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By LARRY SERVINSKY
The Daily Press
Friday, January 20th, 2006 10:12:14 AM
Come late January, most wrestling teams have gotten all their firsts and new experiences out of the way. But not so for the Ashland Oredockers.
With the way their schedule fell, the Oredockers had perhaps their latest ever home debut when they hosted Tomahawk Thursday. And while Ashland responded with one of its better all-around efforts, it wasn't enough to slow down the Hatchets, who cruised to a 60-21 victory in their Lumberjack Conference dual meet.
The outcome really wasn't in doubt — Ashland had five open weight classes that gave Tomahawk 30 points via forfeits before the meet began. However, the Oredockers won the first four matches that were wrestled, three of them coming by pins.
"I thought we wrestled just super," said Ashland coach Bob Falk. "That was as good as we've wrestled all year. That was a good meet against a ranked team."
The Hatchets, one of four teams receiving honorable mention in the Division 2 Crossface rankings, showed why they expect big things come February as they finished up with five pins in the remaining matches, four coming in 1:05 or less.
Ashland is now 0-6 and 0-4 in overall and LC dual meets while Tomahawk is 4-2 and 2-2.
The Hatchets came in without one of their main cogs in the injured Dan Silvernale, who is 28-3 at 171. While he is expected to return to the lineup soon, Tomahawk coach Bob Skubal said that they were able to adjust their lineup to cover for him.
"We're happy to be fortunate enough at this time of year, even without our big horse in the lineup, that we've got 14 wrestlers to cover all the weights," he said.
That's a luxury the Oredockers haven't had in some time. In fact, with the match starting at 130, Tomahawk opened with a forfeit to Nick Hagar.
The Oredockers, though, strung together their successes from 135 to 152. Austin Peck started matters at 135 by pinning Scott Harkness in 1:09 and Peter Hudack followed that up with the night's most entertaining matches, scoring a takedown in the final 30 seconds to notch a 7-6 decision over Karl Grodevant at 140.
"He's been on a roll," said Falk of Hudack, now 19-7.
At 145, Pat Kriskovich made his return from a shoulder injury and gritted out a win over Taylor Schmidtbauer, pinning him in 2:33. And at 152, Kevin Rosin notched his 13th straight victory with a pin of Ian Fleming in 58 seconds.
That put Ashland up 21-6, but it was all Tomahawk from there. Blair Otterholt pinned Kyle Gervais in 59 seconds at 160 while Jack Lilek pinned Dustyn Halverson in 3:19 at 171. The Hatchets' Kyle Schulz stuck Ryan Gervais in 11 seconds at 189 while at 275, Kevin Murphy pinned Chris Holmes in 1:05.
In the final match, Alyssa Lampe got a pin of Robert Halverson in 17 seconds at 103. The Hatchets also were awarded forfeits at 215, 112, 119 and 125.
"Take nothing away from Ashland," said Skubal, crediting the Oredockers' efforts. "Those are some good athletes."
In a JV 152 lb. match, Tomahawk's Erik Bartelt pinned Ashland's Jake Skarberg in 2:36.
Both teams are in action this weekend. The Oredockers will host their own Ashland Invitational, while Tomahawk heads to a tournament at Adams-Friendship.
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Girls take to the mats in high school wrestling
GUY LORANGERThe Herald-Sun of DurhamDURHAM, N.C. -1/21/06
The toughest opponent Erica Lyons has faced on the mat this season wasn't one of her male teammates on the Jordan High School wrestling team or a boy from another school.
It was another girl.
In her second match of the season, and her first against a female wrestler, Lyons went three demanding rounds Jan. 4 against Chapel Hill's Audrey Dunphy.
"I thought that wrestling a guy, you'd have to work harder," said Lyons, who dropped a 6-2 decision in the exhibition match. "But I realized that she's been going through the same thing, with people doubting her. She'd been working just as hard as me, and that made me want to work harder."
Is it a matter of proving something to others or proving something to themselves?
For Lyons, a freshman who began wrestling last year at Githens Middle School, and Dunphy, a senior wrestling for the first time this season, it's been a little bit of both.
"For me, it's been a personal thing, but I'm happy to see other girls wrestle because it's part of a revolution," Dunphy said. "And I really respect the other girls who wrestle."
While Lyons and Dunphy might be a rarity in a traditionally all-male sport, they are not alone.
The N.C. High School Athletic Association estimates that between 20 and 30 girls are wrestling in the state this winter. The USA Wrestling Association puts that participation number at 3,800 nationwide.
They don't differ from their male counterparts in why they decided to take up the sport: It looked like fun.
"I remembered working at the Tiger Classic (wrestling tournament) and thinking it was interesting just to see two people going at it in the ring like that," Dunphy said. "I wanted to get into shape after cross country and to get some conditioning, and then I realized that I could really wrestle.
"I like the adrenaline rush, and the way your instinct kicks in. It's something interesting and new to do before I graduate."
Lyons, whose father wrestled in high school and whose older brother, Eric, also wrestles at Jordan, said several girls at Githens were encouraged to try out for wrestling last year by the team's coach, Robert Sims.
But only two girls actually tried out, and she was the only one who stuck with it through the season.
She won her first match in a dual meet at Lowe's Grove and went on to wrestle 11 more matches.
"I didn't expect to come out with the win, because I hadn't been wrestling that long and didn't think I knew enough about it," said Lyons, who also runs track. "It felt great, but I had to win by points. It went to the third period. I knew I had to work more at it."
Dunphy, who helped Chapel Hill win the state 4-A girls' cross country title this past fall, said her social studies teacher, Chapel Hill coach Wilson Diaz, asked her to come out for the team two years ago.
A pair of foot surgeries were the only things that held her back. And with those behind her this winter, she decided to finally go through with it before heading off to East Carolina in the fall.
"You get a lot of obstacles in wrestling, and I like to be challenged," said Dunphy, who has posted a 4-12 record this season, including two wins over male wrestlers and another win over a female wrestler from Hickory's St. Stephens High. "Facing obstacles is interesting to me."
One obstacle that neither has faced is non-acceptance from their families, coaches and teammates.
Although Lyons said her mother, Kimberly, was a little hesitant about the idea at first - "She was afraid that I was going to become a tomboy" - those reservations faded away with every match.
Dunphy, meanwhile, said her parents, Frank and Cherie, needed to see just one match to be convinced.
"They've been behind me from the beginning," she said.
She also said she wasn't surprised to hear that Lyons had been receiving the same amount of support from her teammates at Jordan as she has experienced at Chapel Hill.
"Wrestlers are very humble people," Dunphy said, "and they're very open-minded."
Jordan coach Phil Davanzo, a former N.C. State wrestler and assistant coach at Raleigh's Millbrook High, said Lyons has become a leader on the team through her example.
"I don't know if it's because she thinks she has to prove something or it's because that's just the way she is," Davanzo said. "But it doesn't matter to me if she's a guy or a girl - she busts her butt in here every day. The guys on the team see that."
Jack Coman, a senior who wrestles above Lyons in Jordan's lineup at 103 pounds, said his practice partner earned his respect right away and also changed his view about having a female wrestler on the team.
"I wouldn't like it if a girl wanted to wrestle just to make a statement, but it's different if it's a girl who wants to wrestle because she really, truly likes the sport," Coman said. "Erica likes wrestling, and she pushes herself every day. She never slacks off."
Diaz just wishes Dunphy had joined the Tigers sooner.
"Instead of just figuring it out now, she'd be way ahead," Diaz said. "She would be on the varsity level for sure, because she's a great athlete.
"She's good with her hips, which is a strength a lot of women wrestlers have. They can shift directions better. And she's also really physical, which is something you don't see a lot with women wrestlers. If she gets shoved around, she fights right back."
Diaz coached a female wrestler at Chapel Hill four years ago. He also worked in his offseason wrestling club with Anna Matteson of Eastern Randolph High, who went on to compete for the U.S. Olympic team when women's wrestling was added to the Athens Games in 2004.
He would support adding a girls' division to the state wrestling championships. Currently, only two state high school athletic associations - Texas and Hawaii - offer a championship for girls.
"I think it would be great if you could have a lightweight division and a heavyweight division or something like that," he said. "It would be great for the sport."
Lyons said she hopes to excel in the sport, regardless of whether there is a separate division.
"My goal is to get as far as I can and to try, if possible, to make it to the state finals and rank somewhere," she said.
Dunphy, meanwhile, said she gets her reward from the sport every day when she steps into the wrestling room.
"It's a great sport, because it yields character," she said. "It's all in the mind. You have to go out there with the attitude that if you set your mind to it, you can do anything."
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The Herald-Sun
Jan 14, 2006
When Congress approved Title IX in 1972 to expand athletic opportunities for girls, it's probably a safe bet that few lawmakers imagined that the landmark legislation would also open gym doors for girls to compete on boy's wrestling teams.
Without more girls' athletic teams spouting up, thanks to Title IX, girls eventually competing against boys in such a demanding sport could never have happened.
But now, 33 years into Title IX, there are an estimated 3,800 girls nationwide who are wrestling this winter. And according to the N.C. High School Athletic Association, 20 to 30 of them live right here in North Carolina.
We know of two in the Triangle, thanks to a report this week by Guy Loranger.
One is Erica Lyons, a freshman at Jordan High School, and the other is Audrey Dunphy, a senior at Chapel Hill High School. Both girls, through hard work, have earned the respect of their teammates and coaches in one of the most demanding of sports.
The two girls squared off for the first time Jan. 4 in an exhibition match that was won by Dunphy on points, 6-2. This is real wrasslin, fellas, not the kind where girls put on bikinis and wrestle in a pool of baby oil.
Lyons, who has a brother on the team, began wrestling last year at Githens Middle School. She took up the challenge presented by Coach Robert Simms, who encouraged girls to try out for the team. Lyons and one other girl did so, but Lyons was the only one to see it through, and surprisingly enough, she won her first match.
Dunphy, a cross country runner who helped Chapel Hill win the girl's 4-A crown, wanted to prove to herself and others that she could become a good wrestler. Dunphy was asked to go out for the team two years ago, but her entry into the sport was delayed by foot surgeries. She is 4-12 this season, including two victories over male wrestlers.
Dunphy and Lyons deserve a lot of credit for having the courage to compete in a sport that has traditionally been dominated by males. They are the winners of this week's Durham Grit Award.
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Women's sports ignored
KEN BERGER
DURHAM
January 19, 2006
Kudos to The Herald-Sun for giving its Durham Grit award on Jan. 14 to
female high school wrestlers Audrey Dunphy and Erica Lyons. It was a
well-deserved recognition to two young women competing in a
male-dominated sport. And what do we see the next day in the same newspaper?
Front-page notice, and front sports page coverage to the Triangle men's basketball
games, while burying the thrilling match-up between two ranked ACC
women's teams, Due and Boston College. Not that The Herald-Sun is alone in
ignoring women's sports -- the local TV stations often don't even mention the
scores, understandable as they save valuable air time for the brief interview
of a men's player talking about how hard they had to play. And lest you
think only college sports are treated this way, wait until the WNBA season
starts -- you will need a magnifying glass and Internet access to sports news
to find anything about those games. Come on, Herald-Sun, other Triangle
newspapers and television media! Let's have some Title IX-inspired
treatment of your coverage as well!
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Kimberly Solheim hates the question.
Tony Jones, Danbury News-Times Correspondent
March 12, 2004
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Kimberly Solheim hates the question. But it follows her everywhere she
goes.In class. At home.
Everywhere.
"Why do you wrestle?"
She always has an answer ready.
"I say the same thing to anyone that asks me," said Solheim, a Newtown
High junior. "It's the same reason that any guy wrestles. I love the sport.
I've always been drawn to it. I love the competition. I love the mental
aspect of it. It's a lot of fun. I just enjoy wrestling."
It's not that unusual anymore for a girl to be on a high school
wrestling team. Female wrestlers have been popping up all over the state in
recent years. One example: Danbury High's Susie Levitt who has been a great
leader for the Hatters for the past three seasons.
Solheim, however, stands out in that she has wins on the varsity level.
Her goal coming into the season was to register "a handful" of wins. She
met her goal, winning six matches and losing 15.
Wrestling at 103 pounds, Solheim will never have the strength of a
male. She admits that. But Solheim is so competitive, so quick, and so smart that
she compensates for her lack of brute strength.
She's very technically sound and those skills have made her an
important member of the Newtown High Nighthawks attack. All of this, and she just
took up the sport last year.
"It was hard being a part of the team last year," Solheim said.
"Sometimes people gave me a hard time with it. As time went on, it got better for
me. It didn't faze people as much and they started to treat me differently.
It got a lot better. I think a lot of it had to do with me starting to
win. Last year, was horrible for me. My only wins came against other girls."
Solheim, as a teenager, has enough stories to last a lifetime.
She remembers telling her mother, Janis, that she wanted to wrestle.
"She asked me if I was crazy," Solheim said. "But my parents were always
great with it. They never forced me to do anything. I played just about every
sport growing up."
Solheim also recalls beating a male competitor in an early season
tournament. "The kid went crazy," Solheim said. "He started throwing
things and beating on the mat. He totally lost his cool. They docked his team
a point. It was a great moment for me."
Solheim is more than just a wrestler. She comes from an athletic family
—
her three sisters are cheerleaders. Solheim also plays lacrosse and
field hockey.
She also ranks 22nd out of 382 Newtown High juniors academically, and
she's involved in many student groups. "I don't sleep during the week,"
Solheim said. "I try to make up for it on the weekends."
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