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Down and out, Chase still eyes Olympics

March 16, 2006

BY ANDRE' MORGAN

What a difference a year made for Illinois' top female wrestler, Caitlyn Chase of Glenbard North.

As a junior in 2005, she was the queen of Illinois high school wrestling, becoming the first female to qualify for the boys state tournament.

The next weekend, Chase helped Glenbard North finish second in the dual team state meet. Trailing 5-0, Chase took the 103-pound state champion, Sandburg's Mike McAuliffe, to his back for a near fall and a huge momentum swing. She came close but lost 9-6.

That showing came on the heels of a solid 2004 Olympic Trials performance for the women's team when, as a 15-year-old, she opened the eyes of the U.S. Olympic committee. Chase finished the 2005 season with her second consecutive USA Wrestling National Championship (110 pounds) in Fargo, N.D. She posted an 11-0 tech fall of Alaska's Michaela Hutchinson, who would go on to become the first girl in the country to win a boys state title.

And then the wheels fell off.

In December, unable to maintain a healthy weight while cutting down to 103 pounds from 125, Chase was hospitalized for severe dehydration.

"After four years of cutting to 103, it began to take a toll on my body,'' Chase said. "I didn't want to go [to the hospital], but my mom insisted.''

Doctors indicated that Chase's body was shutting down, and some wanted her to quit wrestling. But that was not an option for Chase, the two-year starter at 103 with a career 78-15 record against the boys. Chase's lineup spot this season went to freshman Tony Ramos, who finished second at the individual state tournament.

An ill-advised early comeback attempt to help solidify the Panthers' lineup for regionals resulted in Chase going back to a hospital. She was out of the team picture for good.

"I have always been a team-first person,'' Chase said. "I just wanted to get out of the hospital and help my team win state. This high school season felt like a lost year, so Fargo [USA Nationals] will now have to be the technical end of my high school career.''

With her health back, Chase is preparing for more intense competition. Next week she travels to Pittsburgh to compete against the best 103-pound boys in the National High School Coaches Association Senior Nationals, where only the top two placers in each state are invited. Because of her All-American status, Chase was granted a special entry.

Up next is a late July return to Fargo, where she will try to defend her two national championships.

"I will probably face Hutchinson in Fargo,'' Chase said. "I dominated her before, and I can't wait to do it again. She will be acting cocky, but I just don't give a lot of credit to her or the boys state tournament in Alaska. It's not Illinois. She does not know I was sick and could not compete.''

Next fall, Chase will train full time to make either the 2008 or 2012 women's Olympic team. She will work out in the morning and evenings at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and attend classes in the afternoon at the University of Colorado, where she has a wrestling scholarship.

"The Olympic Committee feels I can become the face of women's wrestling in the future,'' Chase said. "I do sometimes feel like a role model or pioneer for Illinois girls but I really just see myself as a regular wrestler.

"A lot of girls can't handle the fact that they will be seen as a girl first, then as a wrestler second. Most can handle the losing. But the initial discrimination because they are told, 'Why do it? They will always lose to the boys' becomes too much. That does not bother me at all.''

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UC Lady Wrestlers Recognized as Elite Athletes

3/5/06
According to recent polls released by TheMat.com, the University of the Cumberlands (formerly Cumberland College) women’s wrestling team remains third among North American teams. TheMat.com’s North American Women’s College Individual Rankings recognized seven Cumberlands ladies as elite athletes.

Athletes recognized include:

• 48 kg – Jessica Medina (Pomona, CA), 8th

• 59 kg – Othella Lucas (San Diego, CA), 3rd

• 63 kg – Alaina Berube (Escanaba, MI), 1st

• 67 kg – Heather Martin (Lagrange, OH), 3rd

• 67 kg – Shelly Ruberg (Harrison, OH), 7th

• 72 kg – Tabetha Golt (Chesapeake, VA), 4th

• 82 kg – Toccara Montgomery (Cleveland, OH), 2nd

Cumberlands ladies are ranked among the top wrestlers from the United States and Canada. Other top schools competing with UC include Missouri Valley College, Pacific University, and Menlo College from the U.S. and Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, and Brock University of Canada.

The Patriot ladies will travel to Columbus, OH to compete in the Arnold Classic March 3-5, 2005. Next weekend, March 10-11, 2006, Cumberlands will host this year’s College Nationals.

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Youth host tri-county wrestling tourney

03/15/2006

WEST AMWELL — The South Hunterdon Youth Wrestling Association hosted the Hunterdon-Warren-Morris County Youth Tournament at South Hunterdon Regional High School on Feb. 19.
More than 250 wrestlers participated in this annual event, which brings together wrestlers of all skill levels in a wrestling tournament setting.
Bob Emmons, coach of the Delaware Valley youth wrestlers, assisted in organizing the tournament.
"We had a great year for the small turnout of kids," coach Glenn Case said. "We had of lot of young kids, and they were pretty well matched and pretty enthusiastic and progressed well."
South wrestlers showed well in the tournament with Josh Wilson and Lyle Ruscika earning gold first-place medals. Wilson is a first-year wrestler and wrestles at 48 pounds. Ruscika also is a first-year wrestler and wrestles at 60 pounds.
Silver medals went to Nathan Wilson, first-year wrestler at 48 pounds, Colin Leary, a fifth-year wrestler at 60 pounds, and Hannah Word, a third-year wrestler at 75 pounds.
Jonathan Thayer, a first-year wrestler at 50 pounds, Robert Reed, a first-year wrestler at 45 pounds, Felicia Thayer, a first-year wrestler at 118 pounds, and Kyle Herron, a fifth-year wrestler at 110 pounds, all took home bronze medals.
Brittany Reed, a second-year wrestler at 60 pounds, did not win a medal at the tournament, but showed great improvement through the season.
The association provides youth, male and female, with the opportunity to learn wrestling. Wrestling is not a sport offered at South, but would be if Case had his way.
"South is small, but we need the kids to get off the couches and away from the computers and onto the sports fields or there won't be any kids to field for the teams in the near future." Case said. "Wrestling is a great sport; a great outlet. It's about discipline, respect and all those values that make a difference. I hope there is a future for wrestling at South."

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Amanda VanAmburg-Female Wrestler

Matt Stanmyre 1/28/06
Special to VirginiaPreps.com

WINCHESTER — It's hot.
You stand in the corner, by the door and the cool air on the other side, and sweat slathers your forehead in seconds. It's hard to breathe. Your nostrils fill with humid air, and the sour smell of bodies melding together creeps into your lungs.
Everybody looks the same. They are all drenched in sweat, their shirts and shorts clinging to their bodies, moans and grunts emitting from each mouth.
It's almost brutal. But that's wrestling.
In the far corner of the room, something catches your eye, something different. You see a soft face. You see a puff of bouncing hair, a ponytail doing a handstand on top of a head. You look closer and you see Amanda VanAmburg, a female wrestler in a place without any female wrestlers.
VanAmburg, a sophomore on the junior varsity, is the only female to ever wrestle at James Wood. She's been to every practice during her two seasons on the team. She's broken her collarbone on the mat. She's been thrown around and beaten badly.
She's considered by her coaches and teammates a great asset to the program.
"At first it was kind of weird, and we didn't really know what to expect," James Wood wrestler Ben Glover said. "But now she's just like one of the guys. She kept with it and was here every day. She stuck through it and proved that she loved it.
"Now we don't even really see her as a girl. We just see her as one of us."
Others came before VanAmburg. About a girl a year gave wrestling a try at James Wood, says coach Greg Walker. None made it past the second week of practice.
None, that is, before VanAmburg.
"Usually after a week or two, they'll quit," Walker said. "Usually girls will bow out and say 'Thanks, but no thanks.' But not her. She took her beatings and kept coming back."
She came back after opponents forfeited matches, refusing to wrestle a girl. She came back after she was teased by a few classmates at school. She came back after getting pummeled during a couple matches by stronger, more physical boys. She even came back after she was thrown onto the mat during a match in December and snapped her collarbone.
"OK, this shows you how tough she is," Walker begins. "After she broke her collarbone, she went to the hospital, got it set, and then came back and watched the rest of the meet."
Walker shakes his head and smiles.
"I would have gone home," he said.
Not VanAmburg. She's in love with wrestling. And oddly enough, the grappling gene she inherited didn't come from her father.
"I think I got it from my mom," VanAmburg said. "She always loved wrestling."
VanAmburg is acting out what her mother wasn't allowed to. While attending Park View High School during the 1970s, Viki VanAmburg wanted desperately to be on the wrestling team. The school wouldn't let her, so she settled on team manager. Even so, Viki VanAmburg still wrestled in practice when the boys would allow it.
"I never pushed her toward [wrestling]," Viki VanAmburg said. "She took to it on her own right away. I think she likes it for the same reasons I liked wrestling — the rush, the closeness of the team, those things."
No wonder her daughter never liked volleyball, or why cheerleading would have been like torture. She loved wrestling and had her bloodlines to thank for it.
"I never liked the girlie sports, like volleyball or basketball or soccer," VanAmburg said. "I just loved wrestling. It's just the best. The one-on-one aspect of it, the adrenaline rush you get on the mat. It's just awesome."
VanAmburg's sixth-grade teacher at Frederick County Middle School suggested wrestling because she didn't take to any other sports. She gave it a try in seventh grade and was smitten from the start. VanAmburg has worked incessantly each offseason, and improved each year, those around her say.
"She's just like wrestling a guy," said 112-pounder Julian Donahugh, one of VanAmburg's workout partners. "She's pretty good. She gives you a run for your money. If you make a mistake, she'll capitalize on it and make you work."
Walker sees even more improvement on the way.
"You'll probably see her in the [starting] lineup next year," he said. "You can't ask for any more out of her."
VanAmburg has been a welcome addition, though Walker was skeptical in the beginning. Last season was his first as a head coach. He was young (35). He was relatively inexperienced. He was taking over an established program that previously had two coaches during the last 40 years.
Walker was wary of taking a public relations hit because of problems with a female wrestler. So, he pulled VanAmburg aside before practices started and talked with her about what she was about to get herself into.
"I told her, 'The way I talk to you is not going to be like a lot of your other coaches have talked to you before,'" Walker said. "I told her that I was just going to talk to her like she was one of the guys.
"She's been great. I don't show her any bias, and I treat her like any one else on the team."
Walker couldn't have envisioned a better implementation into the team.
"As far as the team, everybody here accepts her," he said. "They talk to her like they talk to anyone else. They joke with her like they do anyone else. She's a part of this team."
The others say as much.
"After awhile, she was just another one of us in the room," Glover said.
"We see her as just another wrestler," Donahugh added.
VanAmburg doesn't look like a wrestler off the mat. She has a soft face, a big smile and piercing blue eyes. She wears nail polish when she's not wrestling. She has a steady boyfriend. She's not adverse to watching a sappy movie on a Friday night.
She has two sides.
"I have my girlie side, too," VanAmburg said. "It comes out sometimes."
Just not when she's on the mat.