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Wrestling with success
By Reid Hanley 5/21/04
Tribune staff reporter
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Olympic wrestling trials are filled with some
contenders and a lot of pretenders. Someday Caitlin Chase will be in the first
category.
Chase, a Glenbard North sophomore who recently turned 17, is just
getting started. The 105.5-pounder is using her first Olympic trials as a
building block for what she hopes will some day be an Olympic career.
Women's wrestling is being conducted for the first time this summer in
the Athens Olympics. Medals will be awarded at 105.5, 121, 138.75 and 158.5
pounds. The trials field was made up of 62 women and Chase is among the
least experienced.
"For someone who is about the youngest here, I'm just trying to do my
best," said Chase, who won her preliminary match 7-1 against Julie Gonzales of
Vallejo, Calif. "I'm wrestling the top women in the world. For this
tournament, I want to do my best. In the future I want to get to the
Olympics."
Chase, who lost to top-seeded Clarissa Chun by technical fall in her
next match of the challenge tournament, is one of the bright hopes for the
growing American women's program. This summer she will travel overseas
to compete in international tournaments.
"She is one of our up-and-coming people," said women's national team
coach Terry Steiner. "She's been on our radar for a while. She comes out to
the Olympic training center for extra help and goes other places for help.
She's doing all the right things to move her career forward. Realistically,
she has to be looking at 2008 or 2012. She just doesn't have the
international experience yet."
The trials were a big step. She had wrestled as a regular at Glenbard
North last season and scored the decisive victory in the Panthers'
third-place finish in the Class AA dual team tournament. Friday's first match was a
new level of butterflies.
"I was more nervous than anything," said Chase, who had 10 family
members at the RCA Dome. "I was out there and saw all these people. It was like,
'Oh, my gosh!'"
Once her nerves settled, she wrestled well. Chase got the opening
takedown and one more takedown before Chun, a three-time national runner-up,
ended the match with a 12-2 score. Chase won her consolation match with a
technical fall of Kristin Fujioka of Honolulu.
Mahomet's Mary Kelly, Illinois' other women's competitor, is the No. 2
seed at 105.5 pounds. Kelly, who wrestles for the New York Athletic Club,
opened her tournament with a 9-2 victory over Miriam Jenkins of the Marines.
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Shaw's entrance, Douglas' exit contrast at U.S. Olympic trials
ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Hello, Stefanie Shaw. Goodbye, Melvin Douglas.
A 17-year-old high school student in her first major competition and a 40-year-old former world champion in his last were a study in contrasts, and results, at Saturday's U.S. Olympic wrestling trials.
The unranked Shaw, who has wrestled against boys since she was 7 but is facing a national-level women's field for the first time, upset third-ranked Sally Roberts 4-2 at 138} pounds to reach the challenge tournament finals Saturday night.
The mini-tournament winners in the seven men's freestyle and Greco-Roman and four women's weights face the national champions in best-of-three matches Sunday to determine the U.S. team, except for one Greco-Roman class in which the United States did not qualify.
Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner's first match couldn't have gone much better as he pinned Corey Farkas to move within one victory of a rematch with 2002 Greco-Roman world champion Dremiel Byers at super heavyweight. Gardner lost to Byers in the national championships last month.
Shaw, who wrestled on Watertown (Conn.) High School's boys junior varsity team this winter, entered an Olympic qualifier several weeks ago on a whim and unexpectedly placed second to make it to Indianapolis. So even she was stunned at beating Roberts, 23, the training partner of top-ranked Sara McMann and a 2003 world bronze medalist at 138} pounds.
"I'm so overwhelmed," said Shaw, such an unknown that USA Wrestling didn't have a pre-tournament biography prepared for her. "This is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I really have no idea what to say."
Compact but powerful, she confounded Roberts not only with her aggressiveness, but her anonymity.
The two had never met, something that rarely happens to wrestlers at so advanced a competition, and Roberts clearly did not expect Shaw to be as good as she was.
Asked if his daughter's upset was comparable to her moving up to the high school varsity and winning a state boys championship, father Roger Shaw said, "Oh, it's bigger than that."
Shaw met Alaina Berube later Saturday for the chance to meet McMann, who became top-seeded when national champion Kristie Marano didn't make weight Friday and moved up to 1581/2 pounds. Marano also won her mini-tournament semifinal Saturday, beating Katie Downing 5-1.
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After Loss, a Marine Looks to Future
By DAMON HACK
Published: May 23, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS, May 22 — Miriam Jenkins refueled everything from kerosene
heaters to jet planes during her five months in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003
as a
sergeant with the Marine Corps. For sport, she kicked giant bugs along
dirt
roads, only to see them bounce up, unfazed by her thick boots.
And in down times, she thought of wrestling in Athens, where she hoped
to
win a gold medal in the Olympic women's freestyle competition.
Instead, late Friday, Jenkins fell short of making the United States
team,
dropping a 9-2 decision to Mary Kelly in a quarterfinal match at 48
kilograms (105.5 pounds) at the Olympic trials at the RCA Dome.
"Even though I lost, you still know what your No. 1 priority is:
serving
your country," said Jenkins, 24, her eyes focused. "I can still look at
the
2008 Olympics."
She was no a favorite to make the Olympic team this year, but she was
a
compelling figure at these trials, a person whose athletic talent and
passion to serve in the military seemed to echo that of Pat Tillman,
the
former Arizona Cardinals player who was killed in Afghanistan last
month.
Though Jenkins has been in the United States for nearly a year and will
have
her enlistment end in November 2006, she is contemplating a career in
the
military, the dangerous days and nights abroad notwithstanding.
"I want to be in with the best," she said, summing up the credo of her
branch of the armed forces.
While she is on temporary duty in Quantico, Va., she remains a
supporter of
the war in Iraq, despite the chaos there and revelations of abuse in
Abu
Ghraib prison by some soldiers.
To Jenkins, the good has outweighed the bad.
"My proudest moment was helping a woman's father see her daughter for
the
first time," said Jenkins, one of nine children. "You see starving kids
on
commercials, but you don't really think about that until you see it
happen
in person.
"I know I did good running this guy out of the country," Jenkins said,
referring to Saddam Hussein.
Jenkins, a shade over 5 feet, never ducked a question, including those
pertaining to the intersection of war and sports, an issue brought to
light
recently when Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett used
military
analogies to describe his preparation for a Game 7 against the
Sacramento
Kings in the N.B.A. playoffs. (He apologized the next day.)
Jenkins, who has studied for battles real and imagined, chewed hard on
the
question before ultimately giving Garnett a pass.
"To athletes, it is another battlefield, but he probably didn't mean it
that
way," Jenkins said. "Sometimes you say things that you don't think are
going
to offend anybody, and he probably didn't mean to offend anyone."
Jenkins understands the chasm between war and games, acknowledging that
"when I go on the mat, my chances of dying are very slim."
Still, she appreciates the character-building and accountability she
believes she has received from both.
That is why she will continue to wrestle and consider a career in the
armed
forces.
"You can't blame anybody except yourself," she said, "and that's what I
like."
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Girl Power: Big Piney 11-year-old finds wrestling success
By TIM RULAND 5/23/04
The Pinedale Roundup
The round table in the Big Piney Library is scattered with Crayola markers and bread crumbs. They are remnants of a very recent 4-H peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich party.
At first glance, Kolby Brown appears to be an average 11-year-old girl. Her hair is tied back in braids. Her ears are pierced. She wears fake fingernails with little butterflies airbrushed on them. Joining her is a 2-foot, stuffed cat in a dress.
"Her name is Cadence," Brown says, "She goes everywhere with me. Everywhere."
Her favorite school subjects are art and band. She talks about animals and how she wants to be a veterinarian. She goes on about her pigs, horses, cats, dogs, rabbits and donkey.
Upon second and even third glance, it's hard to believe that the fidgety little girl is one of the top junior wrestlers -- male or female -- in the state of Wyoming, let alone the nation. It's even harder to believe that she often competes against boys.
A member of Big Piney Pinners USA Junior Wrestling since 6, Brown has finished at least third in each of the 11 meets she has competed in this year. She wrestles in all three styles of competition: collegiate, Greco-Roman and freestyle.
Last year, Brown took first place at girls' nationals in Minnesota. This year, she took third. She also was the recipient of the 2003 Sportsmanship and Quick Pin (19 seconds) awards.
Two weeks ago at the state tournament in Casper, Brown finished second in 11-12 boys freestyle. She also took second in boys
Greco-Roman. In all, she wrestled six matches.
At the end of the meet, Brown was presented with the Wyoming Governor's Wrestling Award, which is given to the top boys' and girls' wrestlers in the state based on excellence and sportsmanship.
Brown accepted her award wearing pink pajamas.
Make no mistake, however. As friend and teammate Casey Romero puts it, "She kicks butt."
Pulling punches
Wrestling wasn't Brown's first choice.
"I thought it was boxing," she says. "Before I got into wrestling, I really wanted to be a boxer."
Brown's father, Todd Brown, took an interest in the sport when his children did, and he has been a Pinners assistant coach for about a year.
Kolby admits wrestling was a little confusing at first, but she gave it a try -- even if she couldn't throw any punches.
"I asked my mom if I could try it," she says. "She told me I would have to ask my dad. He said I could."
In half a season, Kolby learned the basics and quickly fell in love with the sport. It was not long before she began wrestling in the boys' division and winning matches on a weekly basis. The decision to compete against boys was hers, based entirely on a desire to wrestle at the highest level possible.
"There's no difference," she says of wrestling girls and boys. "Once you're on the mat it doesn't matter who you're wrestling. You always just pretend you're wrestling that kid who always beat you."
Kolby says preparing for a match remains the hardest part. She jogs around the arenas and gymnasiums to settle her nerves and get her muscles pumping.
"Once I get on the mat, everything just goes away," she says. "It helps to hear my team cheering behind me and it makes me feel better. Winning a match is really exciting, losing a match is frustrating."
'Every bit a girl'
Romero practices against Kolby on a daily basis.
"I know I'm gonna lose," he jokes, "and I know I'm gonna get launched and go flying through the air. But I also know that wrestling Kolby makes me a better wrestler."
Each week, Casey's mom, Tonya Ellison, writes articles about the Pinners' latest meet. She quickly confesses she is one of Kolby's biggest fans.
"Until I saw her wrestle, I didn't think wrestling was a sport for girls," Tonya says. "But Kolby is just as aggressive and just as tough as the boys she wrestles."
Tonya says that despite Kolby's achievements in a predominantly male sport, her personality is modest, and her everyday demeanor is far from boyish.
"She's every bit a girl," Tonya stresses. "She's definitely not a tomboy.
"When you see her downtown, she has her hair down. She's a normal fifth-grade girl who likes clothes, shopping and sleep-over parties. It just so happens that she's an amazing wrestler who beats boys."
Little brother Bonner probably knows that fact better than anyone.
When asked what her favorite move is, Kolby says, "It used to be the corkscrew, but now it's the cradle.
"Do you know what that is?"
She offers to demonstrate on Bonner, who appears to pop out of nowhere. Bonner is also a standout wrestler for the Pinners, but within seconds he is trapped on the floor, squirming to get loose.
"She has the best cradle in the state of Wyoming," says Pinners coach Bobby Hammer, who has worked with Kolby all four years. "She could put King Kong in that cradle."
Hammer says Kolby not only practices hard with the team, she spends a great deal of time working out on her own.
"She's a fanatic," he says, "And she has such a passion for the sport. I've been coaching her for four years and she's improved (each season). She does a lot of extracurricular work."
While clamping Bonner in a headlock, Kolby says she can perform 28 pull-ups.
Olympic dreams
This summer, the Summer Olympic in Athens, Greece, will feature women's Greco-Roman wrestling for the first time.
Kolby says she would love to be a part of that someday.
"It would be cool," she says. "There would be a lot of good wrestlers there and it would be fun to wrestle them."
Unfortunately for her, she may never have the chance.
Currently, Sublette County is the only county in Wyoming that does not offer high school wrestling.
"There's a lot of lost talent," Kolby's mother, Nancy, says of the many former Big Piney Pinners who have had to hang up their singlets.
Teammate Romero's mother, Tonya Ellison, feels the same way.
"It's too bad," she says. "A lot of these kids will have to miss out on a sport they love just because it isn't offered (through the school system)."
She says many parents have raised the issue with school officials and there is a push within the community to develop a high school wrestling program in Big Piney.
In the meantime, it's the parents of the Pinners who help their kids pursue the sport.
"It is a bit of a burden on the parents," Ellison says, "It's an expensive sport and it's not affiliated with the school, so everything comes straight out of mom and dad's pocket."
Each week during the Pinners' season -- February through June -- parents pile their wrestlers -- ages 5 through 16 -- into cars and minivans and make their way to competitions across the state.
"We‘re like a big family," Kolby says. "It makes me feel closer to my family. My mom keeps score, my dad coaches and my brother wrestles. I really look forward to the weekends."
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Marano nearing berth in Athens
Colonie High grad makes finals in Olympic Trials
By HANK LOWENKRON, Special to the Times Union
First published: Sunday, May 23, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS -- Colonie's Kristie Marano showed no sign Saturday that moving up in weight is hurting her effort to compete in the Olympics this year.
Marano, who came here expecting to have a bye into the championship finals of the U.S. Olympic Trials at 138.75 as the reigning national championship, failed to make weight Thursday and had to move up to the next weight and compete in the challengers round.
Saturday, she completed her march to the championship finals at 158.5 pounds, with victories in the semifinal and final of the challengers bracket. It took three victories here for Marano to advance to today's competition in the RCA Dome, where she'll take on three-time national champion Toccara Montgomery in a best-of-3 match to decide which woman will represent the country in Athens this summer.
Marano defeated Katie Downing 5-1 in her semifinal match and then rolled past Stephany Lee, recording a fall 34 seconds into the second period after building a seven-point advantage in the opening seconds of the match.
That kept alive, at least for another day, the Olympic dream of the two-time world champion, who began wrestling against boys at Colonie High School.
"I've wrestled Montgomery a couple of times. Back in 2001 she beat me for the world team and she beat me again last year. I beat her the last time we met, so it should be a tough match," said Marano, who insists she's not at a disadvantage after gaining about 11 pounds in two days.
"I've done a lot of drinking and eating to put on some weight after missing making weight (by one pound)," Marano said Saturday, adding that she's just about at her normal weight. "It is mainly water. Other than that, I feel really good."
Marano said she worked hard to get down to the lighter weight.
"It never crossed my mind (not making weight). I knew I was getting close, but it is getting harder and harder to get off weight. It was harder than any time before," said Marano, whose seven medals in seven world championships is the most by any woman.
"Now I've got over (the disappointment)," she said. "Now I'm not trying to gain weight. I just am trying to go back to my natural weight," about 150 pounds.
In her afternoon semifinal, Marano jumped to a 5-0 advantage in the opening 90 seconds of the six-minute match and then fought off every effort of Downing, her old rival, to advance.
"I wanted to get points on the board quickly and then start to work myself. I know these girls and they know me, so it is kind of hard to get a high-scoring match," Marano said.
Saturday was the first time Marano had wrestled Lee in competition, but she took command quickly and was in command all the way.
"One thing that is helping me is that at the Olympic Training Center I sometimes wrestle against heavyweights. You train with these girls, and after a while you know what they can do," Marano said.
The quick start was planned.
"I knew what I had to do to get my part of the job done," Marano said. "And when I got into the second period I wanted to get it over quickly."
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