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Goodrich's Weber continues a year of firsts
Sophomore is only girl to win Genesee Area title, helping her earn a spot in championships.
Tim Twentyman / The Detroit News 3/9/07
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AUBURN HILLS -- CC Weber often is labeled the other wrestler.
While the Goodrich sophomore is the only girl competing at the individual wrestling championships at The Palace, don't think that she can't -- and won't -- put you in a half nelson at first chance.
Weber was the first girl to win a Genesee Area Conference title and also finished second at regionals to earn a spot in Thursday's finals.
Weber (41-7), who would not speak with the media until after the tournament, will have to wrestle well today and Saturday after losing her first match, 7-5, to Nate Fix from Comstock Park. Weber will have to fight through the consolation bracket to earn a third-place finish.
Despite being her first trip as a wrestler, Goodrich is no stranger to the individual finals. Weber's older brother, Mark, (55-1), is a two-time defending champion (103 and 112 pounds) and is competing for his third championship at 125 pounds this season.
"It's really cool for her to be here. We share a lot of the same stuff, and I'm happy for her," Mark Weber said.
"I like to see her here wrestling, and she is awesome."
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Making a mark on the mats
Durham wrestlers turn in dominant performances at OFSAA
Mar 8, 2007
By Brian McNair
More from this author
Ron Pietroniro/Metroland Durham Region Media Group AJAX-- LOSSA wrestlers Paul Rabjohn from Ajax High School, Randy Pfrimmer from O'Neill Collegiate, Mike Murray from Eastdale, Rachael Lothman from Sinclair and Kelita Zupancic from All Saints all won medals at the recent OFSAA Championships. March 7, 2007. |
DURHAM -- Talk about making an impact. Or, in this case, an Impact.
The common thread running through Durham's dominating performance on the provincial mats of the OFSAA wrestling championships is that all the medallists are members of the Team Impact Wrestling Club.
Kelita Zupancic, a Whitby All Saints student who trains with the Sinclair Secondary team, Randy Pfrimmer of Oshawa's O'Neill Collegiate and Paul Rabjohn of Ajax High School led the charge by winning gold at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations wrestling championships in Brampton last week.
Mike Murray of Oshawa's Eastdale Collegiate and Rachel Lothman of Whitby's Sinclair settled for silver, while Laura Steffler of Sinclair also brought home a medal by virtue of her fourth place finish.
"To be honest with you, I don't think I've seen anybody (from Durham) medal at OFSAA that hasn't been a member of our club," says Pickering High School's Stan Tzogas, who's been a coach with Team Impact since 1990. "The challenge for people who didn't medal (and aren't part of the club) is they're not quite getting enough quality training partners and competitions. They don't have enough people to push them."
Of course, it helps too that there are some tremendous coaches in Lake Ontario Secondary School Association, such as Bill Walters, who heads up Sinclair's team.
Both Tzogas and Walters agree on this: that Zupancic is among the best they've seen. The Grade 11 student has now won OFSAA gold in all three of her high school years after easily handling the competition in the 72-kilogram weight class.
"Incredible," is how Walters describes Zupancic. "She didn't even have a point scored on her all tournament. She is such a dominant athlete."
In fact, the only thing that might prevent Zupancic from becoming an Olympian in this sport someday is her devotion to judo, where she also dominates.
"She's everything you could ask for in an athlete," says Tzogas. "She's unbelievable, a very dominant performer. A lot of her success in wrestling comes from judo. I like to think of judo as wrestling with pajamas on."
Tzogas describes a similarly dominant performance from Pfrimmer, who allowed only one point all tournament in the 67.5-kg division, and praised Rabjohn for moving up from the 72-kg class, which he won last year, to the more difficult 77-kg group. Both are Grade 12 students likely in their final year of high school.
Of the silver medallists, Tzogas says both Murray, in the 95-kg class, and Lothman, in the 57.5-kg group, could just have easily won their championship bouts.
"Mike was very close, he lost 1-0 (to Jeremey Latour of St. James) in the dying seconds," Tzogas says. "He was right there, He could have won it."
As for Lothman, who's in just her second year of high school wrestling, Tzogas says: "She could have wrestled that girl (Heather Wray of Montcalm) five times and probably win three. The other girl was just the better wrestler that day."
Other strong performances were turned in by Courtney Willett of Port Perry High School, a Grade 10 student who finished fifth among a much more experienced group in the 51-kg class, Jesse Mathews of Eastdale, who was fifth in the 89-kg group, and Liam Berry of Pickering High, who was sixth in the 83-kg division.
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Cumberlands the team to beat at women's wrestling nationals
Friday, March 09, 2007
FOREST GROVE - Sometimes reputation, size and experience make all the difference in competing for a national title. Well, the No. 2 ranked team in North America has all three coming into this weekend's National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships, hosted by Pacific University at the Pacific Athletic Center.
University of the Cumberlands enters Saturday's tournament will all three attributes working for them. The defending national champion will have the biggest squad of the eight-team field, bringing 13 athletes each. Eight of the Patriots grapplers are ranked in the last North American College Poll, as ranked by TheMat.com, and return three national champions in Jessica Medina at 51 kg, Othella Lucas at 59 kg and Alaina Berube at 63 kg.
In addition, the talent on the Cumberlands squad was evident when the team won a dual over Northern Michigan University's Olympic Education Center program on Feb. 23. The Patriots won five of seven matches from the hopefuls training under the auspices of USA Wrestling.
While Cumberlands will be the odds-on favorite to take another title, it can be assured that the other three varsity teams in the field will give the Patriots a solid fight. Missouri Valley enters the tournament with a No. 4 North American team ranking. The Vikings, who finished second at last year's tournament, return two national champions in Tabitha Ramsey at 48 kg. and Stephany Lee at 72 kg. In all, Missouri Valley brings five All-Americans back to the field.
Host Pacific will try to avenge a disappointing tournament last year as their lineup was ravaged by a number of injuries just before the tournament. Titilope Lawani is the team's top returning placer, finishing third in 2006 at 63 kilograms. Kapua Torres, who missed last year's tournament with injuries, returns to the four-athlete field at 51 kg. Torres enters ranked No. 4 in North America in her weight class, while the Boxers boast a No. 10 North American team ranking.
Menlo will look to move up after finishing fifth last year. The Oaks suffered from missing a number of their top grapplers last season and did not bring home any All-Americans. Carla O'Connell and Ashlee Evans-Smith are the top returning placers for Menlo, each finishing sixth at 51 kg. and 67 kg., respectively. Sara Fulp-Allen will be the favorite in the tournament at 48 kg. She enters the tournament with a No. 1 North American ranking.
In addition, individual wrestlers will represent Arizona State, Cabrillo Junior College, Cal State Bakersfield and Fresno State. A total of 44 athletes are currently entered in the tournament.
The national tournament, hosted this year by Pacific University, will be held on Saturday at the Pacific Athletic Center in Forest Grove. Sessions begin at 9 a.m., with the championship session beginning at 7 p.m.
For more information on the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships, including the tournament schedule and brackets, visit National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships Web site at www.goboxers.com/wwr/nationals.
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3/9/07
I had all sorts of plans to post every day (or every other day) for months and months about all sorts of stuff, sports or otherwise. And, as usual, I’ve turned into a total, lazy slacker deadbeat blogger.
So let me just throw out a few thoughts off the top of my head:
5. I feel really strongly about this … ANYONE who is upset with our sports staff about the amount of coverage Monica Hovermale got for her Washington County Wrestling Tournament title needs to look in the mirror. I heard about the stuff Andy Mason was confronted with. It’s gross. Really, just flat-out gross. Male-machismo-run-amok gross.
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CIF title likely to hasten CIF girls wrestling
Joe Naiman
Village News Correspondent
3/9/2007 5:06:39 PM
During the CIF division wrestling championships, Priscilla Caldera of Imperial High School became the first female wrestler to win a CIF division title in the San Diego Section when she earned the 105-pound Division IV title February 17. Caldera’s win is likely to expedite the implementation of girls wrestling as a CIF San Diego Section sport.
“I think the impact is going to be good,” said Fallbrook head wrestling coach Roye Oliver. “It will make it a lot easier for us to get the athletic department to help support it even more.”
Girls wrestling is already a high school sport in Hawaii and in the CIF North Coast Section. “It’s going to happen,” Oliver said of girls wrestling in the San Diego Section. “There’s enough interest out there.”
At one time Oliver was in charge of youth wrestling for the Olympic Development Program, including girls wrestling. “I’ve been associated with all that,” he said of girls wrestling. “They’re tough girls.”
Caldera’s quest for a spot in the state tournament was derailed with a loss to Fallbrook’s Brett Jones in the all-division Masters Tournament, but she was one of two female wrestlers in the San Diego Section’s Masters Tournament. “I’m for it. I would really like to see girls wrestling come on stronger,” tournament director Dick Malliet said.
Malliet is also the director of the San Diego Wrestling Association, an affiliate of the USA Wrestling organization, the official governing body for amateur wrestling in the United States. The San Diego Wrestling Association offers a separate girls division if enough girls enter for a specific weight class in a specific age division.
“I think it’s going to happen in the next few years,” CIF San Diego Section commissioner Dennis Ackerman said of girls wrestling becoming a CIF sport in the San Diego Section. “I’d say maybe three to five years.”
Caldera’s CIF title may change Ackerman’s timeframe. “I think it’s going to happen even faster,” Oliver said.
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