lost to two girls I shouldn’t have. I was like ‘Oh my gosh!’” Ripley said.
For Chase and Bernard, the second round, they were the deer and two challenge tournament top-seeds were the trucks barreling down at them. Bernard fell to Stephany Lee 9-5.
Shaw and Oswalt met in Friday night’s quarterfinals with Shaw winning by pin at 5:23 with a 5-3 lead and the right to meet Roberts in Saturday’s semifinals.
“I’m so overwhelmed right now,” Shaw said.
“I can always count on her (Oswalt) to give me a good match.”
A junior at Westport (Conn.) High School, Shaw is wrestling in only her second senior-level event. Her first was the regional qualifier in Brockport, N.Y. … last month.
Should a loss come and the Cinderella run ends for the six pre-collegians, 2008 is already in sight, but in wrestling for the 2004 team, a loss is still a loss.
“(My advice) is not to get discouraged when you move up to something new. It’s supposed to be difficult, but it will come,” Ripley said.
“Going from high school and winning all the time, I had to learn how to lose; then you learn how to win again.”
Chase sees not her age being a factor, but the fact she lacks the senior level experience needed to have a chance to be successful.
“These women have the experience and they’re used to their bodies. They’ve all wrestled each other, and I haven’t wrestled them before because they were at the senior level,” Chase said.
Mary Kelly, a sophomore at McMurray College in Illinois, routinely competed in Fargo at the Cadet and Junior Nationals against the boys and has been wrestling (and winning) in senior level events since she met the required age of 17.
“(Wrestling on the senior level) makes you feel like you have more of an edge when competing on your own level,” Kelly said.
Shaw and the rest of the high schoolers in Indianapolis this weekend are building for the future.
“It shows me, if nothing else, I can say ‘I made it this far.’ I’ve always wanted to try for the Olympics,” Shaw said
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5/21/2004
Jason Bryant/USA Wrestling
The second session of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis gave the 6,388 fans in attendance a lot more to cheer about. The upset of the tournament so far was at 96kg in men’s freestyle. Jon Trenge of the New York k AC, took a redshirt this year in an attempt to make the U.S. Olympic team, used a two-point first period gut-wrench and from the clinch, forced Challenge Tournament No. 1 seed Dean Morrison into a fleeing the mat caution and one point to earn a 3-0 victory.
Morrison, also of the New York AC, has been Daniel Cormier’s toughest competition in the last year, was knocked out of contention for an Olympic berth.
Trenge will face Tommy Rowlands in the semifinals. Rowlands beat Damion Hahn 4-0 in overtime to secure a semifinal berth. Rowlands used two one-point takedowns, and led 2-0 at the end of regulation. Rowlands immediately tried a head-throw off the whistle and in a flurry, came out with a two-point back exposure and the victory.
In Men’s freestyle, top seeds Sammie Henson (55kg), Mike Zadick (60kg), Joe Heskett (74kg), Cael Sanderson (84kg) and Steve Mocco (120kg) all advanced.
Sunkist Kids’ Tony Davis took Heskett into overtime before Heskett garnered the winning point on Davis’ broken lock in the clinch. Seconds later on an adjacent mat, Aaron Simpson of Sunkist knocked off second-seeded Brandon Eggum of the Minnesota Storm 3-2 with a caution and one point fleeing the mat call in the clinch in overtime.
Zadick was also pushed to near elimination by Tony DeAnda of Team Excel. Tied 1-1, DeAnda went ahead with a takedown with just under two minutes remaining. Zadick evened the score at two apiece with the tying takedown with 35 seconds left in regulation. DeAnda responded, getting in deep on a shot and nearly scored the go-ahead takedown when he tried to sneak from underneath Zadick, but a flurry ensued and Zadick ended up on top as time expired. After the officials viewed the video, the takedown was scored in regulation.
Mark Rial stayed hot, the 10th seed earned his second straight upset victory at 66kg in Greco-Roman. Rial beat former U.S. world team member Marcel Cooper in the first session, kept rolling into the semifinals, earning a pin over T.C. Dantzler in a tightly contested bout up until the fall time. Dantzler and Rial traded throws, but after the bout, Dantzler was diagnosed a torn left hip abductor, ending his season.
“I hurt it four weeks ago. This time I just felt it come off,” Dantzler said.
Ethan Bosch, who finished second at the 2000 Olympic Trials, was upset in the quarterfinals by Kenny Owens of the U.S. Army in a 2-2 referee’s decision at 84kg.
Kevin Bracken and Harry Lester will meet in the semis at 66 kg after Bracken trounced Mike Ellsworth 10-0 and Lester beat 2000 Olympian Heath Sims 2-1.
Dantzler was the only wrestler seeded first or second that lost in Greco-Roman. The same wasn’t true for third seeds. Other than Bosch, Phillip Johnson of the Air Force beat Jason Loukides of the U.S. Army 4-0 at 120 kg, while Glenn Garrison topped Brandon McNab 3-0 at 66kg.
The women’s freestyle tournament wasn’t bitten much by the upset bug either, as Clarissa Chun (48kg), Tela O’Donnell (55kg), Sally Roberts (63k) and Stephany Lee (72kg) all advanced to the semifinals.
Third-seeded Erin Tomeo dropped a 4-1 decision to Lauren Lamb at 55kg in the women’s only loss of a seed third or higher. Lamb, a six-time World Team member, dropped to 55 kg after competing at 59 kg or higher during past seasons.
High school junior Stefanie Shaw beat another high school wrestler, Vanessa Oswalt, in the quarterfinals at 63kg to reach Saturday morning’s semis. Nina Vernon topped former world medallist Iris Smith at 72kg in overtime. Vernon used a two-point exposure from the clinch to earn the victory in front of a small, but loud contingent of Gator wrestling fans.
Seven time world medallist Kristie Marano isn’t suffering too much after moving up from 63kg, as she earned a technical fall over Elena Mena at 72 kg; she’ll face Katie Downing, a two-time world team member, in Saturday’s semifinals.
Top semifinal match-ups include Chun, who beat high school sophomore Caitlyn Chase in the quarterfinals, vs. Laura Felix at 48kg; collegians Sara Fulp-Allen vs. Mary Kelly at 48kg; and Stephanie Murata squares off against O’Donnell at 55 kg..