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Western upsets Regina in women's wrestling dual meet
London, Ontario, CANADA
Friday, January 20, 2006
The CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) 7th ranked University of Western Ontario - women's wrestling Mustangs team defeated 4th ranked University of Regina Cougars 20-15 in women’s wrestling dual meet action, Thursday evening, January 19th at Alumni Hall at Western's campus in front of some 200 spectators.
Mustang's women's captain, Terri McNutt, displayed her dominance again by winning by a pin at 51 kg in round one. The graduate nursing student and defending OUA (Ontario University Athletics) champion used her patented wrestling move, an arm-bar pinning-hold to defeat Regina’s Haijar Ashtaini.
King’s student and rugby player, Jill McCallum (63 kg) also won by pin against Jenna Ashtrope in second round. Jill dominated the first round of the match and almost pinned Jenna. In a second round Jill threw an almost perfect head and arm throw to a pin.
Western's, Katrina Huszarik (59 kg) won a tough match by decision ( 1-0, 1-0) over Regina’s Holly Strauch. Regina defaulted 67 kg where the mustangs had LaToya Blackwood or Jess Fitzgerald ready for action.
“It was a good dual” said mustang coach, Ray Takahashi. “Huszarik’s win was big for us, but I was also impressed with Kate Wilson (48 kg) who fought hard off her back to score a valuable team point for us.” First year wrestler, Jenn Nguyen (55 kg) lost by decision to Meghan King as did mustang, Lauren MacDonald at 82 kg.
Regina’s Ali Bernard, a junior world champion ( under 20) for USA defeated mustang Kirby Steinhoff at 72 kg. Bernard by far showed a superior technique in the match and pinned Steinhoff in first period “The matches were exciting and intense” said, Josip Mrkoci (Mustang Assistant Coach). " Our women wrestlers will do well at the upcoming Guelph Open Wrestling Tournament.”
Both, the mustang men women teams will travel to the Guelph Open, Saturday January 21st, reputed to be the toughest tournament of the year where placings are used for national team points.
photo (by Ray Takahashi)
Western's Terri McNutt holding Regina’s Haijar Ashtaini in a pinning hold in the 51 kg weight class.
Weight WESTERN REGINA RESULTS
48kg. Kate Wilson Monique Simard Simard - 7-0, 7-1
51 Terri McNutt Hajjar Ashtaini McNutt - PIN
55 Jenn Nguyen Meghan King King - 1-0, 3-1
59 Katrina Huszarik Holly Strauch Huszarik - 1-0, 1-0
63 Jill McCallum Jenna Ashtrope McCallum - 6-0, PIN
67 Jess Fitzgerald forfit Fitzgerald - forfit
72 Kirby Steinhoff Ali Bernard Bernard - PIN
82 Lauren MacDonald Carissa Holinaty Holinaty - 4-0, 1-0
TEAM SCORE: - WESTERN 20 - 15 REGINA
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Unwelcome mat: Attitudes, logistics impeding girl wrestlers
06:01 PM PST on Friday, January 20, 2006
By JEFF EISENBERG / The Press-Enterprise
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Related
Video: Portrait of female wrestler Krystian Johnson of Great Oak High School
For years, the message has been clear to Great Oak High School wrestler Krystian Johnson, a 103-pound wisp of a girl with the nerve to infiltrate a boy's game: Get out, now.
Her mother has begged her to quit before she hurts herself grappling with boys. Opposing wrestlers have tried to intimidate her by telling her she belongs behind the statistics table, not on the mat.
She says she has even defended herself against classmates who have accused her of using steroids to endure practices that were too grueling for some of the Temecula school's toughest football players.
The challenges of the coed sport only fuel Johnson's will to succeed.
"I enjoy defying people's expectations," said Johnson, one of 25 Inland area girls competing this weekend in the first all-girls tournament sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation. "When I wrestle a guy, people expect me to lose. So if I do win or even last the full six minutes, the look on their face makes everything else I've gone through worth it."
Because girls wrestling is not recognized as a separate sport in California, the state's 1,300 high school girl wrestlers had to join their school's boys team this season. But this weekend's tournament is a preliminary step toward creating a separate sport for girls.
The inaugural Southern California Girls Regional Tournament in West Covina and an identical Northern California version will be used by CIF officials to gauge interest in the sport by measuring participation rates, attendance figures and merchandise sales.
Even if the weekend were a success, however, the CIF still would need an official proposal from a league or advisory committee within one of its 10 sections before the roughly two-year process of authorizing a new sport could begin.
"Almost everyone believes it's best that boys wrestle boys and girls wrestle girls, but the challenge is figuring out how to make it happen," said Rob Wigod, assistant commissioner of the CIF-Southern Section. "When we've added other sports in the past, we've done it after there were a certain number of teams and leagues participating. Girls wrestling doesn't quite fit that model."
Only Texas and Hawaii recognize girls wrestling as a separate sport. The reasons typically cited for wrestling remaining a coed sport in California and 47 other states range from state budget issues to lack of interest.
Many of the Inland area's most accomplished female wrestlers worry they will not improve as rapidly if they can't compete against boys, but they acknowledge more girls would participate if the fear of coed practices and matches was eliminated.
Rialto High sophomore Monica Berrios' parents have forbidden her to join the boys team.
"They were worried about me getting hurt and where the boys' hands would go when I wrestled," said Berrios, who instead became a team manager. "I was pretty upset. I understood where they were coming from, but I didn't think it was fair."
Obstacles to Equality
From the debut of women's wrestling as an Olympic sport in 2004, to the rise of women's collegiate wrestling, to the numerous pinfalls high school girls have scored against boys, female wrestlers have made significant strides since first stepping onto the mat more than two decades ago.
In California, the number of high school girls participating has doubled over the past five years, according to a recent CIF survey. By comparison, about 23,000 boys wrestle in the state. Now, California has more female high school wrestlers than any other state. Thousands have taken part in unofficial girls-only tournaments, and roughly 500 have entered this weekend's two regional tournaments.
Though steady growth has helped wrestlers and coaches feel more comfortable coexisting with girls, gender discrimination still appears to be widespread.
LaQuanda Stokes, the state's top-ranked girls 189-pounder, said her male teammates at Hamilton High in Anza urged her to quit as soon as she joined as a sophomore. Rialto junior Catherine Perez has overheard opposing coaches encouraging their male wrestlers to show her she doesn't belong in the sport
And Johnson, the Great Oak sophomore, said during one match the opposing coach repeatedly yelled at his wrestler, "You can't get pinned by a girl."
"Some coaches don't want a girl on their team because they think it takes away from their program," said coach Skip Howard, whose Arroyo Valley High team in San Bernardino has five girls this season. "A couple of coaches have told me, 'You just have to be harder on girls. That gets rid of them.' "
The rare female wrestler who hasn't been subjected to gender bias or intimidation still has other factors working against her every time she competes against boys.
Many girls are uncomfortable with boys clutching and grabbing them in compromising positions on the mat. And even the most seasoned girls are often at a severe strength disadvantage, especially at the higher weight classes.
Obstacles like these frightened Carletta Stokes when she first discovered her daughter LaQuanda was wrestling boys.
But the elder Stokes, herself a longtime construction worker, empathized with her daughter's plight in what has traditionally been a man's domain. She pledged her support soon afterward, driving LaQuanda and teammate Amber Rowe to unofficial all-girls tournaments and even learning the verbiage of the sport to provide them impromptu instruction.
"LaQuanda tends to go against the grain," Carletta Stokes said. "I think she probably got that from me."
No-Win for Boys
No matter how much the odds are stacked in their favor, it's easy to see why many boys dread stepping onto the mat to wrestle girls.
A victory, even against the toughest female wrestler, is rarely considered an accomplishment. A loss often sentences a boy to weeks of humiliation.
"Everyone made fun of me when I lost to a girl," Great Oak junior Armando Gutierrez admitted. "But it's no big deal when you beat a girl."
In the Great Oak wrestling room, the guys have a saying that captures the horror of losing to a girl: "Don't be that guy" -- as in "Don't be that guy" who gets pinned by Krystian Johnson in practice.
"It's a compliment to her," Great Oak coach Rocky San Angelo said. "It's scary for some of the boys to face her because they know she can beat them."
Since many coaches wrestled in an era when the wrestling room was a bastion of testosterone, some say it's been difficult to learn the nuances of instructing a coed team.
Even the most sympathetic coaches are unsure how hard to push girls in weightlifting and conditioning, how to integrate them onto a team, and how to demonstrate a new takedown without putting themselves in compromising positions.
Coaches will continue to deal with these dilemmas until the CIF yields to mounting pressure from concerned parents and athletic directors to make girls wrestling its own sport. Any proposal would have to take into account the state's limited budget, the need to grow the sport to alleviate the lack of existing girls teams and leagues, and the difficulties in having both girls and boys wrestle during the winter.
Federal law prohibits gender discrimination in school athletics but doesn't require schools to have separate girls teams.
Johnson, a CIF qualifier and school record-holder in the pole vault, already plans to give up track and field so she can wrestle year round.
She hasn't missed a practice this season, though her doctor and parents were hesitant to allow her to wrestle after the left side of her body went numb and she collapsed near the finish line of a cross-country race this fall.
"I feel like I have to push myself harder than the guys to earn their respect," she said. "I have to let them know I can do everything they can."
Reach Jeff Eisenberg at (951) 368-9357 or at jeisenberg@pe.com
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Girls are taking it to the mat
The first CIF Girls Regional Wrestling Tournament draws about 270 competitors.
By Melody Gutierrez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 21, 2006
Story appeared in Sports section, Page C1
Vallejo's Maryjane Fernandez, top, and Nicole Powell, from Ukiah, are two of about 270 competitors at the first CIF Girls Regional Wrestling Tournament. Sacramento Bee/Carl Costas |
Girls wrestling is a growing sport.
That was the sentiment echoing through the freshly painted walls of Whitney High School in Rocklin during the first CIF Girls Regional Wrestling Tournament on Friday.
With an estimated 270 wrestlers showing up, tournament director Manny Rodriguez said the future looks bright.
Now if he can just survive today's finals.
"It's a situation where this is a pilot program," said Rodriguez, the athletic director at Whitney High, who at times looked more than a little frazzled. "It's just a matter of you want it to run smoothly. We are doing the best we can."
Computer problems put the tournament behind schedule, but wrestlers were happy just to compete.
"I like wrestling because you get to beat on people without getting in trouble," said Mae Anne Puso, a sophomore at Burbank High. "There's some good competition."
Vallejo High has hosted an unofficial girls state tournament the last five years, and the school's coach is happy the CIF sees enough interest to create a regional tournament.
"It's a great big step in the right direction," said Mike Minahen, also Vallejo's athletic director. "The sport has grown so much in the last three or four years. I believe girls wrestling is going to keep getting popular and CIF will have to make a state tournament."
As more girls take an interest in the sport at a younger age, wrestlers are entering high school with a higher skill level. That's something Monty Muller, a Folsom-based official, has noticed while working the tournament.
"You see some good moves out there," said Muller, who has been an official for 32 years. "There are good takedowns and good head locks."
Ariana Reyes, 14, of Hogan High in Vallejo said she began wrestling in junior high. The rush of hitting the mat has kept her in the sport. Reyes said she felt like she was a part of history by being at the tournament.
"It's fun, exciting," said Reyes, who wrestles at 108 pounds. "If you place, you will be the first one to do it."
But not every wrestling coach is excited about adding a girls program.
"Some of the old guys don't like it," said Perry Lichtinger, assistant wrestling coach at Woodcreek High. "They look at it like it's Title IX and they have to. But when you're in a gym, it's not about it being girls, it's just wrestlers out there."
Whitney High's gym was jam-packed with girls wrestling enthusiasts. The six mats always had a gaggle of cheering fans next to them.
Jeff Petersen of Santa Rosa wore his feelings on his shirt. In bold letters, it read: "Wrestler's dad. And proud of her!"
"It's hard to watch your daughter wrestle," he said. "You want them to do well but you don't want her to get hurt. This is a tough sport."
Judging from the handful of bloody noses and the girls who sucked up the pain to keep wrestling, they were taking themselves seriously. Edison High coach George Leon said he prefers to coach the girls sometimes because they tend to work harder and have a stronger work ethic. For the last eight years, he's had a girl on every wrestling team.
"I'm glad to see CIF doing this," Leon said. "The skill level of the girls has definitely increased over the years. Even the mentality of the girls has changed a lot."
The quarterfinals begin today at 9 a.m. at Whitney High with the finals from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
If you go
What: CIF Girls Regional Wrestling Tournament.
Where: Whitney High School in Rocklin.
When: Today, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $9 for adults, $5 for students, children, seniors.
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By MARTY JAMES,
Friday, January 20, 2006 2:34 PM PST
NOTES AND QUOTES for a Friday in the Napa Valley:
The Vintage High School girls wrestling team will be competing in the first-ever CIF Northern California Section Championships today and Saturday at Whitney High-Rocklin.
Vintage has 11 girls scheduled to wrestle in the event, led by Michele Querin and Hattie Borg, currently ranked eighth and 10th nationally in their respective weight classes.
Chaundra Cox and Heather Farace are expected to receive strong seedings based on their recent performances.
The CIF is the governing body for high school sports in the state.
While girls tournaments have been taking place in California for a number of years under CIF sanctioning, including the first ever tournament -- the ASICS Napa Valley Girls Classic hosted by Vintage -- this will be the first sponsored CIF regional event. A similar tournament will run concurrently in West Covina for Southern California.
"It legitimizes us as a sport," said Querin.
Aimee Abadilla, Mariah Phelps, Danni Beltran, Lauren Lasch, Chelsi Aguayo, Nastassia Michalek and Tatiana Alexis-Manayan round out the Vintage squad.
Lauren Philipps and Devery Mitchell of Napa High will also compete in the event.
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Female wrestler gets 2 wins
Rossview defeats Northwest, Fort Campbell
By JAMES D. HORNE
The Leaf-Chronicle 1/21/06
Robert Smith/The Leaf-Chronicle
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In the 1990s the catch phrase "Girl Power" ran rampant through the land.
Northwest's Caitlyn McCracken embodied the saying as one of the two-match winners in a tri-dual wrestling match Thursday night between the Vikings, Rossview and Fort Campbell at Rossview High.
"At the beginning of the (school) year I weighed about 130 pounds, and knew that wasn't going to work," said the 112-pound wrestler. "So I did a lot of conditioning and ran cross country to lose weight. I got down to 112, because that's where I needed to be and I'm a lot stronger there than I would be anywhere else ... I've beaten four region opponents, so it's looking pretty good right now."
Rossview's Kristian Kastener also won her 112-pound match against Fort Campbell.
Rossview won the tri-dual with a 62-17 win over Fort Campbell and a 59-17 victory over Northwest. The Vikings topped the Falcons 39-34 in the night's first match.
Rossview — which lost its chance for the Region 9 Championship with a 54-9 loss to Clarksville High on Tuesday night — was pleased to get back on the winning track and heads into next week's showdowns against Northeast and Kenwood for the Region's second seed with renewed confidence.
"Tuesday night was a little upsetting," Rossview coach Jon Clark said.
"Going into it, we knew Clarksville High was an exceptional team and on the top of their game. We've kind of lost our edge since the beginning of the season, when most people picked it up. We lost a couple of matches that were close. But tonight really helped as a confidence builder. It's a big win. Now all we have to do is beat Northeast and Kenwood next week, and we'll be right back into the swing of things."
Two-match winners for Rossview were Michael Ligon, Deke Sawyer, Stephen Mason, Chris Boehm, Alex Silkowski, Michael Johnson and Phillip DeMilia.
"To tell you the truth after Tuesday, we had to reestablish some ground in the region," said Ligon, who's been ranked at 189 in Tennessee off and on this season.
"We took a bad loss to Clarksville High, but we came out fired up and ready to go tonight. We just have to carry this into next week."
Double winners for Northwest were McCracken, Cory Alexander and Nick Lynch.
"I'm proud of our kids tonight," Northwest coach Nicholas Newman said. "We've been down. We started with 38 kids and we're down to 17. Over half of our starting lineup are either freshmen or first-year wrestlers, so you can't complain. They are out here fighting."
Fort Campbell's two-match victors were Jared Smith and Matt Mines, who's ranked third in Kentucky at 140.
"Overall as a team, we did pretty good and had a couple of upsets," Mines said. "We came ready to wrestle. We don't have a full team, but we try our best. There's a lot of young people, and I think I'm one of two seniors on our team. We're just going to get better."
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By JIM ELLIOTT The Intelligencer
Wheeling News-Register 1/22/06
Terina Miller swears she was just looking for a way to stay in shape for the spring track season when she signed up for the Brooke High wrestling team last year.
A friend told her wrestling would be perfect, a way to improve both her strength and endurance, two things essential for field events.
Her friend said nothing about a life-changing experience.
In its history, Brooke High School had never had a girl on the wrestling team. Not only was Miller going to have to figure out how to break down opponents, she was going to have to break down stereotypes.
‘‘It was extremely hard,’’ Miller said Friday at the Ron Mauck OVAC Wrestling Tournament, where she’d competed in the 140-pound weight class. ‘‘The guys didn’t want me on the team. I was getting put down physically and emotionally.’’
But she wasn’t ready to give up.
‘‘No, I’m a very forward, strong person,’’ she said. ‘‘I am very forward with everything I do. I like to finish everything I start. Toward the end of the season, I gained a lot of respect.’’
Brooke coach Joe Erlewine certainly found himself in a new position.
‘‘We’d never had a girl on the team at Brooke,’’ he said. ‘‘I said, ‘if she can make it through our practices and our first two weeks, which are the toughest, she’s welcome to stay.’”
That was hardly a problem for Miller.
‘‘She has a real good attitude about wrestling,’’ Erlewine said.
Actually, she has a good attitude about everything, even waiting around for all the boys to be weighed in before her in a given tournament.
Just try to peel Miller off the mat in the practice room.
‘‘If I could go on a weekend to a practice and conditioning, I would go in the drop of a hat,’’ Miller said, ‘‘because I love the sport and I’ve gotten so attached to it.’’
And she came to realize the mat sport is one that gives back as much as you put it into it.
‘‘I’ve learned so much from wrestling about the sport itself and about life,’’ she said. ‘‘I’ve learned so much about discipline and about other people.’’
During Thursday’s first-round of the tournament, she received another wrestling lesson, this one a little more obvious. That’s when she was paired up against Oak Glen’s Jessie Mahan, the division’s top seed.
‘‘Oh, and don’t get your face in the mat, you’ll get yourself wiped out,’’ she said.
So what was her mindset going into that match?
‘‘You have to give it your best. If you’re going out there scared, there’s no reason to go out there at all,’’ she said.
Her teammates and coaches simply told her to give it her best shot.
‘‘She scored a point,’’ Erlewine pointed out.
‘‘Most of the boys that wrestle her are intimidated because she’s a girl.
“And then they figure out it if I don’t do something, she’s going to beat me.’’
It’s happened before.
Miller has even recorded a pin during her career, which made the sometimes difficult task of picking a Wrestler of the Week on the team a no-brainer.
‘‘Overall,’’ she said, ‘‘it’s been a great experience.’’
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Miller may not win, but Brooke's female wrestler grows nonetheless
January 21, 2006
WHEELING - Based simply on the outcome, just about anyone could give Jessie Mahan's 140-pound, first-round championship match a low grade for excitement.
His opponent recorded a point on a precipitous escape, but just 1:07 into the match, Mahan ended the issue with a pin fall. He was far too strong. The victory extended Mahan's record to 20-1, while his opponent fell to what many would say is a lowly 2-22. But here comes the catch.
Sure, normally 2-22 isn't anything to brag about, or maybe even noteworthy enough for a spot in the tournament results. But put that in the context of a female wrestler and things change a bit.
As it turns out for Brooke's Terina Miller, 2-22 isn't all that bad at all.
"I just love the intensity. It's so much fun," said a beaming Miller, who didn't seem to mind being essentially shellacked by the No. 1 seeded Mahan Thursday night at WesBanco Arena during the OVAC Wrestling Tournament. "Technique wise, I know as much as lot of the boys do. It really comes down to strength. He beat me tonight because he overpowered me."
Miller was scheduled to wrestle Caldwell's Anthony Lamp (5-5) in the first round of the consolation bracket. Even against Lamp, the odds were against her. So why even wrestle? It can't all be for fun.
"I needed another sport to keep me in shape for the shot put and discus. I didn't want to play basketball, and the only other sport in the winter is swimming, which I don't like. Then, a friend of mine suggested I try wrestling. I thought it was just for boys, but that's not true," she said.
"It's been a great help. I've went through a tremendous run of conditioning, and I noticed a difference last track season. I lost weight, but still got stronger. I think wrestling has helped me out a lot. I took the school record for the shot put last year."
That's all fine, but the
most important question has to be answered. Have all the sharp stares, cold shoulders and outright ridicule been worth it?
"Sure, it's been tough. People look at you strange, say things to you. I even had to deal with my own teammates and coaches.
"At first, they didn't feel comfortable with me there in the (wrestling) room with them.
"I thought they really didn't want me there. I guess I can understand that. They're not use to girls in wrestling," she said.
Add to the overall uneasiness the hard reality that Miller didn't win a single varsity match at 152 pounds last year, and her reasoning becomes even more perplexing to the casual observer.
Then came the answer.
"Why not? I love the sport, it helps me with track and I never quit anything I start. So, why not?" she said.
Miller competed in an all-girls tournament in Elkins last March, worked on her own during the offseason and started this season nearly 12 pounds lighter and in the best shape her life. Now, she's an easy, natural member of the Brooke wrestling team.
"She earned her spot.
"I told her when she started that we were not going to take it easy on her. I said 'as long as you show up to all our practices and work hard you'll be fine,'" said Brooke coach Joe Erlewine.
"I've been impressed about the amount of improvement she's made from last year to this season. She's actually been very competitive in most of her matches."
And no one can say she doesn't have heart.
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January 20,2006
Jason McDaniel
The Monitor
La Joya’s Anna Laura Solis, above top, practices a move on teammate Brenda Ledesma on Tuesday in La Joya. For the first time in school history, the Coyotes added a girls wrestling team this season. |
Lady Coyotes hope to rid sport of stereotype
LA JOYA — Jessica Hinojosa knew there was something missing. She felt it every time she was relegated to watching instead of participating at La Joya boys wrestling matches.
Hinojosa grew up on a farm in La Grulla, a community near La Joya, helping her dad pack and lift bales of hay, so she believed she was tough enough to handle herself on the mat, if only given a chance.
This season — Hinojosa’s senior year at La Joya — she finally got it.
"The wrestling guys were telling us they’re going to start a girls wrestling team, and I knew seniors that graduated last year that went to state, and they were telling me, ‘If you join, I’ll help you out,’" Hinojosa recalled.
So that’s exactly what she did, along with several other classmates who asked school administration to add girls wrestling at La Joya. While La Joya has fielded a boys wrestling team since the University Interscholastic League first sanctioned the sport in 1998, it’s one of the last of the 13 Rio Grande Valley schools featuring wrestling to add a girls program.
"Mission Veterans just picked it up along with the boys about three years ago, but we hadn’t had it, we just had the boys, until last year when several girls started a petition to get it started," girls wrestling coach Mario Montelongo said. "They put a feeler out, and there was quite a bit of interest. I have between 25 and 30 girls now."
Last season eight RGV wrestlers qualified for state, and Weslaco High’s Jesse Marines made it to the 171-pound championship match. But only one girl made the trip, PSJA Memorial freshman Jennifer Gonzalez, and that’s partly because wrestling for females has been slower to catch on in a traditionally male-dominated sport.
"We have a different perception, which to me is negative," Montelongo said. "I have two girls (wrestlers) who are in pageants, and there’s a misconception in our community about girls wrestling, because they think it’s a boys sports, that the girls shouldn’t be doing it, for whatever reason.
"I tell them that this is one of the safest sports there is because we’re not only getting in shape, but gaining flexibility and learning the mental and physical discipline."
Montelongo wrestled during high school in Idaho and served as boys wrestling coach Joe Lopez’s assistant since the program’s inception. Coaching boys was all he knew, but he considered quitting after last season to spend time with his new daughter.
"I was going to call it quits," Montelongo said. "I have a little five-month old girl, and I want to spend time with her. But I was approached if I wanted to take care of this. And it was something different, so I said, ‘OK, I’ll try it.’" And I’ve been pleasantly surprised."
After making the decision to lead the inaugural girls squad, Montelongo says he still wasn’t sure he was the right man for the job.
"The approach is a little different," Montelongo said. "I personally cannot, let’s say, talk to them the same way as a boy. How you motivate them is a little different. I’m always concerned with being too hard, too stern on them. And being the sport itself is so physical, you have to be careful.
"I’m used to, with the boys, just grabbing one of them and wrestling, and you wrestle and that’s how they learn. That’s how you show them. With this it’s different because I can’t do that, and besides you can’t compare the strength and the weight and all that. But they’re all eager to learn. They all want to practice, and they keep asking me, ‘Show me more, show me more.’"
So that’s what he’s done, and the Lady Coyotes have responded, taking second place in two recent tournaments, one in PSJA and the second two weeks ago in La Joya. And though some girls still are forced to watch during matches — some programs’ number are so small there isn’t a corresponding wrestler in one of the 10 weight classes to challenge — they keep coming out.
"I’m proud of the whole team," senior 189-pounder Josefina De Alejandro said. "We’ve been second, and this is our first year, and there have been other girls that have been wrestling for a long time.
"The guys at school laughed at me, they’d laugh at us, and they still do. But now that they see that we’re beating them, beating other schools, coming in first and second place, they get scared."
De Alejandro is 9-0 in individual matches and Hinojosa is 13-0. Both believe they’ve come along way considering neither wrestled at all until this season, meaning Montelongo had to first teach them what wrestling was before they could begin to think of learning different techniques and moves.
"If we’re good right now, if we’d had more years of experience, we’d be better," De Alejandro said.
De Alejandro, Hinojosa, key members Janet Escalante (jr., 148 pounds) and Brenda Ledezma (sr., 119) and the rest of the Lady Coyotes currently have their sights set on the District 31 tournament Feb. 4 at Mission High. After that it’s on to regionals Feb. 10-11 in San Antonio and the state tourney Feb. 24-25 in Austin.
And Hinojosa (165), despite a lack of experience, isn’t satisfied simply to get her chance to move out of the stands and onto the mat. She’s way too tough — and having way too much fun — to settle for that.
"At first I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know what to expect," Hinojosa said. "But as soon as you get into it, you don’t think about it a lot. I just go out there and have fun.
"The goals I set were to get district champs and get to state. That’s what I want, and I’m still on track, 13-0."
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Bayliss is 7-7 this year
Indianola Wrestler Says More Girls Taking To The Mat
By LORRI SUGHROUE / McCook Daily Gazette
January 20, 2006
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Jeanie Baylis of Indianola. |
Jeanie Bayliss, a senior at Southwest High School in Indianola, says competing on the high school wrestling team is challenging mentally as well as physically.
The only thing she doesn't like, she said, is what the head gear does to her hair.
"I'm picky about my hair,” she said, "but that's about as girly as I get."
As the only female on the wrestling team, Bayliss joins a handful of other Nebraska high school girls who are taking to the mats in growing numbers.
And they're not alone. Nationwide, more than 4,000 girls in the 2003-04 season competed in high school wrestling, according to statistics from the National Federation of High School Associations. It marked the 15th straight year that the numbers increased.
With the debut of women's wrestling at the 2004 summer Olympics, the sport appears to be gaining in popularity with girls, said Bayliss' coach, Jay Helberg, who said his team has no problem with Bayliss wrestling.
"There's been enough of them wrestling girls from other teams for them to get used to it," he said. "She's just one of the team."
Ranked first in her class academically, Bayliss has been offered a Regent Scholarship and would like to study health medicine at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. But for now, she'll finish her second season of wrestling and hope other girls will follow next year.
"It's a Catch-22," she said. "Girls won't try out unless there's a team, but you have to have some girls try out before you have a team," Bayliss said.
Most of her teammates have grown up knowing her since kindergarten, she said.
"I was playing tag football with them at recess, instead of swinging on the swings with the rest of the girls," she said.
Bayliss first wrestled last year as a junior as a way to stay in shape for track. During that year, she said she had to endure some heavy handed ridicule from a teammate who made it known he didn't like having a girl on the team. But ultimately the harassment had the opposite effect on her, she said, as it made her more determined not to quit and to finish the season.
"I thought I could do everything my brother did," Bayliss said, who grew up substituting as a "practice dummy" when no one else was available, or watching her older brother wrestle.
"I never got the concept that this is a 'boy thing,' or this is 'a girl thing.'"
This year, Bayliss holds a 7 - 7 record but admitted "I'm not really that good -- I get more credit than I deserve because I'm a girl."
Still, she enjoys wrestling because "I'm competing against myself. I let my self down if I lose, instead of the whole team."
And wrestling is not just brute strength, said her coach.
"A lot of wrestling is from the heart," Helberg said. "You may not be the strongest wrestler, but if you can still win matches if you are mentally prepared."
Her opponents usually react to her in one of two ways, Bayliss said: either they wrestle harder than usual, or go easy on her.
"I know what's involved," Bayliss said. " Just 'cause I'm a girl, don't go easy on me." And if she finds herself in an particularly embarrassing position, "I work even harder to get out of it," she said.
"I'm thinking how to get out of a move and to just keep moving," she explained. "I'm not thinking about anything else."
Bayliss said her boyfriend has no problem with her wrestling. He wrestled in high school and sees it purely as a sport. Plus, "he's not the over-protective type," she said.
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Wrestling mania hits Brookline
By Joe Campagna/ Correspondent
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Less than a year after hosting the South Sectional Tournament, Brookline High was again a hotbed of wrestling last Saturday, as seven area high schools competed in the first Warrior Tournament. There were wrestlers scattered around the four corners of the Schluntz Gym, as the action was nonstop from early morning until well after dark when the team and individual winners were crowned.
As the smoke cleared at the end of a long day of pins and points, Mike Carver, the organizer and varsity wrestling coach at BHS, was exhausted, but ready to call the event a huge hit.
"It was a lot of work, but very satisfying," said Carver. "Our team had a lot of individual successes, and we could have taken first place with just a few more points."
Lexington High walked away with the first-place trophy by accumulating the most team points, with Newton South coming in second and host Brookline finishing third.
Although there were many individual highlights, the most appealing moment for many fans came when BHS’ Jenya Kahn-Lang took the mat. The 103-pound dynamo continues to prove with each test that female wrestlers can compete in a largely male-dominated sport. Kahn-Lang won both her matches, including one with Brockton’s Carl O’Neill, as she surprised the unbeaten Boxer by taking a hard-fought win that had the crowd on their feet.
O’Neill nearly pinned Kahn-Lang in the first period, but by the end of the match, O’Neill appeared worn out, while Kahn-Lang finished strong to take the match by the score of 13-9. The BHS sophomore is now 5-2 on the season, while pinning three of her opponents. The Warriors’ other female wrestler, Sophie Putkja, competing at 112 pounds, has also demonstrated an ability to contend at this very demanding, physical sport. Kahn-Lang and teammate Simon Biget, who was 3-0, combined to give Brookline a 5-0 mark in the 103-pound category.
Other notables for Brookline included A.J. Hunte, who racked up five pins for the day, including his 100th career win versus Kevin Gomes of Taunton.
Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise 
Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise 
DeeAnn Bradley / The Press-Enterprise 
Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise 
Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise 