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Tim Switzer, The Leader-Post
Published: Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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There isn't a lot more for Ali Bernard to prove in Canadian Interuniversity Sport wrestling.
At 20, Bernard, who competes for the University of Regina Cougars, has already won three consecutive Canada West and CIS titles.
The latest title came Saturday when Bernard beat Leah Callahan of the Calgary Dinos in the 72-kilogram gold-medal final in Saskatoon.
Combine those with her other career highlights and Cougars head coach Leo McGee thinks Bernard might be the best he's seen in his 22 years with the U of R program.
"She's won two world (junior gold) medals while at the U of R, she's beat a defending world champion. It would be difficult to argue that," said McGee. "Without a doubt, she would have to be one of the most talented kids that has ever been here."
Bernard has been more dominant than any other CIS female wrestler in her three years with the Cougars. Last season, she pinned every opponent en route to her second national title. This season, she only lost once during a university tournament and that was to a 27-year-old club wrestler who finished second at the senior world championships in 2006.
But Bernard says she is still being challenged every time she steps on the mat.
"Anything can happen any given day so I'm always prepared to have a tough fight," said Bernard. "I'm never expecting them to roll over for me. I'm still challenging myself and the weight class is always changing."
"We have a super competitive league, nationwide," added McGee. "The wrestling is so competitive that is comes down to who is prepared for the tournament. With her, she has a lot of experience, she's tough psychologically and physically she's really, really gifted."
Especially after she won that first gold medal. Since then, Bernard is feeling more and more pressure and more and more desire from opponents.
"It's always the No. 1 that they try to knock off," said Bernard, who hails from New Ulm, Minn. "If you're ranked first, they're all gunning for you. You just have to stay focused. I still want it more than they want it."
With three conference and CIS titles under her belt, Bernard could well be the second Canadian university wrestler to finish their career with five of each. Brock University's Jamie Macari became the first on Saturday when he won the men's 54kg division.
But whether or not that happens is of little concern to McGee.
"I'm not overly concerned with her finishes at the university level -- that's secondary to the university team," said McGee. "We can flirt with her in three different weight classes. She gives us an opportunity to move her around and make our team stronger. She's like the kind of kid that can play defence and centre."
Now Bernard wants to look beyond the university level and her world junior titles and focus on the U.S. senior national team.
Bernard will try to make the first step toward that goal at the end of March at the U.S. national championships. In June, she will try to take it one step further at the U.S. Pan-Am Games team trials.
Perhaps there she can find something new to prove.
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CIS Wrestling Major Award Winners
3/5/07
BROCK'S MACARI WINS R.W. PUGH AND MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
SASKATOON, SK - The 2007 CIS Wrestling Championship came to a close with the Jack Poole Awards Banquet, where the major award winners were announced. On the men's side, the national champions Brock Badgers led the way winning two awards. The same was for the women's, with the champion Calgary Dinos earning two awards.
Just hours after claiming a spot in the CIS record books, Brock's Jamie Macari was named both the CIS Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Year and was the recipient of the R.W. Pugh Award for Fair Play.
"This could have gone to so many people," said Macari after receiving the top award in CIS Wrestling. "So many people rose to the occasion today. Ryley Walker put on an outstanding performance for the crowd. There's a few guys I want to give this to... I'm just so happy for everyone that won."
As for his second award, Macari was just as honoured: "I try to be as much of a gentleman as possible. I study sport ethics, so it means a lot to me. I'm happy than it's noticeable to others."
On the women's side, Concordia's Hana Askren won Most Outstanding Wrestler: "It feels fantastic. I didn't think I would get it... we're a small team and I haven't won before. It's really exciting."
Jenn Hanson of Brock won the R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award: "It was quite a surprise. It's something that I'm really proud of, it's really great. It's my last year of wrestling and it's a good note to end on."
The Student-Athlete Community Service Award on the men's side went to Alberta's Jarret Wall: "I was really hoping to win. It's quite a difficult award (to win) and quite prestigious... It's a very big honour. It recognizes the person as a whole, and as a student-athelte."
For the women, Western's Jessica Fitzgerald was selected: " I like getting our group involved in the community. It's so great; you get so much back from it. It's a great team-building experience. I really liked organizing everything; this is an awesome way to pay it back. This is the most flattering; everyone in that room I respect so much and I just cannot believe that I was chosen."
The Men's Rookie of the Year honours went to Regina's Cory Horsburgh: "This is pretty awesome. I'm really happy. I did what I came to do and it was enough to win. I got the best of it this weekend."
On the women's side, the Rookie of the Year was Gen Haley of Calgary: "There's a lot of good people here. Just the fact that I got to participate at CI's (CIS Championship) in my rookie year is already an awesome experience."
The Men's Coach of the Year Award went to Saskatchewan's Todd Hinds: "Everybody knows that the Coach of the Year is a program award. It's for the team, all the guys who worked so hard and the support. I didn't expect this, but I knew that this was the greatest team, the best team. This is recognition of the team."
For the women, Dinos head coach Mitch Ostberg was selected: "This is gratifying. Our team performed well. There are truly an excellent group of coaches here; to be recognized among them is special."
2007 CIS Wrestling Major Award Winners
Men’s
Most Outstanding Wrestler
Jamie Macari - Brock
Rookie of the Year
Cory Horsburgh – U of R
Student-Athlete Community Service
Jarret Wall – U of A
Coach of the Year
Todd Hinds – U of S
Pugh Sportsmanship
Jamie Macari - Brock
Women’s
Most Outstanding Wrestler
Hana Askren - Concordia
Rookie of the Year
Gen Haley – U of C
Student-Athlete Community Service
Jessica Fitzgerald - Western
Coach of the Year
Mitch Ostberg – U of C
Pugh Sportsmanship
Jenn Hanson - Brock
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(Mar 6, 2007)
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SUBMITTED PHOTO St. James wrestler Jeremy Latour, second from left, won gold in the 95kg category at OFSAA late last week. He's pictured here with his St. James teammates Danielle Tremaine, left, who won silver in the 44kg girls' class and Matt Carere, who placed sixth in the 38kg boys' grouping. At right is coach Jamie Cox. Latour and Centennial's Emma Brightwell won gold for local schools.
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Jeremy Latour of St. James high school and Emma Brightwell of Centennial each earned gold at the provincial high school wrestling championships late last week.
Latour took gold in the boys' 95kg category at the OFSAA championship, which took place Thursday and Friday in Brampton. Brightwell won first place in the girls' 77kg class.
Guelph grapplers on the boys' side earned three silver medals as Centennial's Kevin Chen took second in the 44kg category and schoolmate Cody Airdrie scored silver in the 61kg event and College Heights's Jamie Zolnai was second in the 67.5kg class. Nick Sampogna of Our Lady of Lourdes earned bronze in the 47.5kg category.
St. James's Matt Carere was sixth in 38kg and Lourdes's Cuong Lee was sixth in the 41kg.
On the girls' side, Lourdes's Kim Cupid earned silver in the 41kg category and John F. Ross's Sarah Johnston got silver in the 83kg class. Other top six finishers were Hilary Rafla, Centennial, fifth in 57.5kg and Caleigh Helliker, Centennial, sixth in 61kg.
Team standings were unavailable at press time.
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Locals capture 10 medals in wrestling
BRAMPTON (Mar 6, 2007)
Local wrestlers claimed 10 medals at the OFSAA wrestling championships.
Locals pinned three gold medals, six silver and one bronze at the provincial high school championship meet.
Jeremy Latour of St. James won gold in the boys' 95-kilogram class. Allison Leslie of Centre Wellington took top spot in the girls' 67.5 kg. class. Emma Brightwell of Centennial won the other gold as she took the title in the girls' 77 kg. class.
Kevin Chen of Centennial was runner-up in th boys' 44 kg. class. Others to win silver medals were Codie Airdrie of Centennial in the boys' 61 kg. class, Jamie Zolnai of College Heights in the boys' 67.5 kg. class, Kim Cupid of Lourdes in the girls' 41 kg. class, Danielle Tremaine of St. James in the girls' 44 kg. class and Sarah Johnston of Ross in the girls' 83 kg. class.
The bronze medal was won by Nick Sampogna of Lourdes in the boys' 47.5 kg. class.
Scott Young of St. John's-Kilmarnock was fourth in the boys' 38 kg. class.
Hilary Rafla of Centennial placed fifth in the girls' 57.5 kg. class.
Cuong Lee of Lourdes was sixth in the boys' 41 kg. class and Caleigh Helliker of Centennial was sixth in the girls' 61 kg. class. Matt Carrere of St. James placed sixth in the boys' 38 kg. class.
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Clark reigns again, wins back-to-back state titles
by Robert Thomas, Hill Country News 2/28/07
Queen-sized beat down. Vista Ridge’s Carrie Clark finished off a brilliant four-year varsity wrestling career on Saturday at the state wrestling championship, locking up her second straight state title at 185 pounds with an easy 6-2 win over Trishia Jenkins of Keller Central. |
Leander ISD garners five All-State wrestlers
AUSTIN - History was made in several ways for Leander ISD schools during Saturday's state wrestling championships at the Delco Center, highlighted by Vista Ridge's Carrie Clark winning her second-straight state championship.
Clark, now a four-time All-State wrestler, finished her high school career like she did in almost all her matches.
Coming out on top.
Wrapping up a perfect 28-0 season, she won the 185-pound weight class with a 6-2 decision over Trisha Jenkins of Keller Central in the state title match.
As for getting to the title match, Clark mauled the competition with pinfall wins over Smantha Aguirre of El Paso Eastwood (2-minutes, 9 seconds) and Kiara Swain of Allen (1:36) to reach the semifinals.
She then dominated Alisha Wright of South Grand Prairie for a 19-4 technical pinfall win to move onto the finals.
Clark highlighted a record-effort from LISD grapplers that saw 10 total wrestlers at state, with five making it to the medal stand.
Two of those five were Vista Ridge's Bryan Osorio and Chris Bowling.
Osorio, 14-2 at 112 pounds, was one of the stories of meet as he rebounded from a December knee injury to finish second at state.
He started with a 6-3 win against Juan Dominguez of Frisco Centennial, following that with a 6-4 decision over Nick Waltman of Katy Cinco Ranch.
In the semifinals, he got a surprise forfeit win as Joey Vogelsberg of Euless Trinity didn't make weight.
Osorio then faced his toughest test of the weekend, losing 13-5 to Danny Luttrell of Arlington in the championship match.
As for Bowling (8-4 at 171 pounds), he started strong and placed sixth overall in his weight class.
A 12-1 decision over Johnny Shaw of Colleyville Heritage and a dominating pinfall win (1:31) over Richard Arriaga of El Paso High put him in the semifinals.
But a 15-0 technical pinfall loss to Kyle Anderson of Highland Park knocked him to the third-place bracket.
Bowling then dropped a pair of close matches, losing 6-4 to Jacob Rice of Beaumont West Brook and 8-7 to Chris Brooks of Arlington Bowie to close out the meet.
The other two All-State wrestlers for LISD came from Cedar Park in Cody Frankum and Jaime Moore.
Frankum (152 pounds, 41-2 overall) wrestled in six matches at state, including a pinfall win over Kaleb Luna of Borger at the 1:46 mark in the fifth place match.
Frankum started the meet with a 14-0 loss to Josh Ito of Boys Ranch, but rebounded with an 11-2 decision over Trent Murrell of Houston Westside.
Two more wins, a 4-2 decision over Jose Alvarez of Hereford and an 8-6 win against Alex Segler of Plano put him in the third place semifinals.
However, a close 6-4 loss to Jordan Couch of Keller put him in the fifth-place match.
Vista Ridge's Brandon Sheldon (42-3 at 180 pounds) also won a pair of matches at state.
His wins were 10-4 over Adam Bernard of Coppell and a 5-4 decision over Jake Topper of Borger.
Those wins were sandwiched by a pinfall loss to Ted Gambordella of Highland Park (1:35) and a 7-3 defeat to Scott Cayton of Allen in the third place quarterfinals.
Three other wrestlers finished 0-2 at state in Cedar Park's Dante Reynolds (15-3 at 103 pounds), Leander's Devin Levlon (31-3 at 119 pounds) and Vista Ridge's Able Suarez (31-3 at 125 pounds).
Reynolds lost 9-1 to Andrew Girgis of Katy Cinco Ranch and dropped a 2-0 decision to Joe Andrews of Grapevine.
Levlon opened his matches with a 9-2 loss to Mark Molina of El Paso Burgess and ended his meet with a 5-4 loss to Kelly Ritchie of Katy Mayde Creek.
Wrapping up the results was Suarez, a 13-5 defeat to Chris Rivera of Houston Clear Lake and a pinfall loss to Harvey Suarez of Amarillo Caprock at the 2:30 mark.
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Above and beyond: Winter All-Area teams
10:34 AM CST on Thursday, March 9, 2006From Staff Reports
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With the close of the winter seasons in high school athletics, several standout performers spring to mind. To remind of us of their achievements, we offer the SportsDay's 2004-05 Winter All-Area teams.
Calvin Miles Jr., the boys basketball player of the year, signed with the University of Texas but has filed to be eligible for the upcoming NBA draft. Brittainey Raven, the girls basketball player of the year, says she is headed to Texas after one more year at North Crowley.
High Schools
Multimedia: SportsDay's Basketball Players of the Year
More High Schools
A pair of repeat performers highlight the list of girls players of the year, Allen bowler Beth Carter and Mansfield Summit powerlifter Kristy Fair. Arlington Lamar's Codie Hansen likely would have won a third straight girls swimmer of the year honor if Olympian Dana Vollmer had not decided to come back to Granbury after being home-schooled. For the print section, pick up Section V in the Sunday, May 1 Dallas Morning News.
Here are all of the winter players of the year and SportsDay's all-area teams.
Click on an athlete of the year to see the complete all-area team.
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'She's a good wrestler, period'
Hovermale has made believers of coaches, opponents
by ANDREW MASON Friday February 16, 2007
andrewm@herald-mail.com
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Smithsburg freshman Monica Hovermale has changed her style, but only somewhat.
"I used to be a tomboy," she said. "But in the middle of eighth grade, I started wearing girls clothes - tighter jeans and stuff."
On the high school wrestling mats, where the men typically are separated from the boys, Hovermale has separated herself from the girls again.
While she's not Washington County's first female varsity wrestler, she's the only one this season and seemingly the county's best yet.
"A lot of people think, 'She's a girl, she can't be that good,'" said Hovermale, who competes in the 103-pound weight class. "I think I've surprised a couple kids."
In her 29 matches against boys this season, she's 18-11 with 12 pins.
"She's a good wrestler, period," Smithsburg coach Joe Dietrich said. "And she's really good for a girl."
Hovermale will attempt to make history Saturday at the 17th annual Washington County tournament at Williamsport as the first girl to win a county title.
"That would be awesome if she can pull it off," Dietrich said.
"A lot of people have been talking about it. It's pretty exciting," Hovermale said. "There are good kids around here, and I'm just going to try my best."
She'll be the favorite in her weight class, having gone 5-0 with five pins this season against the county's other 103-pounders - Boonsboro's T.J. Boreni, North Hagerstown's Jesse Miller, South Hagerstown's Dane Devin and Williamsport's Dakota Leggett.
"Dane Devin's probably the best out of all of them," Hovermale said. "He's given me the most trouble."
Devin, who's 0-2 against Hovermale this season, is the only one of the four to make it out of the first period against her.
"She's really strong," Miller said. "You wouldn't think she was strong until you wrestle her. And she has good technique."
Hovermale began wrestling in youth programs when she was 5, so she's had plenty of time to get over any feelings of awkwardness.
"I've been doing this my whole life," she said. "The kids around here know me because I wrestled them in junior league."
"Going out there, they know she's tough," Williamsport coach Mike Rechtorovic said. "It's not like they're wrestling a girl. It's like they're wrestling a tough wrestler.
"Male or female, she's a good wrestler."
If Hovermale achieves her goal, she could become the first girl to win a match at the Maryland 2A-1A state championships.
"For this year, my goal is to make it to states and try to place," she said.
In last year's 4A-3A state tourney, Magruder's Helen Maroulis went 3-3 to place sixth at 112, while Arundel's Nicole Woody went 1-2 at 103. No girl before had ever won a match at states.
High school wrestling, obviously, is becoming more of a coed sport.
"We went to the Parkville tournament this year and there were like five girls in it," Dietrich said.
Hovermale's success can only help in opening the door for more girls.
"I know a couple girls at school who have younger sisters who want to wrestle but are afraid of getting hurt," Hovermale said. "I just say, 'Look at me. I've never even gotten a bloody nose.'"
It's been hard not to notice her.
"I've watched Monica wrestle for eight or nine years, since she was in elementary school," North coach Greg Slick said. "She's always been very aggressive and very technically sound. She's just a good athlete.
"I've had a couple of girls on my team over the years, but I don't want to say that Monica's not a pioneer. She's Washington County's most successful female wrestler at this point."
Hovermale is not the most successful wrestler in her family, however. Her older brother, Justin, is 26-0 with 24 pins this season as a senior at Smithsburg.
Then there's her 6-year-old brother, Shane.
"He'll probably be better than both of us," she said. "He went undefeated last year and won the Mason-Dixon championship."
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