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Mason City girl heavily determined at 103
DAN McCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
February 8, 2007
DAN MCCOOL/THE REGISTER
Junior Tiffany Sluik, left, works against teammate Brian Cross at Mason City High School. Sluik is 20-13 this season with eight pins at 103 pounds. She has a 39-30 career mark.
DAN McCOOL/THE REGISTER
Tiffany Sluik works on her technique against Brian Cross, Mason City’s 112-pounder. Sluik, a 103-pounder, has a 39-30 career record for the Mohawks.
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VIDEO: Tiffany Sluik, high school wrestler
State Females Males Schools
Iowa 62 7,189 302
Illinois - 14,876 407
Minnesota - 7,677 351
South Dakota 38 1,402 98
Nebraska 40 4,795 242
Missouri - 6,883 210
Wisconsin - 7,529 344
SOURCE: National Federation of State High School Associations Handbook.
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All Tiffany Sluik wanted in her high school wrestling career was to have a chance.
"In the beginning, people were like, 'I don't want to wrestle her,' " the Mason City junior said of her male counterparts. "Now they don't see me as a girl. They see me as another wrestler."
Sluik is in her second season as the Mohawks' varsity 103-pounder. She will try to record the 40th victory of her career during the CIML Invitational at Ames on Friday. This season she has compiled a 20-13 record with eight pins.
Girls on a wrestling mat has become more accepted, Sluik said. What did that require?
"Girls showing they can do it, pushing through practices, actually competing," Sluik said.
The number of girls competing in high school wrestling in Iowa has spiked in recent years.
According to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations, 62 females took part in high school wrestling in Iowa last season. That was a 158.3 percent increase over the 24 who participated in the 2002-034 season. Numbers for this season are expected to be available next fall.
Sluik's attempt to become the first female wrestler to compete in the traditional state tournament begins with a Class 3-A district meet at Cedar Falls on Feb. 17. She is a three-time champion of the girls' state wrestling meet, which is held in Gilbert after the regular high school season.
Sluik was third in the district tournament last season.
Heather Morley of Urbandale became the first female to participate in the dual meet state tournament. She scored a pin during the 2005 meet.
Sluik said she's happy to be on the varsity level.
Junior varsity "was fun because you won a lot of matches," Sluik said. "On varsity, you got put back in place, but I like varsity better because the competition level is higher and it's more intense."
Mason City coach Dusty Rhodes said Sluik has never asked for a lesser work schedule than her teammates.
"I'm not going to make exceptions for anybody in our wrestling room; it doesn't matter who it is," Rhodes said. "That hasn't been hard for me with Tiffany because of the work ethic she has, and her attitude towards work and competition."
Sluik said she can't match the strength of some of her opponents. That can be frustrating, but never enough to make her hang up her headgear.
"There are points where you're like, 'Maybe I'm not strong enough, maybe I'm not good enough,' " Sluik said, "but I like it so much I want to stay out and keep trying because I want to be good."
Sluik's time on the mat began at home as a workout partner for her brother T.J., who is an eighth-grade wrestler.
"It looked fun, so I tried it and I liked it," Sluik said. "I had practiced with my brother like forever. He went to tournaments and he was getting first. I was like, 'I want to do that.' "
Records have not been kept as to which female has won the most varsity matches in Iowa, but Shandra Peterson of Lake Mills finished her career this season with a 54-53 record, including an 8-18 mark as a senior. She went 22-18 at 112 pounds in 2005-06 before wrestling at 130 and 119 this season.
Bulldogs coach Bill Byrnes said Peterson has a sprained knee ligament and will not compete in the Bulldogs' Class 1-A sectional at Garner.
To have the career varsity wrestling record of a girl in Iowa considered for a state record list, email Dan McCool at dmccool@dmreg.com. Remember, byes do not count on a varsity record.
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Hughes is Catalina Foothills' pin-down girl
By ALLISON HAMILA
Tucson Citizen 2/8/07
Most 5-foot-5, 105-pound girls are not intimidating.
Catalina Foothills High School junior wrestler Andrea Hughes is no exception - until she's on the wrestling mat.
She is smiley and bubbly and eager to tell you about her other passions when she's not competing.
Hughes is not the only female wrestler to come through Catalina Foothills High School, but she is certainly the best.
She took fourth place at the Class 4A Division I state tournament last year. She was also named honorable mention on the mat.com/Asics Girl's High School All-American wrestling team.
Hughes is becoming the face of female wrestling in the state. She is preparing to head to the 4A Division I state tournament in Glendale.
Session I is today at Copper Canyon High School, followed by Session II on Friday and the medals and championship rounds Saturday at Glendale's Jobing.com Arena.
Wrestling is becoming increasingly popular for women each year, with an increasing number of high school and college programs. Hughes is the standout girls wrestler in Arizona.
Before last season, nobody knew what Hughes was capable of except her coach, Greg Bishop. He knew she was one of the "unusual ones" from the beginning.
Last season he called up television stations and newspapers. This year they are knocking down the door. It has led to a little jealousy because of the media attention, but Hughes takes everything in stride and has no problem usually being the only girl.
"I get attention for it, but I don't talk about wrestling 24/7," she said.
Hughes is bouncing back this season from two injuries, one to her shoulder and the other to her elbow. She continued to condition and said she is almost 100 percent healthy.
"She's got great determination,'' Bishop said. "She is very goal-oriented. Those are the ones that make the greats, male or female."
He said that he has never tried to treat Hughes any differently. He also coached Brenna Larkin when she wrestled at Catalina Foothills.
"It's all about the tone you set," Bishop said.
It has to depend on the girl, as well. Hughes loves the sport and used her mother's doubts in the beginning to help motivate her. Her mother told her if she didn't get her weight down, she couldn't compete.
"I don't think she wanted me to wrestle. She thought I was going to quit," she said.
So Andrea started dieting and conditioning. She said that she has tried everything to keep her weight down, including wrestling tricks such as sitting in saunas and spitting, but she tries to do it more healthfully. Wrestling takes a kind of determination that is hard to find in other sports, especially for a female.
"Girls need to make sure they really want to do it,'' Hughes said. "Guys can do it and not take it seriously. For girls to equal out they have to work harder.''
Hughes' family is supportive. She comes from a large family and says members all go to each other's events.
Throw away stereotypes, because Hughes does not fit any of them. She looks forward to attending her junior prom and enjoys shopping. She even was a cheerleader in the past.
Hughes wants to wrestle in college.
If that doesn't work out, she wants either to attend a culinary arts school or learn physical therapy or massage therapy.
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Former cheerleader joins wrestling team
By: Collin Edwards Falcon Free Press
Thursday, February 8, 2007
As a rule, Colfax High School (CHS) wrestlers enjoy the struggle on the mat, in matches that pit the strength and knowledge of one wrestler against another.
One of the freshman wrestlers is no exception to this rule, even if she is in a rather unique position.
Katie York is the only girl on the wrestling team. Although she has dabbled in a number of other sports - cheerleading, ballet, gymnastics, soccer and karate - she never found one that she liked. So when she came to CHS, she decided to join the wrestling team.
In a male-dominated sport, one might expect a single girl participant to be the victim of hazing and goading.
Yet, while it took a few weeks for the team to realize she was serious, said junior Brad Baumgarner, the other CHS wrestlers now not only accept her, but give her help and tips.
York admitted there were still a few wrestlers she "just [doesn't] get along with," but this could be expected no matter what a person's gender.
Although having a girl on the team was a little awkward at first, said senior Mike Fucci, "she blends in really well. She's not being a martyr or anything. She's not loud, she doesn't get in anybody's way, she does what she needs to do, (and) she tries hard."
Coach Jerry Sinkey is proud of York, whom he views as a "good example of what a young gal (wrestler) can do."
"Katie doesn't get any slack from us, and she wouldn't want it ... She's earned the respect of the whole team just because she has hung in there," Sinkey said.
"She comes off the mat with a smile. There are times when she gets a little frustrated, but that's typical with all the team," Sinkey said.
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Pinning the competition
By Rob Burns - Daily World writer
Thursday, February 8, 2007 10:13 AM PST
Gathering for weigh-ins at the Moses Lake Hall of Fame Girls Wrestling Invitational, a coach walked up to a Hoquiam wrestler and asked, “How did you get so many girls to come out for wrestling?”
With 25 girls wrestling for the Grizzlies, a lot of coaches have asked the same question as the first-ever Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association-sanctioned state championship meet approaches next week in Tacoma.
The meet, to be held at the same time as the boys’ Mat Classic XIX at the Tacoma Dome, is an all-classification tournament and the wrestlers follow the same path as the boys — winning berths at regional meets to be held on Saturday.
Hoquiam, with eight sub-regional champions and 15 overall wrestlers qualified, will join other Western Washington female wrestlers at the Region II tournament in Tumwater to compete for one of three state berths in nine weight classes.
The Grizzlies’ strength in numbers came about over the past couple of years, starting with a few girls trying out the sport and growing into a full-fledged team traveling to girls-only meets throughout the state.
“There’s a bridge now between the girls coming in, a vast majority of them are freshman and sophomores, and those who have been through the system for two years and are in their third,” HHS coach Kirk Hartzell said. “They know the direction we want the program to go, they trust the coaches and they know how things will shape up at the end of the season. They share that with the kids and help them get through it.
“In the long part of the season, when they’re getting frustrated and may want to quit, the kids know that others have been through it and we retain a larger number of girls,” Hartzell said. “That really helps a program, any kind of program, when you have a large group of inexperienced wrestlers. We’ve been successful with that.”
Over the past two years, the girls participated in an invitational-style meet during the Mat Classic, taking over the mats once the boys’ rounds were finished.
The experience was valuable for them and it helped pave the way for this year’s state tournament. However, to some of the girls, they felt like an afterthought at meets, even in Tacoma. That won’t be the case next weekend.
“When I first started, the girls always came second and we even had to weigh in one time in the girls’ bathroom — because the boys were using the girls locker room at the time,” said senior Tess Grannemann. “Now, everything has changed. We have girls-only tournament, girls coaches and now our own state tournament. It has been neat to watch all of this.”
Grannemann, who is a state-class distance runner in track and cross country, is one of five three-year wrestlers. She won the 103-pound girls subregional title last weekend and has been wrestling with the boys since she started.
“I wrestle to become more competitive,” said Grannemann. “A couple of the guys on the cross country team were wrestlers and I would wrestle with them. There were six or seven other girls on the team when I started and it was hard, but it made me tougher.”
Junior Alex White added that the girls are treated equally with the boys in the wrestling room from the first day out. There’s no separation — everyone is held to the same standard and everyone helps each other in drills and matches.
“A lot of stuff was expected of us from the coaches and everyone was expected to do everything,” said White, a three-year wrestler who will be the program’s first four-year wrestler next season. “It was tougher mentally than physically (to catch up), because it is hard to push yourself past what you are used to. That’s what wrestling is about.”
For most of the girls, the first couple of weeks were the hardest and the learning curve is steep. However, they stuck with it, learning the moves and participating in matches with the boys on the junior varsity and varsity level helped them out.
Like Grannemann, many of the girls came out for wrestling after talking with friends on the team or with the coaches. Some were even recruited by other wrestlers and others came out when the state tournament was announced in the summer.
Hartzell noted that some of the first-year wrestlers will be in this weekend’s regional tournament.
“I went out for basketball last year, but it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be,” said sophomore Kelsey Klein, a first-year wrestler who won the 125-pound subregional title. “I heard about girls wrestling and that it was going to be a really big deal this year, so it is good to try something new.”
Hoquiam’s goal this season is to become the first girls wrestling team champions . The team has talked about that all year, said Hartzell. But beyond this year, the foundation has been laid down for the program to grow and get stronger.
“The WIAA’s goal is to separate the two genders for good and that flies against what we believe in our program,” Hartzell said. “For us, even if the two are separate, our goal is to get 20 to 40 girls to turn out, to have a full squad every year and compete with any team in the state. Right now, we’re leading the way and that’s kind of cool (to be) on the front edge of all of that.”
DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG As the popularity of girls’ wrestling continues to increase, so is the number of students turning out for the sport. The female wrestlers at Hoquiam High School number nearly two dozen and has doubled over the past year.
More sports photos for this story
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