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Scott Venci column: She shows wrestling isn't just for guys
Greenbaygazett.com 2/9/06
As a child, Amber Van Veghel wanted to be a cheerleader. She was sure of it.
Then she attended a wrestling match in middle school, and suddenly, being a part of the action seemed much more exciting than cheering for it.
She wanted to try something different, and going out for wrestling was a way to be different.
Van Veghel, a De Pere High School sophomore who also plays soccer, has shown promise while wrestling on varsity over the last two years.
A ferocious competitor, she has nine wins this season at 119 pounds. Although she won't be mistaken for the best wrestler in the state, she is far from the worst.
"I tell the guys all the time that she is one of the five toughest people in the room," De Pere coach Chuck Tripp said. "I mean, she has a heart of a champion. She is very competitive, and she hates to lose. We have three freshman 112-pounders, and they take a beating from her on a regular basis. It's not uncommon."
Accepted? Not always
As much fun as wrestling has been, Van Veghel has had her share of struggles as a girl participating in a male-dominated sport.
There have been wrestlers who have forfeited matches against her because they refuse to wrestle a girl. Some say it's for religious reasons. Others don't want to wrestle for fear of losing to a girl and getting grief from friends.
"There have been guys who have forfeited against me just because I am a girl," said Van Veghel, who is nursing a knee injury sustained last week. "The first time, it was very insulting. I didn't know why they were doing it. It hurt me. I felt horrible.
"They probably could feel uncomfortable wrestling a girl. Or if they lose, some guys are offended by that."
Although Van Veghel has been accepted with open arms by her teammates, it still can be difficult being the only girl. She contemplated not coming back to the team this year for that reason.
"Once in a while, I needed a girl to talk to and there was no one there," she said.
Times are changing
Van Veghel decided to come back, and having four girls as team managers has helped.
"Amber is just a girl like any girl," Tripp said. "She likes to wear pink, and she dresses like a girl."
When it comes to wrestling, though, she is just one of the guys. She wouldn't want to be treated any other way.
Van Veghel hopes the day comes when a girl going out for wrestling is the rule rather than the exception.
Michaela Hutchison recently became the first girl to win a state high school wrestling title while competing against boys in the Alaska state tournament, an indication that girls can succeed in wrestling.
The predominantly male sport of wrestling, it appears, is fast becoming one for females, too.
"A mother came up to me and told me that her little girl was out there because she saw me wrestling," Van Veghel said. "That was the best feeling in the world."
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Pete Marshall and John Murphy, Staff Writers 2/9/06
WOMEN'S WRESTLING
Rim of the World product Marcie Van Dusen was named TheMat.com wrestler of the week for Jan. 24-30. Van Dusen, who is now a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete in Colorado Springs, won a gold medal in the 59-kilogram
(130-pound) weight class at the Ivan Yarygin Memorial Tournament on Jan. 27 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
Van Dusen, who competed in college at Minnesota-Morris, was a 2004 University world champion.
GIRLS WRESTLING
The sixth annual United States Girls Wrestling Association Southern California open championships are March 18 at La Mesa Helix Charter High School.
The USGWA offers competition to competitors 5 and older.
There are between 4,000 and 5,000 high school girls wrestling nation-wide, according to USGWA director Kent Bailo.
Last week, Alaska 103-pounder Michaela Hutchinson became the first U.S. girl to win a state prep title.
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WRESTLING: World champion Iris Smith wins award from Sportswomen of Colorado
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS MOVEMENT
February 09, 2006
2005 World Champion Iris Smith (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) was announced as an award winner by the Sportswomen of Colorado, which annually recognizes outstanding female athletes from Colorado for their achievements.
Smith will be one of 45 award winners from the organization, which will be hosting its 32nd annual banquet at the Marriott Tech Center in Denver, Colo., March 12. Smith was recognized for the top performance in wrestling for the year.
Smith is a Sargeant in the U.S. Army, based at Fort Carson, Colo. She is a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program. She is also a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete.
Smith captured a gold medal at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. in freestyle wrestling at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 30. It was the only gold medal for the United States at the competition, which included all three Olympic styles of the sport (men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle, men’s Greco-Roman). Smith was one of four U.S. women to win a medal, and helped lead the United States to a third-place finish in the women’s team standings.
Smith won four bouts to capture the title. She opened with an impressive 3-1, 1-0 victory over Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria. In the quarternfinals, Smith beat Agnieszka Wieszczek of Poland, 2-0, 6-0. Her semifinals win was over Anita Schaetzle of Germany, 3-1, 2-0.
Smith pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the entire week, beating five-time World Champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan, 3-1, 1-1, 1-0 in the finals. Smith gained the match-winning point 50 seconds into the third period when both wrestlers scrambled out-of-bounds. She became only the fourth U.S. women’s wrestler to ever win a World title. Smith was seventh in the 2000 World Championships, her only previous World appearance for the United States.
She qualified for the U.S. World Team by winning the World Team Trials in Ames, Iowa in June, defeating Ali Bernard (New Ulm, Minn./Univ of Regina) in the Championship Series. It was her third career World Team Trials victory. Smith also won her fourth career U.S. Nationals title with a victory in Las Vegas, Nev. in May, pinning Bernard in the gold medal finals in the second period.
At the 2005 World Cup in Clermont Ferrand, France in May, Smith claimed a bronze medal. Her only loss in the tournament was to five-time World champion Hamaguchi in the dual meet against Japan. She won her match against opponents from Russia and Venezuela.
Smith is originally from Albany, Ga., where she started her wrestling career at Darsey Private School.
Ceal Barry, the former Univ. of Colorado women’s basketball coach, will be the guest speaker at the banquet.
“The collection of the best athletes in the state of Colorado involves girls and women of so many different ages,” said Barry to the Denver Post. “That’s special. I’m not sure any other states do it as well as Sportswomen of Colorado.”
For information on Sportswomen of Colorado, visit their webpage at:
http://www.sportswomenofcolorado.org/
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West advances three to sectional
BY DENNIS MAHONEY
STAFF WRITER 2/9/06
For most of the seniors competing Saturday at the Glenbrook South Regional wrestling tournament, it was likely the last time they'll set foot on a mat.
Not Dallas Monreal-Berner. Her high school career may be over, but the 171-pounder's future is bright now that she's wrestled against boys in competition for the last time.
While teammates David Robertson, David Gould and John Alsterda stayed alive and advanced to the Class AA individual sectional tournament this weekend at Leyden, Monreal-Berner will begin training for the summer competition where she's made a name for herself as one of the top female grapplers in the United States.
She didn't go out the way she wanted to -- with a 13-7 loss to Loyola Academy's Ben Scavuzzo in the consolation bracket -- but counted a regional pin against Glenbrook North's Zach Nelson among her six victories this season.
Monreal-Berner said she'll miss the competition and camaraderie of the high school mat scene, but already has part of her future plotted out. She'll attend Northern Michigan University, which is right across the street from the Olympic Training Center where former Evanston standout Shannyn Gillespie is coaching future national and international female stars.
"It's funny because people are asking me if I'm the next Olympian, and should they get my autograph now," laughed Monreal-Berner, who's been competing in the sport since she was 10 years old. "It's flattering, but it's also a little intimidating because of all the expectations.
"I'm closing a chapter now because I'll never wrestle males again. The team and the coaches at Niles West have been more than accepting. I leaned on all of them for support and we were all in this together. There's a real camaraderie after four years because this sport is so much harder and more intimate than most."
The West senior is ranked in the top 10 nationally in both folkstyle and freestyle and placed third in the nationals in folkstyle last summer.
"Dallas is ready to move onto a different stage now, and I know she'll do a great job," said West coach Bryan Wittersheim. "She was already back in here working out Monday morning. We're going to miss her."
Robertson (103 pounds) and Gould (112) settled for second place finishes at the regional while Alsterda battled back to place third at 145 and earn an automatic sectional berth.
Robertson (now 23-5 overall) was pinned by Evanston's Angel Sierra in the finale, in 1:35, while Notre Dame standout Ryan Nallen edged Gould by a 4-3 margin. Alsterda advanced by dumping Jordan Komendowski of Glenbrook North 11-5.
"Robertson tried an all-or-nothing move, but Sierra was too skilled to fall for it and pulled his arm back," said Wittersheim. "He could have put him to his back if it worked. I always want him trying for takedowns like that."
Gould's loss to Nallen was damaging because it hurt the West sophomore's chance for a good seed in the loaded 112-pound bracket at the sectional. Gould had defeated Nallen earlier in the regular season.
The West standout used an escape to close within 4-3 with 15 seconds remaining in the bout, but then got locked up with Nallen and couldn't pull off another scoring move.
Now Gould will have to deal with elite grapplers like Nallen, Maine South's Kevin Contorno, Fenwick's Bobby Barnhisel, Proviso East's Lavell Miller and Oak Park's Lillishawn Coleman at the sectional.
The top three finishers in each weight class will advance to the state finals at the University of Illinois in Champaign.
"What this means is he'll have to beat a tough guy earlier now," said Wittersheim. "There are really five tough kids at the sectional who are going after three spots. He'll have to beat at least two of them. There are no free rides at the sectional.
"David's got his work cut out for him, but he knows that, and he's ready for it. And I expect him to do it. I expect to be looking up the state pairings at this time next week."
Alsterda is coming on strong and is wrestling better than his 21-17 record might indicate. At the regional he racked up a pin and a technical fall, but did lose via technical fall to New Trier sophomore Alex Osmond in the semifinals.
"He's a senior and he didn't want his season to end," said the coach. "He believes he can win this week, too. He's starting to put it all together. In the last match he really didn't get a chance to open up on offense, but he still won. And for whatever reason this year Osmond's had his number."
Another Wolves entry, Jon Eng, fell short of qualifying as he placed fourth at 119. Eng lost twice on technical falls, including the third place match versus Jugo Estella of Glenbrook North.
West finished seventh in the nine-team field with 70.5 points. New Trier edged Evanston 182-180 for the title and will move on to the team dual sectional at Oak Park-River Forest.