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Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
05/15/2006
All seven 2006 U.S. Nationals champions in women’s wrestling will compete on the U.S. team at the Women’s World Cup of Wrestling, set for the Inaei Sports Center in Nagoya, Japan, May 20-21.
The top six ranked women’s wrestling nations in the world will participate. United States will be included in the field, along with host Japan, plus Canada, Russia, China and Ukraine.
At the 2005 World Championships, Japan won the team title, followed by China in second, the United States in third, Canada in fourth, Russia in fifth and Ukraine in sixth.
This is the annual world dual meet championships. The national teams will compete in dual meets, with team awards presented based upon the results. In addition, individual awards are also presented at the competition. Japan is the defending World Cup team champions. The United States won the Women’s World Cup in 2004.
Each of the women wrestlers who won a gold medal at the 2006 U.S. National Championships in Las Vegas, Nev., April 14-15 will compete in the championships. The U.S. team will feature a number of experienced international stars, along with a few young talents.
“I like what we have,” said USA Wrestling National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner. “We have a team that can vie for the title, if we wrestle our best. We have won it before and I don’t see why we can’t win it again, if we believe in ourselves and do what we are capable of doing.”
The two U.S. women who won medals at the 2004 Olympic Games will be members of the team: Patricia Miranda (New Haven, Conn./Sunkist Kids) at 51 kg/112.25 lbs. and Sara McMann (Iowa City, Iowa/Sunkist Kids) at 63 kg/138.75 lbs.
McMann won an Olympic silver medal at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. at the Athens Olympics. She was a 2003 World silver medalist and 2005 World bronze medalist. McMann was second at the 2003 World Cup.
Miranda won a 2004 Olympic bronze medal at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., but has since moved up one weight class. She is also a two-time World silver medalist, placing second at the 2000 and 2003 World Championships. Miranda won a World Cup gold medal in 2004.
Two-time World champion Kristie Marano (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) will compete at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. Marano won her World titles in 2000 and 2003, competing down one weight class from where she is now wrestling. Marano has won seven World medals for the United States, the most of any women’s wrestler. She was a 2003 World Cup champion.
Two-time World bronze medalist Sally Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) will compete at 59 kg/130 lbs. Roberts won her World bronze medals in 2003 and 2005. She was also a World Cup individual champion in 2003.
Another experienced athlete on the team is 2005 World bronze medalist Katie Downing (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. Downing won a World Cup gold medal in 2001.
Two 2006 U.S. Nationals champions will be competing in their first World Cup: Clarissa Chun, (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. and Sharon Jacobson (El Cajon, Calif./USOEC/Gator WC) at 55 kg/121 lbs. Both won their first U.S. Nationals title this year. Chun was a member of the 2000 U.S. World Team.
2006 U.S. WOMEN’S WORLD CUP TEAM
48 kg/105.5 lbs. – Clarissa Chun, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Gator WC)
51 kg/112.25 lbs. – Patricia Miranda, New Haven, Conn. (Sunkist Kids)
55 kg/121 lbs. – Sharon Jacobson, El Cajon, Calif. (USOEC/Gator WC)
59 kg/130 lbs. – Sally Roberts, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Gator WC)
63 kg/138.75 lbs. – Sara McMann, Iowa City, Iowa (Sunkist Kids)
67 kg/147.5 lbs. – Katie Downing, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Sunkist Kids)
72 kg/158.5 lbs. – Kristie Marano, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC)
Coaches – National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Levi Weikel-Magden (Charlottesville, Va,), Billy Wood (Kaneohe, Hawaii)
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By Brent Maycock
The Capital-Journal 5/15/06
Don't even think pink. Occasionally wearing a dress or skirt is about all the girly-girl that Cherasa Leak can handle. And even that has taken some time.
"(Growing up) you couldn't get me to wear a dress, you couldn't get me to wear pink. And if you tried, good luck buddy, you're not getting it," Leak said. "I was and still am a tomboy."
The tomboy in Leak, a junior at Washburn Rural, has led her to an arena most girls never consider entering. Leak is a wrestler, and a budding one at that.
While most of her classmates spent the first weekend in May recovering from prom, the 17-year-old Leak was busy trading her, gulp, dress for a singlet and a week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The invitation-only trip included a week of camp and drills capped with the Body Bar Women's National Championship Tournament at which Leak placed fourth behind three collegiate wrestlers.
"Oh my God, this place was everything I've ever dreamed of," said Leak, who was one of 17 Kansas girls to make the trip to Colorado, including four from Lawrence: Shelby and Jessica Bowman, Taylor Young and Anastasia Ramirez. "I have a work ethic in the gym where I have to push myself and I can't be slacking. This place was like walking into a workout paradise. Everybody there is working just as hard as you are. I didn't want to leave."
Colorado is a long way from the living room floor where she used to roughhouse with her younger siblings. Those early rumbles didn't immediately lead Leak to the mats, either.
In fact, she didn't even take up the sport until her sophomore year at Rural, when a friend -- Junior Blues heavyweight Richard Zwaduk -- asked her to give it a try.
"She looked at me and said, 'Mom, can I?'" said Leak's mother, Cheri Brown. "I'm a social worker by profession and wherever you find your talent, if that's what you're gifted at, then do it."
Convincing Mom was easy. Dad, Wayne Leak, was another story.
"Dad didn't want his little girl wrestling," Cherasa said.
A few well-placed points later, Leak had her father's blessing and joined the Rural squad. OK, so it wasn't that easy.
When she showed up at the first meeting, Leak saw a handful of other girls there as well.
"I thought, all right," Leak said. "Turns out, they were going to be managers."
Leak made her intentions to be an active part of the team clear from the start. In return, it was made clear to her that no special treatment would be doled out. That was just fine with Leak, which comes as no surprise to her club coach, Clint Deere, who coaches the Topeka Terminators and had some of the same early concerns about having a girl in the midst.
"She's never asked for anybody to slack off on her," Deere said. "We were a little nervous with her fitting in with the guys, but for her it's never been a problem. She never demanded any exceptions and in fact, she puts a lot of pressure on the guys. She just showed a lot of determination and that's continued from the high school season to the summer season non-stop."
Leak has yet to make the same kind of high school splash that other girls have -- most notably former Santa Fe Trail wrestler Brooke Bogren and Marion's Chelsea Arnhold, who were both multi-time state qualifiers. Instead, Leak has experienced most of her success on the all-girls' circuit as a member of the Kansas Krusaders.
She captured a girls' state title last year and in April, Leak finished third at the United States Girls' Wrestling Association Junior Nationals in Michigan, a performance that led to her invitation to the Olympic camp. Later this summer, Leak will travel to a camp in Michigan and compete in the Women's Junior Dual Championships in Fargo, N.D., a tournament she narrowly missed placing at last year.
"I want to do better this year," Leak said. "I was so close last year."
The physical demands of the sport haven't really been a problem for Leak, though she missed the end of this year's high school season with a shoulder injury and lost some time at the Olympic camp with various ailments. Her continued success will depend on her progression with technique and learning the intricacies of the sport.
A session with Bogren -- Leak's idol -- certainly didn't hurt.
"She was teaching me a little bit of Greco and freestyle," Leak said. "Basically, her way of teaching me was exactly how I like to be taught, which is doing it live. Basically, beat the knowledge into me."
Like Bogren, Leak wants a career on the mats beyond high school. And those that know her have little doubt about her drive to achieve that.
"She's come a long way," Deere said. "She's bound and determined to win herself a college scholarship and she's well on her way for that."
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12/05
During the preseason intrasquad green & gold scrimmage, senior Laura M. beat a male teammate 6-0. Laura became Lincoln’s first female wrestler recently by successfully finishing four days of gut check tryouts. “I do everything they do in practice,” Laura said of her male teammates. “I just have to push a little harder since it is a guy’s sport.”
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Sporty teens refuel best
Kids who regularly play sports develop better nutritional habits, a study finds. Even if involved in activities where weight is a factor, male and female athletes eat healthier than their peers.
By Jeannine Stein, Times Staff Writer
May 15, 2006
TEENS don't always have the best track record when it comes to eating. Many stock their diets with junk food or try to pare away pounds with stringent regimens and skipped meals.
But one group of adolescents racks up far better nutritional points: those involved in sports.
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According to a study published this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic Assn., junior high- and high-school-aged teens who engaged in recreational sports on a regular basis had better eating habits and consumed more nutrients than their non-fitness-minded peers.
That held true even among those involved in weight-related sports such as gymnastics and wrestling, where body type and size is a factor and athletes sometimes skip meals or starve themselves to keep their weight down. Some of them eventually develop eating disorders.
The study, by a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota, reached its conclusions after surveying about 4,700 teenagers in the Minneapolis area between 1998 and 1999. Teens filled out a questionnaire that included queries about frequency of meals and how often they ate certain foods. The researchers found that male teens in both power-related sports such as football, baseball and hockey and weight-related sports such as wrestling ate breakfast and lunch more frequently than their non-sporty peers.
Female athletes had better eating habits too — especially those involved in weight-related sports such as ice skating, gymnastics and dance. They ate breakfast, dinner and snacks more often than those either on power teams or not involved in sports.
"I was very surprised to see these athletes did a great job," says Jillian Croll, the study's lead author, now coordinator of research and education for the Emily Program, an outpatient eating disorders treatment program in St. Paul, Minn. Teens active in sports expend so many calories that there is concern they may not be compensating adequately at mealtime, she says.
Croll was especially surprised by the good habits of kids involved in weight-related sports because of the history of bad eating habits in those sports, especially among elite athletes. Clearly, says Croll, "there's something about being in sports that has an association with improved nutrient intake — a strong association that's very positive."
She also chalks up the results to the fact that "these kids aren't at a really high level of participation, and not feeling as much competition and pressure. They're able to focus more on good performances, and that includes good nutrition, and they're not worrying about being the thinnest person on the team" in sports where light weight matters, she says.
Despite the good habits, all groups of kids showed some deficiency in meeting their nutritional requirements of calcium, zinc and iron. For example, only about 30% of all teen girls surveyed met the recommended calcium intake of 1,300 milligrams daily.
She says the calcium shortfall could easily be made up by adding a glass of milk; a serving of iron-rich food such as red meat or fortified cereal could upgrade iron levels; and dairy products and nuts could up the amount of dietary zinc.
Croll believes that coaches and trainers should be doing a better job of promoting healthful eating to their students so that they can improve performance and not develop disordered eating habits.
"Sports kids do great, and they're not falling into traps as much as we thought," she says. "But there is room for improvement."
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Morocco grabs 8 medals at African wrestling championships
Pretoria, May 15 -
Moroccan wrestlers grabbed six medals at the African senior freestyle, Greco-Roman and women wrestling championships, wound up here on Sunday.
The ten Moroccan male and female wrestlers have honourably performed at the championships that have involved nine countries of the African continent.
Morocco won two silver medals in Greco-Roman wrestling by Nazih Nabil and in female wrestling by Daamoune Ghariba, as well as four bronze medals by Elbakali Mourad, Moula Said and Ben Faida Mustapha, the latter winning two in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.
The competitions, started on May 8, were entered by wrestlers from Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and South Africa.
