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Gone in 16 seconds: 'Kid' makes painful wrestling return
By John E. Gibson / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter 1/28/07
On the women's side, Saori Yoshida, the four-time defending champion at 55 kg and the gold medalist in Athens and world champion every year since 2002, cruised past Hitomi Sakamoto in the final.
Yoshida, who has won 103 consecutive matches and has never lost in international competition, took the first period with a pair of late takedowns. She rushed Sakamoto midway through the second and played defense over the final minute to win the match.
Sakamoto, a four-time winner in the 51-kg division--with back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000 and again the past two years--didn't score a point.
"I want to win every tournament this year so there was no way I was to lose this match," Yoshida said. "I didn't worry so much about strategy, I just decided to go right after her. I just put everything into it.
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Harold Raker's high school wrestling column
www.dailyitem.com January 29, 2007
By now, most people know about the milestone victory at Line Mountain on Thursday, when female wrestler Lainey Martz of the Eagles pinned a male wrestler from Upper Dauphin in 47 seconds to help the Eagles edge the Trojans 35-34 to win the Tri-Valley League championship.
That provided an emotional high in a dual meet fraught with a myriad of emotions by the wrestlers and coaching staff.
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Prep roundup: Esterheld third at state invitational
Staff Report
Article Launched: 01/28/2007
IJ report
HANFORD - Redwood High wrestler Kristen Esterheld placed third in the heavyweight division at the California Girls Wrestling Invitational on Saturday. Esterheld went through Friday's matches undefeated and only lost one match the entire tournament.
"She wrestled smart," Redwood coach Pavan Gulati said. "She's been plagued by a shoulder injury, and there were times throughout the tournament where it did become a problem. But she fought through it."
Esterheld lost her first match Saturday 5-2 in three rounds, then bounced back to pin her next opponent in 1 minute, 12 seconds in the consolation bracket. In the medal match, Esterheld eked out a 7-4, three-round win over Jamila McBride of Salinas.
Redwood's Christina Brown went 2-2 in the tournament in the 138-pound division. Jocelyn Havel of Terra Linda took seventh in the 126-pound division.
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Russian female wrestlers to compete in four finals of Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix
1/26/2007 7:24:00 PM
Russia will have a chance to win at least 4 golden medals in the 6th Women's Wrestling Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix. Zamira Razmanova and Anna Trusova will struggle for the gold in 51 kg category, a KNews correspondent reported from Ivan Yarygin Sport Palace.
Russia's Maria Gurova and Natalia Golts are struggling for the first place in 55 kg. Two Russians will be the ones to claim the gold in 59 kg and 67 kg.
Svetlana Bagatyuk of Kazakhstan will be Russia's Lorisa Oorzhak's rival in 48 kg. Poland's Monika Rogen and Russia's Natalia Kuksina will claim the gold in 63 kg category. The rival of Alena Perepelkina of Russia in 72 kg final will be Vasilisa Marzalyuk of Belarus.
Women's finals are on now.
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Coaches dissatisfied with Russian women's team's result at Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix
1/29/2007 4:33:00 PM
The Krasnoyarsk Territory won 10 medals in Women's Freestyle Wrestling Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix. Maria Smolyakova won the gold in 59 kg category, Lorisa Oorzhak (48 kg) and Julia Bartnovskaya took two silvers. The national team also won seven bronze medals.
2 golden medals were won by foreign teams: Tatiana Bakatyuk (48 kg) of Kazakhstan and Poland's Monika Rogien (63 kg).
A total of 13 golden and 14 silver medals were won by the Russians, which is not surprising because Russia was represented by more than one hundred wrestlers, while the biggest foreign team – the USA – sent only 17 for the tournament.
Despite the seemingly great success, Russia's coaches are dissatisfied with the result. The Russian female wrestlers were beaten in two of Olympic weight categories, women's head coach Sergey Beloglazov noted. Moreover, the struggle was against few of the strongest foreign rivals.
"I lay no claims to Natalia Golts and Alena Perepelkina only. Their victories were not so bright but they had no one to struggle with but one or two candidates," Beloglazov said.
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These girls just wanna wrestle
Springdale four bumping heads with boys in rough-and-tumble sport
BY RICK FIRES ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE This story was published Saturday, January 27, 2007
SPRINGDALE - Kim Cheney has always been supportive of her daughter’s school activities, but she was surprised when she learned of her latest pursuit.
High school wrestling? With the boys?
Cheney’s daughter, Felicia Hill, is one of four girls on the Springdale high school wrestling team that is in its first year of existence. Hill, a sophomore wrestling in the 103-pound class, is joined on the team by senior Aracely Galvez (189-pound class), sophomore Yesenia Bautista (112-pound class) and freshman Lauren Brewer (140-pound class), who attends Southwest Junior High.
“I was a little shocked at first when Felicia said she was going to wrestle, especially at her size,” Cheney said. “Girls don’t usually get into this type of sport, but I knew she had the determination and I knew she could do it.”
There are 19 high school wrestling teams in Arkansas, but Springdale is the only one with girls on its squad. While girls competing in wrestling might seem like a novelty in Arkansas, where the sport is just starting to take hold, it isn’t that uncommon nationally.
Girls made up about 2 percent of all high school wrestlers in 2006, according to the National Federation for High School Sports, which listed 4,975 girls in 32 states out of 256,509 wrestlers overall. Texas led all states in girls participation with 1,314 wrestling for 171 schools.
The girls are making names for themselves, too. Just this week Sports Illustrated ran a feature on Nicole Woody, a junior at Arundel High School in Gambrills, Md., who is the topranked 100-pound female wrestler in the nation and competes against boys in varsity meets.
Long before Woody there was Tricia Saunders, a member of the United States Wrestling Hall of Fame. She also beat the boys on her way to winning a Michigan high school state championship in 1976, then went on to win four world championships while wrestling other women in the 1990s.
But while athletes such as Woody and Saunders have forced some to redefine their image of a high school wrestler, the Springdale girls’ motivation for joining a predominantly male sport falls short of making a statement for women’s rights.
Brewer simply chose the sport as an outlet for her aggressiveness.
“I’ve been in fights before, so I thought I’d take up wrestling because it’s legal,” said Brewer, who also has been on cheerleading squads and dance teams. “I’m real aggressive anyway, and I thought it would be fun to join the wrestling team. “I have to go up against guys two or three years older than me, but I’m not worried about it. I have a bench press in my house, and I work out on it to get stronger.”
Springdale’s girls are a combined 2-13 on the season, but Hill and Bautista won by pinning their opponents. In fact, Hill became the first girl to win a match in Arkansas.
“We had our first team meeting on Nov. 7 last year, and Felicia Hill was one of the first to walk in the door,” Springdale Coach Anthony Haubner said. “She asked if girls could wrestle and I said sure, and she hasn’t missed a practice since.
“Our girls are treated the same as the boys, and they work just as hard. There is no complaining whatsoever on their part, and that’s what makes it so nice.”
Daily practice routines for the girls include 2-mile runs, 150 pushups and 200 jumping jacks. They have been well-received by their teammates and opponents have been courteous and respectful, the girls said.
“They guys are awesome,” Galvez said of her teammates. “They teach us so much. Instead of pinning us and making us feel bad, they show us how to escape or make certain moves.
“They teach us how to do things instead of telling us we can’t do it.”
Hill was pinned in her last meet by T.J. Beringer, a junior from Fayetteville. Beringer said he has no problem competing against girls in a predominantly male sport.
“When I’m on the mat, I’m focused on getting a pin, winning the match and scoring points,” he said. “[Hill] fought hard, and her being a female isn’t an issue to me.
“Wrestling is a good sport that keeps you in shape, and women should be allowed to do it if they want.”
Not everyone shares that attitude.
Some have expressed concern about the effect it has on male wrestlers when they are beaten by their female counterparts. Even though competition is divided into weight classes that pit wrestlers of similar size against one another, some believe it is more difficult for boys to cope with losing to a girl.
According to the Sports Illustrated article, some schools have chosen to forfeit matches rather than let one of their boys face Woody, and even one of Woody’s teammates transferred because he didn’t want to compete on the same team as her.
Haubner has no such concerns and offers a simple answer for anyone wanting to know how he’d deal with the situation.
“The only thing that I would tell a wrestler is that in this sport, the person that can capitalize on their opponent’s mistakes is going to win the match, regardless of ability,” he said.
Springdale’s girls aren’t getting caught up in any of that. They are just eager to get back on the mat after a recent meet with Gentry and Mountain Home was canceled because of bad weather.
Springdale will compete this weekend at a meet hosted by Arkansas School for the Blind at the Arkansas School for the Deaf gym in Little Rock. Other upcoming events include meets at Fayetteville on Feb. 17 and at Springdale on Feb. 24 before the state tournament is held March 17 at Bentonville.
No one is predicting a state championship for any of the Springdale girls, but their participation has shown that Arkansas’ newest sport is for everyone.
“Being a girl shouldn’t hold you back in anything you want to do in life,” said Springdale Athletic Director Annette Scogin, one of only a few female athletic directors in the state. “These girls have shown you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.
“I think it’s great they’re out there competing and doing something they enjoy. It’s what athletics is all about.”
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Girls Who Want to Join the Team Find a Welcome Mat
By Ryan Mink
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, January 25, 2007; Page T22
Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Kim Seibert fell in love with wrestling in her middle school gym class. She said she can't throw or catch a ball, so wrestling was a natural fit.
"I'm really just doing it for myself -- seeing how many wins I can get," Seibert said. "When I first signed up, it didn't really occur to me that being a female wrestler was different, that it was against the norm."
Seibert isn't on a crusade. She isn't out to prove that girls are equal to boys. She believes her reasons for wrestling are the same as those of her male teammates. The difference this year? Seibert is one of five girls on the team. Overall, female wrestlers are no longer an oddity at schools across the Washington area.
Arundel's Nicole Woody, Magruder's Helen Maroulis and Robinson's Firen Gassman have shown the competitive heights female wrestlers can reach, and the sport is being changed at its roots.
Most girls don't have winning records or championship aspirations, and most don't wrestle on varsity. But they're coming out in record numbers.
According to the National Federation of State High School Athletics, 297 girls in Maryland (178) and Virginia (119) participated in high school wrestling last season.
According to the statistics, there were no female wrestlers in the District. The number of female participants in the two states has more than doubled the past two seasons.
"It's not a big deal anymore," said Kent Bailo, director of the United States Girls' Wrestling Association. "At one time, there was the 'I want to force the issue and be me' phase. Now I don't think it's as much to be a pioneer, but it's something they just want to do."
The desire to wrestle often starts at home.
Broadneck freshman Ariel Treadway comes from a house of grapplers -- her brother, Colton, has been wrestling since he was 6, and her father wrestled in high school and was a recreational league coach.
Colton started lobbying for Ariel to join the family tradition. After Ariel watched Woody, she realized the concept was anything but absurd.
"From knowing nothing to pinning people is pretty cool," Treadway said. "I played soccer, too, but wrestling is a lot of contact. I just love the physicalness of it."
Mount Hebron senior Cindy Heiser came out for the team to stay in shape for lacrosse. Bethesda-Chevy Chase sophomore Brenda Lopez originally just wanted to find something to relieve her stress.
Her coach, Bob Bunting, told Lopez to watch a wrestling tournament featuring Maroulis before coming out for the team. From that day on, Lopez set a goal of dropping enough weight to get to Maroulis's class.
"I don't want to seem like a stalker," Lopez said, "but she is amazing."
Maroulis placed sixth in the 112-pound division at the state tournament last season as a freshman. Magruder Coach Max Sartoph said young girls ask Maroulis for autographs after her matches. Woody's mother, Mary, told her daughter at age 11 that she would have to start to be a role model. Last summer, Woody became the first American wrestler, male or female, to win a junior world championship.
Gassman became the first girl to qualify for the Virginia Group AAA meet.
While Maroulis and Woody have impressed the wrestling community, when it comes to the swarm of girls who have been inspired by them, coaches' reactions are more tempered.
Wheaton Coach Dave Moquim, whose 40-year tenure at the school makes him one of the area's deans of high school wrestling, has two girls on his junior varsity team. Both are seniors, and he said both work extremely hard but aren't helping him build a program.
"It's like having a kid in AP classes who is not qualified to be in there and doesn't do well on the tests," Moquim said. "They're challenging themselves, but they are taking away from our teaching abilities."
As with every other coach and wrestler, a girl who works hard every day in practice earns Moquim's respect. So what if they all work hard but still can't make varsity?
"Well, then, maybe they should form girls' teams and have girls' coaches," Moquim said.
That's an option that might not be too far away. Bailo, who oversees about 5,000 girls wrestling in tournaments in 35 states, said he feels that every state will have girls' high school wrestling teams in 10 years. Three states (Hawaii, Texas and Washington) have high school girls' wrestling teams and championships, and four colleges (the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky, Pacific University in Oregon, Missouri Valley College in Missouri and Menlo College in California) fund women's wrestling. Women's wrestling also debuted at the 2004 Athens Olympics, a fact that several coaches and administrators said fueled interest in the sport.
But Jim Mehan, who has been on the Maryland state wrestling committee since the mid-1980s, said adding girls' wrestling teams is "way down on the list," mainly because there aren't enough girls participating yet and they aren't competitive enough to take boys' roster spots.
The issue for most girls who wrestle used to be fitting in on a daily basis, but that has become easier with time. Girls taking forfeits because a coach or boy was afraid of the embarrassment of losing to a girl was common even three years ago. Now it's almost unheard of. Lewd comments are rare, and headhunting to drive a girl off the mat isn't tolerated.
"For a long time, they were looked down upon. I don't see that anymore," said Robinson Coach Bryan Hazard. "Now they see they want to be part of a team. As long as the girl comes in and doesn't ask for any favors, if they don't expect anything and just train as hard as the other guys, that's when they get their respect."
Most girls report that their friends' jaws still drop when they hear that the girls are wrestling, but the wrestlers themselves are some of the more understanding ones. "I feel like I've gained 30 brothers," Treadway said.
That kinship is starting at younger ages, with many girls competing in youth leagues. The earlier they start to wrestle with boys, the more familiarity boys and girls have with each other in competition. And with girls gaining more experience, some are winning at the lower levels. And that, as Treadway found, is the best way to get respect.
"We don't even kid them anymore about losing to a girl," Sherwood Coach Scott Beattie said. "We tell them, 'You better go beat her, because she wants to beat you.' "
Beattie has a wrestling scrapbook that includes a newspaper article from Feb. 6, 1976. It was about a girl named Madeline Moose, who "marked the beginning of change in the Capital Area Junior Wrestling League."
That was the first female wrestler he could ever remember.
"Now it's commonplace, it's accepted," he said with a nostalgic grin. "It's kind of done."
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