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Women come up big
Szmiett grabs top honours
James Hayes
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Western’s women’s wrestling team captured the overall team title at the Ontario Senior Wrestling Championships in St. Catharines Nov. 25. It teamed with London-Western wrestling club in the victory.
Stephanie Szmiett won the individual gold at 48 kg, while fellow teammates Jessica Fitzgerald (67 kg) and Jennifer Nguyen (55 kg) placed second in their weight divisions.
London native Jill McCallum took individual bronze at 72 kg and London-Western teammate Terri McNutt finished third at 51 kg. Katie Patroch snagged her third tourney victory, taking the 59-kg division.
The women edged the Brock Badgers, the defending Ontario University Athletics champs, while Guelph placed third overall.
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Anne Arundel County Wrestling Outlooks
12/6/06
ARUNDEL
COACH: Bill Royer, 4th year LAST SEASON’S RECORD: 10-5 TOP RETURNING WRESTLERS: Nicole Woody (Sr., 103); Jacob Hayghe (Sr., 145); Matt Taglienti (Sr., 145); Josh Crouse (Jr., 152); Zachry Mitchell (Sr., 171). TOP NEWCOMERS: Brady Reece (Sr., 125); Andrew Lewis (Jr., 112); Joe Kidwell (So., 119); Jordan Hernandez (Jr., 135). OUTLOOK: Arundel returns a solid nucleus from last year’s squad that placed fourth in the county, third in the region and sixth at the Class 4A-3A state meet. Woody made history last season by becoming the first female to finish as a county runner-up and win a match at the state tournament. She is a junior eligibility-wise, but plans to graduate a year early and thus is listed a senior. The Wildcats lost four other state qualifiers in George Ester, Justin Bowser, Seth Fenton and Terone Travis. Royer remains optimistic as there is still plenty of talent in the program. Reece is an accomplished transfer from Spalding while Lewis was a junior varsity champion. Hayghe, Taglienti and Crouse all got into the varsity lineup last season.
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Pacifica Tribune Staff
Article Launched:12/06/2006 09:30:19 AM PST
The Terra Nova wrestling team got its season started by participating in the Peninsula Invitational in Half Moon Bay last weekend and the Piner (Sonoma County) Girls Tournament on Saturday. The Tiger girls won the championship of their meet, while the junior varsity earned a third place plaque and the varsity finished 12th of 34 teams.
Senior Marina Piccolotti had a busy weekend, as she competed in the JV meet on Friday and the girls' competition on Saturday. Wrestling against male opponents, the stand-out grappler lost a double overtime thriller in her first match against a strong opponent and then pinned her next two foes to earn 7th place. She then dominated her female counterparts in winning the championship at Piner. Jaimie Marchetti also earned first in her weight class, while Brittany Piccolotti and Monica Kirkpatrick finished in 2nd. Rebecca Kaplan earned valuable team points with a 6th place.
Philip Greenstrand was the champion of the 145-pound weight class to lead the Tiger JV's to a strong showing. Edwin Figueroa came in 4th, while Paul Simmonds, Carlos Becerra, and Ryan Spears all came in 5th. Freshman Ben Maddox finished 6th and sophomore Joey Bradshaw earned 7th.
Freshman Gennady Ivanchenko came in third place
in the varsity 103-pound division. Senior Jessie Piccolotti also came in third, wrestling at 145. 135-pounder Adam Maddox came in 5th while Armando Gala and Brandon Lozada both had 7th place finishes.
First year coach Ken Richau and his assistants have the squad working hard and have a busy schedule for the wrestlers. For information on upcoming matches go to
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New body fat standards a weighty matter for wrestlers
By Chris Gump
Suburban Journals 12/05/2006
The stigma of excessive weight loss among young athletes has long been the black eye of amateur wrestling. Through a new program that places limits on that weight loss, Missouri high schools hope to heal that shiner and make the sport both safer and more enjoyable for the athletes.
A requirement from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) spurred the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) to introduce its Wrestling Weight Management Program for the 2006-07 season.
MSHSAA Assistant Executive Director Dale Pleimann - who has a wealth of experience in Missouri high school wrestling as a coach, official, rules interpreter and administrator - is in charge of administering the new program. He said it's something that's been in the works for the past five years, and he's glad to see it in place.
"I think the benefits will be tremendous," Pleimann said. "It will provide a much more scientific means or method of determining what a wrestler's minimum weight class will or should be, and it will provide safeguards that prevent excessive weight loss or losing weight too fast."
Each wrestler in the state is required to be weighed and measured by a MSHSAA Weight Management Assessor prior to participating in his or her first match. From these assessments, a minimum weight class is determined. This is the lowest class that a wrestler may participate at during the course of the season. The lowest weight a wrestler can strive for is based upon 7 percent total body fat for males and 12 percent for females. A wrestler's determined weight at that percentage of body fat must be within .9 pound of a weight class before the wrestler is eligible to participate in that class.
The program also restricts the amount of weight athletes can lose at one time. Wrestlers are allowed to lose a maximum of 1.5 percent of their total weight per week. For example, a wrestler who weighs 150 pounds at the time of his or her assessment may be certified to wrestle at 140 pounds, but following the rule of 1.5 percent loss per week it would be five weeks before that wrestler could wrestle at 140.
No doubt the program has created mounds of paperwork and has added another responsibility for already busy coaches, but local coaches like Lutheran's Jud Hoffman and Francis Howell Central's Steve Cross expect it to be worthwhile.
"I think it's a good thing for wrestling in that it's helping to ensure that the wrestlers are being safe about their weight management," Cross said. "The bottom line is that they're trying to get the hard core weight-cutting out of the sport, which really is a good thing in my mind. Let the kids worry more about wrestling and less about losing weight."
"I look at the quality of wrestling being better," Hoffman said. "I think there's going to be kids that are higher than what they want to be, but you know what, keep them healthy. There's nothing worse than a wrestler that's fighting his own body before he ever gets on the mat."
Pressure by the pound
Pressure to lose excessive weight can come from a variety of sources, but Pleimann said it's often applied by the wrestler himself.
"A lot of times I'm a wrestler and I can't beat so and so at this weight class, so I drop to the next lowest weight class," Pleimann said.
"Or I'm a wrestler and I think I've got a chance to win state, but I know that I can't beat this wrestler and I drop to the next lowest class so we can both be state champions."
Other wrestlers may wrestle at a class that is healthy for them, but they don't trim their excess weight appropriately. They may drop several pounds in a single day, then gain it all back in a "yo-yo effect."
Coaches can also be at fault in a couple of ways, Pleimann said. They might choose to ignore the inappropriate weight loss, or might push a wrestler to trim to a weight that's less than ideal in order to benefit the team.
These negative aspects of wrestling affect everyone, even the wrestlers and coaches who follow healthy practices, because they create a dark cloud over the sport.
Perhaps the new weight management program will end that.
"Hopefully in the long run it will attract more kids to wrestling as parents realize that weight loss isn't a necessary evil to participate in the sport," Pleimann said.
There is a more immediate benefit coaches could notice in their wrestling room. Pleimann said he expects wrestlers to be healthier overall. Athletes that are "dehydrated and trying to survive" aren't as apt to improve their skills. The emphasis on weight loss can also be a distraction.
"As a coach you want your kids to come to practice to learn to wrestle and get better at wrestling, not to lose weight," Cross said.
Hoffman said many young wrestlers are still in a "growing stage" and too much weight loss is an unhealthy contradiction. He even theorized that healthier kids with stronger immune systems will result in a decrease in the skin infections that pop up in the sport.
"Only because I did it myself in high school and college; I lost too much weight," Hoffman said. "And then your immune system is down and all these things like ringworm and staph, you can't fight them off."
Logjams and broken hearts
Naturally, the restrictions do create obstacles other than paperwork.
When the results came back for Cross' Spartans, he found a logjam of wrestlers whose certified minimum weight class was 135 pounds. In the past, one of those wrestlers probably could have trimmed a couple of extra pounds and gotten down to 130. Now the team will have several athletes on the outside looking in if they can't win challenge matches at 135 or 140.
Hoffman said he had a wrestler whose heart was set on wrestling 112 pounds, but his minimum weight was established at 115.
"It makes it more difficult if you don't have a lot of depth (and) you have a lot of kids in the same weight class," Cross said. "It increases the chance of a good kid not being in the lineup."
There is an appeals process that allows wrestlers to have their body fat tested a second time. The results of the second test are binding even if they establish a higher weight than the first test.
Test is Excel-erated
MSHSAA established training sites throughout the state that produced 365 certified wrestling weight management assessors between June and November. Pleimann said the training was a two- or three-hour process. School personnel, including coaches were allowed to gain certification, but coaches are not allowed to test their own athletes.
Cross was one of several area coaches certified as an assessor, but he said he took the class mostly just to become familiar with the process, and he has not tested any athletes.
Cross' wrestlers, like most in St. Charles County, were tested by the athletic trainers of Excel Sports.
Excel's Kevin Crawmer said his company has tested about 600 athletes from 11 different high schools at offices in St. Peters and O'Fallon. He listed all three Fort Zumwalt high schools, all three Francis Howells, both Wentzville schools, St. Charles, Lutheran and Pattonville as schools Excel tested.
MSHSAA recommended assessors charge a fee of $5 per wrestler, but Excel waived the charge. Crawmer said Excel already has a sports medicine relationship with most of these schools, so the company did the testing as a service.
Cross and Hoffman both said they were grateful.
"Boy I sure want to thank (Excel)," Hoffman said. "They really relieved a burden from schools. When we heard that we were going to have to do it, it was like 'What are we going to do?' Because we can't afford it, to get the equipment ourselves, and Excel came to our rescue."
Wrestlers must first meet a hydration requirement (through a urine sample) before they can have their body fat tested. If a urine-specific gravity of no more than 1.025 grams/milliliter is established (pure water is 1 g/mL), the wrestler can be tested for body fat. Wrestlers who fail the hydration portion of the test must wait 48 hours before they can be tested again.
Wrestlers are weighed on a certified scale and then the body-fat test consists of skin-fold measurements from the tricep, sub-scapular and abdominal regions. The assessor inputs data into a calculator on the National Wrestling Coaches Association web site, and the wrestler's minimum weight is established.
Crawmer said the testing takes less than five minutes per wrestler and for the most part it went smoothly. He said between five and 10 percent of wrestlers failed the hydration test the first time through, but Excel has now successfully tested every wrestler at each of those 10 high schools.
Any wrestler that tests at below the body fat standard (7 percent for boys, 12 percent for girls) must get a physician's clearance to wrestle. But Crawmer said that issue did not come up even once.
He said his company "absolutely" plans to continue offering the testing in future years.
"I think to group wrestling as a sport that is bad because of excessive weight loss is unfair to the sport," Crawmer said. "I think there were some cases, but the reputation of being an unhealthy sport as far as weight-loss goes is unfair. But I think this is needed to correct that."
Weighting game ends, wrestling begins
NFHS allowed each state leeway in establishing weight management guidelines and Pleimann said Missouri's program is "middle of the road" in terms of its strictness.
Adjustments could be made for 2007-08 if necessary.
Pleimann said he would recommend eliminating coaches as possible assessors before next season. Originally, the thought was to make coaches eligible both to educate them and to prevent a possible shortage of assessors. The latter has not been a problem.
"The athletic training community has really stepped up and become involved and most athletic trainers in the state are certified assessors," Pleimann said.
Keeping coaches out of the testing process would eliminate the taint of possible corruption.
"I think suspicions are cast where if you do my kids and I'll do your kids that there is collusion," Pleimann said. "In most cases throughout the state that is probably not taking place, but you don't need that suspicion."
Neither Hoffman nor Cross mentioned any serious problems they encountered with the program. With their wrestlers now certified, coaches can focus on parts of the job they enjoy most in the first place: teaching and competing.
"My philosophy is we want kids to want to wrestle to enjoy it and the weight-cutting part of it kind of gives wrestling a black eye," Cross said. "With this program if kids are losing weight, they're losing body fat, doing it right and I think that's a positive."