News
Girls Midwest Regional Wrestling Championships
Date: February 20, 2005
Deadline: Feb. 14,2005
Location: Lawrence High School
1901 Louisiana St, Lawrence, KS 66046
Entry Fee: $ 25 for 1 session, $ 40 for AM & PM Session
(Limit 250 entries)
Admission: $ 2 per adult, $ 1 per child. Children 5 & Under free.
(Wrestlers and USA card-carrying coaches are free)
AM Session: Begins at 9:00am
Folkstyle wrestling -Trophies will be awarded to the top 4 finishers.
PM Session: Begins at 12:30 or 30 min. after AM Session.
Freestyle wrestling -Trophies will be awarded to the top 4 finishers.
2 Types of trophies will be used. Custom girls trophies and regular wrestling trophies, it is up to the discretion of the tournament director as which trophy is used for the AM and PM sessions. Custom trophy pictures are on the club website.
Weigh In: Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005 -- 6:30pm-7:30pm
Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005 --- 6:30am-8:00am
Coaches meeting: 8:30am
Age/Weight Classes:
6&U - 37, 40, 43, 46, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 76, 80, 88, 95
8&U - 40, 43, 46, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 80, 88, 95, 110, 125
10&U - 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 79, 82, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 120, 130, 150, 170
12&U - 60, 64, 68, 72, 76, 80, 84, 88, 92, 96, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 130, 140, 150, 165, 190, HWT
14&U - 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 150, 155, 160, 165, HWT
16&U - 95, 102, 110, 119, 128, 138, 148, 160, 175, 195, 220
18&U - 95, 102, 110, 119, 128, 138, 148, 160, 175, 195, 220
Please list wrestlers age group, DOB, weight group and actual weight.
We reserve the right to combine brackets - age and weight to provide competition. No more than 2 years age difference. USA maximum weight difference applies. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me or go to our statistics for last year published on our website for an example. We want the best competition for the wrestlers.
Wrestlers must weigh in. Wrestlers must make weight. No weight changes at weigh ins. Brackets are set Feb. 15, 2005.
Wrestlers must have a USA wrestling card.
Please rate each wrestler: A, B, C, D
Concessions will be available. Food and Drink is not preferred in the gym, but please remember to clean up after yourself. Thanks.
Girls Midwest Regional Wrestling Championships
www.prairiefirewrestling.com
Entries: Prairie Fire Wrestling
990 E 1587 Road
Lawrence, KS 66046
785-832-1288
email: info@prairiefirewrestling.com
Wrestlers: Age Group
Weight Group
Name of Wrestler
Exact Weight
DOB
USA Card
Rank
AM Session
PM Session
Club Name: ___________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________
Contact Name and Phone: _______________________________________________
Club email: _____________________________________________________
Entries: __________________ Total Due: ____________________
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MUSCAT FESTIVAL: Olympic Style Wrestling – Commonwealth Challenge Cup
Results of day one.
Muscat, OMAN – February 3, 2005 .
Wrestling started at the Seeb beach today with participating teams from Canada, South Africa , India and Great Britain. Wrestling was before an estimated large Omani crowd which was a new sport for them. Wrestling was conducted in 66Kg, 74kg, 84kg, 96kg and 120 kg.
The first dual meet was started at 2:00 pm. local time between Canada and South Africa. There were some close matches but Canada overpowered the South African young team by winning all of its 5 matches. Following the dual between Canada and South Africa, India and Great Britain wrestled.
The powerful Indian team beat Great Britain by 4 matches to 1. Indian team has their National champions entered at this competition. In some weight classes the score was very close as Great Britain have on their team some experienced Russian expatriates.
In the afternoon the at 4:00 pm wrestling started again and this time it was Canada wrestling against the Indian team. India came away with a win by a score of 3 matches to 2 Canadian. It came down to the last match at 120 kg. India won and as a result won the dual. South Africa and Great Britain were the last teams to wrestle in the afternoon. Great Britain with an experienced team was to much for the South Africans. Great Britain won 4 matches to 1 match for South Africa.
After today's wrestling results at the Muscat Festival – "Commonwealth Challenge Cup of Wrestling", India seems to be in the FINAL . The team to challenge India on the 4th of February will be decided in a afternoon match between Canada and Great Britain. Whoever wins this dual at 2:00 p.m will wrestle against India in the final at 4:3o pm.
On Friday the organizers expect a huge crowed at the Festival which will benefit wrestling. Wrestling will start at 2:00 pm. local time. Omani political leaders plan to attend the Final and there will be a team cup awarded as well as individual medals.
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She put up a fight so others would have the right to
by Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi
2/3/ 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Lisa Nowak could only shake her head and smile when one of the wrestlers she coached at Hyde School in Bath made a prophetic statement.
"One of the male wrestlers told me, ´I think you´re starting a revolution,´ " said Nowak, a Spanish teacher and assistant wrestling coach at Hyde.
Nearly nine years before Marshwood wrestler Deanna Rix notched her 100th victory, Nowak broke ground for female wrestlers in Maine.
Nowak had to take her pursuit of wrestling from the mat to a different platform. In 1996 as a freshman at Mt. Ararat in Topsham, Nowak went to the Maine Human Rights Commission and won the right to compete against boys in interscholastic wrestling.
The commission decided that females had the right to participate in high school wrestling against boys, amending a clause in the state´s Equal Education Opportunity Act that had allowed high schools to prohibit girls from wrestling on boys´ teams.
"I remember going to meets and people going against me on the mat and not expecting much of a fight," Nowak said. "But for Deanna to be so amazing, it shows that girls are to be reckoned with, as well."
Nearly nine years ago, Nowak didn´t expect to see a significant increase in the number of girls competing in high school wrestling. But as the years went by and Nowak went from high school to college, she had her own vision for the sport and her role in it.
"I´ve got a pretty active imagination," Nowak said. "I knew I´d end up coaching, and I knew wrestling would become an Olympic sport. I´m an optimist."
Nowak stopped wrestling after she suffered a back injury at Wheaton College and instead took up rugby. After she graduated in 2003, she arrived at Hyde and began working with its varsity wrestling program.
Nowak is spearheading an effort to organize an all-New England girls´ wrestling tournament and is continuing to put her stamp on the program at Hyde, which currently has four female wrestlers on its varsity team.
"A lot of girls have been very inspired by the ability to go against the grain," Nowak said. "Kids here (at Hyde) need something or someone to inspire them, and girls here are getting the opportunity to become strong individuals. In a sport that´s tough to begin with, being able to accomplish that, and the lessons they´ll take from that, it´s incredible."
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Girls proving they're just one of the guys
By ADRIAN PALENCHAR-Sports Writer 2/3/05
Biggs High girls Christina and Monica Arellano play varsity soccer against boys because the Wolverines don't have a girls team. Chico wrestlers Kayla Khemvisai and Chondra Spaeth, and football player Kiara Reed, play their respective sports because they have something to prove.
It's not uncommon for girls to participate in high school sports traditionally dominated by boys, but it's not common enough for them to compete among themselves. That leaves them with an ultimatum: Play with the boys or don't play at all.
And for Reed, the choice was easy.
"One of my really good friends, her boyfriend, we were arguing over basketball and football and he said that I could never play football," she said. "I was like, I'll go out for football then.'
"I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was. It was pretty easy, except that I was scared to hit."
Reed was a junior varsity receiver/cornerback, but saw most of her playing time on special teams. According to longtime Chico announcer Bruce Dillman, Reed became the first Panther girl to carry a football during a game when she returned a kickoff last season.
She used football to condition between track and basketball seasons, but said she might try cross country or field hockey next year.
"All we had to do was run," she said. "Everyone would complain and I'd be like, Yes, conditioning."'
Reed wasn't the only girl in the Eastern Athletic League playing football last season. Paradise's Alisha Spann also donned a helmet and pads, and even squared off against Reed in a game as a receiver when Reed was on defense.
And this wrestling season, Spaeth and Khemvisai aren't the only EAL girls wrestling: Pleasant Valley's Megan Smith and Paradise's Amy Havens, to name a couple, also spend time on the mat.
"I wanted to prove to all the guys that I know that I can do stuff that they can do," Khemvisai said. "And I wanted to prove to myself that I'm as strong as them."
What's been the reaction of their families and friends?
"Shocked and that she was a little crazy," said Renee Sacks-Smith, Reed's godmother. "She's one of those kids who's always out to prove that she can do it and do it better."
Spaeth and Khemvisai were also met with mixed feelings.
"(My mom was) like, Wrestling? Chondra, you've been doing softball your whole life. Where'd this come from?"' said Spaeth, who along with Khemvisai is a junior varsity freshman in the middle of her first wrestling season. "And so it was really weird for her, but in the end, she supports me."
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Grappling with gender stereotypes
By MARK FOYER 2/2/05
Half Moon Bay Review
When Tom Piccolotti learned that he was going to be a father for the first time, he envisioned teaching the young lad all about wrestling.
That lad turned out to be a laddie named Marina.
"I didn't think wrestling would be in the cards," the elder Piccolotti said. "I never thought I would watch girls wrestle."
A lot has changed since Marina entered the world. For starters, girls can now wrestle.
Used to be that a handful of interested girls wrestled on the boys' teams. In the last few years, the sport has become so popular that girls' tournaments are popping up everywhere.
There were 275 participants in last weekend's fifth annual California Girls' Wrestling Invitational Tournament. It was the largest field ever.
"I'm happy to be part of this," said Marina Piccolotti, a sophomore at Terra Nova High School in Pacifica, as she surveyed the scene.
Her father would agree. He spent Saturday at the Vallejo tournament and he came away impressed with what he saw. He knows a thing or two about wrestling, too.
As a student at Oceana High School in Pacifica, he won the state wrestling title in 1985.
He sees in his daughter the same desire and determination that it took to win the state title 20 years ago.
"These girls here are very dedicated," Piccolotti said.
If the determination is a constant, the motivations vary for girls wrestling at the high school level. For Amanda Cox, a sophomore at Half Moon Bay High School, the desire to compete came with a comment from a boy in middle school.
"He told me I wouldn't last a week," Cox said.
Cox has been a wrestler ever since. As for the friend who said she couldn't last a week?
He quit.
"The practices and conditioning are really hard," Cox said. "But I just love this sport."
Slightly more than 200 of the nearly 1,300 schools in the state offer girls' wrestling.
The sport has grown so much in the last few years that now two states - Hawaii and Texas - mandate that girls only wrestle against girls.
"This is equitability," said Joan Fulp, one of the girls' coaches at Half Moon Bay High School. "The girls are getting a high level competition and a high level coaching. They are showing a lot of skill."
Cox has wrestled a few boys. She did so at a novice tournament last year.
"It's a different style," Cox said. "A lot of guys try to use their strength."
A lot of girls who are wrestling today say they are only wrestling because they can go against other girls. For Marina Piccolotti, she got into the sport because a close friend of hers was wrestling.
"She came home from school one day and said they have girls' wrestling at Terra Nova," Tom Piccolotti said. "I told her that if she wants to wrestle, she should do it because she wants to do it and not because I did it."
When she was younger, she knew that her father was a wrestler.
"At least once a year, he would watch tapes of when he wrestled," she said.
A few years later, she attended her first wrestling match. Her uncle, Courtney Kellogg, was coaching at Terra Nova.
"I fell in love with the sport right away," she said.
This is Piccolotti's first year on the mat.
"This is a big opportunity for me," she said. "It's cool to be the part of something at the start. This will be a big time sport in a few years."
As for her father, Tom, he is taken aback by the quality of wrestling that he is seeing.
"I brought a friend who wrestled with me in high school," Tom Piccolotti said. "He was just amazed at the level of competition."
As more and more girls join the sport, Tom Piccolotti believes that the sport will continue to grow.
"I am 100 percent behind my daughter and her desire to wrestle," Piccolotti said.
He gives credit to Rod Redmond, the coach at Terra Nova, and Lee Allen, a coach at Half Moon Bay and the women's coach at Menlo College, for helping the sport.
"Those two guys have helped move the sport light years," Piccolotti said. "The girls are very fortunate to them and other people so dedicated to the sport."
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Fulp-Allen, Cox finish strong at state invite
By MARK FOYER 2/2/05
Half Moon Bay Review
No matter what happens at a wrestling meet, Katherine Fulp-Allen always looks for the positive.
When she came up second to Tatiana Padilla of Northview in the 108-pound weight category of the fifth annual Girls' California Invitational Wrestling Tournament Saturday, Fulp-Allen found the glass half full.
"The result showed me where I am right now," Fulp-Allen, a junior at Half Moon Bay High School said. "It pushes me to work even harder."
Fulp-Allen wasn't the only wrestler from Half Moon Bay in the tournament. Amanda Cox placed fourth in the 154-pound weight category.
Fulp-Allen's title match was never in doubt as Padilla, just a freshman, won with a second-round technical fall. She won with speed and strength.
"I had never seen her before," Fulp-Allen said. "But I heard she was a very good wrestler."
Fulp-Allen herself is a very good wrestler. She has won just about every meet she has entered. She was the tournament's top seed.
She did everything she had to do to get to the finals. She defeated Erica Blackman of Mt. Shasta, Terry Han of San Marino and Stephanie Gonzales of Hogan to reach the finals.
That got her to the finals with Padilla, the tournament's second seed. Despite the disappointment of not taking the tournament's top prize, Fulp-Allen can list lots of other positives.
"I got to see lots of wrestlers I know what it takes to make it to the finals here," Fulp-Allen said. "I also enjoyed watching Amanda wrestle. It was a good day."
Cox was just as excited with her showing. It was a change from what she did last year.
"My goal was to make it to the second day," Cox said. "Last year, I went 0-2 in the tournament."
Cox almost had a repeat of last year when she fell to Hannah Alojada of Valencia in the opening round of the tournament. But thanks to two byes and an injury default, Cox was wrestling on the second day, in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.
That guaranteed a spot in the top eight.
She then picked up her first win of the tournament when she pinned Hogan's Stephanie Norman in the second round.
With the win, she was assured of a spot in the top six.
In her consolation semifinal match, she once again met Alojada. This time, Cox came out on top, with a third-round pin.
That guaranteed a spot in the top four.
"I knew what I did wrong against her the first time," Cox said. "I just couldn't get caught in a throw. Katherine taught me a few throws."
In her third-place match, she fell to Teri Milkoff of South El Monte. Milkoff won the match with a pin.
"I was going for finishing in third," Cox said. "I thought I could do it."
It just didn't happen for her. But she was just as happy for her accomplishments.
"I did great, considering how I did last year," Cox said.
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Prep Report
Napa wrestler finishes third at state chanmpionships
Thursday, February 3, 2005
Prep Wrestling
* Napa Wrestling
Napa High junior Lauren Philipps finished third at this weekend's California Women's Wrestling Association state championships hosted by Vallejo High School.
Over 270 high school girls qualified at one of four sectional competitions held the prior weekend, making it the largest event of its kind in the country. Philipps, competing against 22 wrestlers at 140-pounds, posted a 5-1 record over two days, two by pins. Her only loss was a close decision to eventual (and repeating) state champion Shelby Brown, a senior from Monterey High School.
Philipps improved her CWWA record for the season to 20-3 in the Monticello Empire League and 22-7 overall.
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Osceola girls win 3rd wrestling title
Led by senior Vanity Vazquez, the Kowboys continue their reign.
By Emily Badger
Sentinel Staff Writer
February 3, 2005
Osceola won its third consecutive state championship in girls wrestling
last weekend with a performance even more dominating than the previous two
-- and all while the competition in this fledgling sport continues to grow
stronger.
When Vanity Vazquez won her first title two years ago, there were eight
girls in her weight class at this championship meet unsanctioned by the
Florida High School Athletic Association. This year, 20 girls signed up
at 103 pounds. The result was the same for Vazquez, a senior who won her
third consecutive individual title, but the scene was even more promising for
the continued growth of girls wrestling after Vazquez graduates.
"If they come out, and they go to our state championships, they'll see
how good these girls are," she said of the FHSAA. "And they'll have to
sanction it one day."
Vazquez was joined on the podium by four of her teammates: Jolene Sun
(125) and Jenny Glover (160), who both earned repeat titles, and
underclassmen Breisja Gallo (135) and Michele Smith (189).
Vazquez expected this title to be her toughest, going up against
Titusville's Christina Brayboy. Brayboy has competed exclusively
against boys this season, so Vazquez didn't have a chance to size her up at
earlier meets.
Vazquez was so nervous before the match her hand was shaking. But when
she went to shake hands with Brayboy, she realized her opponent was doing
the same. Then Vazquez pinned her in 1 minute, 52 seconds.
The team celebrated the championship at Beef O'Brady's, where the
medals and trophies were too many to fit onto the table with all the chicken
wings. Coach Jim Bird was particularly proud, not of his returning champions,
but of the newcomers who could carry on Osceola's dominance for the next
three years.
The whole team will travel to Michigan in March for nationals. Vazquez
and Gallo have also both qualified for the Feb. 12 state meet in girls
weightlifting, which is sanctioned by the FHSAA.
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2/3/05
The Terra Nova Lady Tigers participated in tournaments the first three weekends of January gearing up for the State Championships held at Vallejo High School this past weekend. Although the team was small, the Tigers finished with three girls ranked in the state.
Terra Nova sent a small group of wrestlers down to Hanford (near Fresno) to compete in the Hanford West Invitational on Jan. 8. Lanie Skaggs (114 lbs) and Jenny Watt (132 lbs) each finished fourth. Rebecca Kaplan took third in the 126-pound weight class.
The weekend of Jan. 14 and 15, Jamie Marchetti, Lanie Skaggs, Lisa Szczepaniak, Ivy Bier, Rebecca Kaplan and Holly Brewer competed in the Napa Valley Girls Wrestling Classic at Vintage High School in Napa. As a team the Lady Tigers finished fifth in a tournament that drew almost 250 girls representing more than 30 schools from all over the state. Lisa Szczepaniak, Ivy Bier and Holly Brewer each made it to the second day of the tournament. Szczepaniak and Brewer finished fourth and Bier finished third.
On Saturday, Jan. 22, the Terra Nova Girls Wrestling team traveled to South San Francisco to compete in the Central California Girls Invitational Classic. Girls from schools as far away as San Jose and Monterey came to compete in the Regional tournament. The Lady Tigers continued their fine performance, each wrestler winning at least one match by pinning their opponent, and won the tournament. This tournament was one of many held throughout northern California that day to determine which wrestlers qualify for the state championships in Vallejo the following week.
All the Tiger wrestlers placed and qualified for the state championships. Jenny Watt (132) and Rebecca Kaplan (126) finished 6th. Holly Brewer (132) and Jamie Marchetti (103) finished 3rd. Lanie Skaggs (114), who finished second, was one of four Tigers who made it to the finals. Lisa Szczepaniak (120), Ivy Bier (126) and Marina Piccolotti (144) each finished first in their weight class.
At the Championships at Vallejo High School on January 27 and 28, Bier, Brewer, Kaplan, Piccolotti, Skaggs, and Szczepaniak, each made it to the second day of wrestling. Lisa Szczepaniak (Junior) and Marina Piccolotti (Sophomore) each finished fourth in their weight class. Ivy Bier (Junior) made it to the finals and lost a tough match, earning her a second place ranking.
Congratulations to the Lady Tigers and to their coaches Angel Valdez and Robert Redmond.