News

Clodgo, A Rising Star

Kimberly Stobb Student Writer January 22, 2007

MARQUETTE”The United States Olympic Education Center
womens freestyle wrestling team competed at the Guelph Open last
Saturday (Jan. 20) in Ontario, Canada. The USOEC women faced Olympic
champions and world medalists.

First-year resident athlete Erin Clodgo (Richmond,
Vt.) took fifth in the tournament 67- kilogram weight class. The
Marquette Senior High School junior defeated Jessica Fitzgerald (Western,
Ontario) 1-0, 0-1, 3-0 in the first round of competition. Clodgo won two
matches later in the tournament to tie Fitzgeralds 3-3 tournament
record for fifth place.

Clodgo is literally ready for the world said
head coach Shannyn Gillespie. At the pace she is on now, she will
become a serious contender next year at the Olympic Trials.
Northern Michigan University freshman Nicole Darrow
(Lanesboro, Mass.) returned to the mat for her second competition since
shoulder surgery last spring. She finished 1-2 in the 55-kg weight
class.

Darrow is a young, talented wrestler. She is
continuing to make strides in spite of her surgery and is learning how to
wrestle in her surgically repaired body, said Gillespie.

NMU senior Liz Short (Lombard, Ill.) also had a 1-2
record in the 48-kg class.

NMU senior Amy Borgnini (Terre Haute, Ind.), MSHS
senior Paige Rife (Fowlerville, Mich.) and NMU freshman Dallas
Monreal-Berner (Niles, Ill.) had 2-2 records in respective 55-, 67- and 72-kg
weight classes. NMU junior Sadie Kaneda (Honolulu, Hawaii) and
graduate student Kiersten Hyatt (Carmichael, Calif.) finished 0-2 at 48
kg and 63 kg, respectively.

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Granger Girls Wrestle With Boys, Stereotypes

Jan 22, 2007 09:06 PM CST

Video: Female Students Getting More Involved in High School Wrestling

GRANGER, Wash - Of the four girls that tried out for Granger's wrestling team this winter, only two juniors Adilene Caballero and Marcela Martinez remain.

Marcela used to play basketball in the winter, but this year she decided to follow in her older brothers footsteps and take up wrestling.

For Adilene, she played soccer this fall, but after her aggressive play got her called for too many fouls, she decided wrestling would be a perfect outlet for her aggressive style. Adilene also wants to shake her reputation.

"I'm mostly seen as a school girl. I get straight A's. Nobody sees me as a wrestler so I wanted to prove a point."

After some surprise initially, the team embraced both girls, and gave them support and encouragement.

But opponents didn't always give Adilene and Marcela the same respect. "They didn't think we can do it. They didn't think we should be in the sport," says Marcela.

"There was an instance where after a match, a coach wouldn't shake my hand," Adilene recalls "and a guy decided he wasn't going to wrestle me. He decided to forfeit rather than wrestle a girl."

Still, the two girls have found strength in each other.

"They can feed off each other with what's going on and how it relates to them," says Head Coach Ruben Saldivar, "if one drags, the other picks them up. It's a challenge for both, they have to compete versus each other."

Adilene and Marcela didn't know each other too well before the season, but they've become close since they started wrestling. The two plan to join the team next year as well.

There's currently ten high school female wrestlers in the Yakima Valley. Nationally, the number of female wrestlers has tripled in the last decade.

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