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By: Mike Molaro, Sports Writer
03/29/2007

Hopewell sophomore collects four wins from falls to win state championship.

Irka Pearse-Drance has been blazing a path for five years since she began participating in the predominately-male scholastic wrestling in sixth grade.
The Hopewell Valley Central High School sophomore blazed a path to a state championship by capturing the 117-pound title at the United States Girls Wrestling Association (USGWA) State Championships on March 18 at East Brunswick High School.
Next up for the Pennington resident is this weekend's USGWA National Championships in Livonia, MI that will draw an estimated 800 competitors and is the final girl's scholastic wrestling tournament of the year.
Pearse-Drance won the state crown with a 4-0 record in the round-robin tournament at East Brunswick with each victory coming via pin. She won her first match in 1:17, followed by pins in 2:30 and 2:37 before capturing the state championship with a three-count in 4:45.
It was the third time at the state championships for Pearse-Drance, a member of the HoVal wrestling squad who was 11-5 at 119 pounds for the Bulldog junior varsity squad and 2-0—two pins—at the varsity level.
"This year I stepped up my game," she said after bringing home the state crown. "I'm more experienced now, and that really helped. Last year was the first time I wrestled in the off season. Before that, I just wrestled during the season.
"It's a huge advantage wrestling year-round."
In the round-robin format on March 18—where each of the five competitors in the 117-pound weight class wrestled each other once—Pearce-Drance rose to the top with the same determination and focus she honed since first stepping onto the mats as a sixth-grader.
"Each match is different," she added. "Each competitor has a different style and you have to be ready for anything. You can't take anything for granted and you have to be sharp every time you go out there. I just focused on technique. You prepare mentally and physically. I just go out and wrestle. I go with what works."
Participating in a sport historically associated with males proved to be an easy obstacle for Pearce-Drance to overcome.
"Wrestling was the only sport a sixth-grader could do in the winter, so I thought I'd try it," she said. "It looked like a lot of fun and I gave it a try. It was a little awkward at the beginning, but everyone got used to it. The coaches are great and the guys are great."
Wrestling year-round leaves little time for social activities, but Pearce-Drance knows that the greater the challenge, the greater the prize.
"Wrestling is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun," she said. "Wrestling is equally mental and physical preparation. You can out-wrestle a larger opponent with technique and planning. You need more than just size on the mats."
That 117-pound state championship is a physical representation of her skill, but it also serves as a much larger positive reinforcement.
"Winning the state title really helps with my confidence," said Pearse-Drance, who participates in the summer wrestling camp at The College of New Jersey with her Bulldog teammates. "It tells me that I'm on the right track and to keep doing what you're doing."
Added HoVal wrestling coach Mario Harpel, "Irka has a great attitude. She is dedicated to practice and works hard. I don't look at her any different than anyone else on the team. She's a great teammate. We treat her like one of the team. I'm very happy for her. Her success is well-deserved."
At this weekend's USGWA National Championships in Livonia , MI , Pearse-Drance is stepping up her intensity.
"I want to be an All-American," she added. "I need to finish in the top seven. I've worked very hard and I have a good shot to get there."
Despite the rigorous mental and physical preparation, Pearse-Drance thoroughly enjoys the sport and its tangible benefits.
"The discipline of wrestling is extremely helpful," she said. "I wouldn't be the person I am without wrestling. You learn a lot from the sport. You learn to pace yourself and you learn your own limitations. It's an individual sport, but there is also a lot of team camaraderie. The guys are always rooting for me and it's great to know they are behind me."
Pearse-Drance, who admittedly is better on the mat but is improving her skills on her feet, knows that as you advance through the competition, sometimes it comes down to sacrifice.
"When you get to a certain level, the experience and talent are pretty even," she added. "Then it comes down to who wants it more. Who's willing to dig that much deeper to come out on top? That's where the mental aspect of the sport really kicks in. Sometimes you have to go beyond what you think you are capable of."
After returning from the USGWA National Championships, Pearse-Drance begins training for the Girls Freestyle Nationals, July 24-27 in Fargo, ND.
Unlike scholastic wrestling, which has top and bottom positions, in freestyle wrestling—the style used in the Olympics—competitors begin on their feet and go through three two-minute rounds with 30-second rests between the first and second rounds.
"If a girl wants to wrestle in college, she has to compete in freestyle competition," Pearse-Drance said. "In freestyle, you can throw your opponent to the mat. It's very physical, but again mental preparation is key because you can beat an opponent by out-thinking them and using style rather than brute force."
Pearse-Drance, who will be a key member of the Bulldog wrestling squad for the next two seasons, probably at 112 pounds next year, hopes to take her skills and talents to the next level.
"I definitely would like to wrestle in college," she added. "I love the sport. It will be hard for me to stop wrestling after high school."
Irka Pearse-Drance has earned her spot and deserves to be "one of the guys." That 117-pound USGWA state championship only validates her talents.

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Title IX backers, foes still far apart

By ERIK BRADY
USA TODAY 3/29/07

A four-day academic and legal symposium celebrating Title IX gets into full swing Thursday in Cleveland, site of the NCAA women's Final Four. One message will be that, despite many gains, discrimination against women in scholastic sports persists 35 years later.

Today, the College Sports Council will stage a telephonic news conference from Washington. The message will be that the underlying regulations of Title IX discriminate against men.

Such diametrically opposed arguments about the law that bans sex discrimination at schools receiving federal funds are old. But the CSC, an advocacy group for men's sports, says it has come up with new figures.

"Previous studies show men's opportunities are growing," CSC executive director Eric Pearson says. "But by factoring in the number of schools added to the NCAA (1981-2005), it's clear they are shrinking."

Male athletes per school dropped from 225.8 in 1981 to 213.2 in 2005, a decline of 6 percent; female athletes per school rose from 98.7 to 159.5, a rise of 62 percent, according to CSC calculations based on NCAA figures.

Men's teams per school in those years dropped from 9.1 to 7.8, a decrease of 17 percent at the same time women's teams per school rose from 6.4 to 8.7, an increase of 34 percent, also according to CSC calculations.
Women's groups have not had a chance to review the methodology used by the CSC, a coalition that includes coaches of men's sports such as wrestling.

"I'm skeptical of numbers from any group that has an interest in the outcome," says Jocelyn Samuels, a vice president of the National Women's Law Center.

The Government Accountability Office reported in 2001 that both genders gained collegiate athletic opportunities in the Title IX era.

"The GAO is good at what it does," says Christine Grant, former women's athletics director at Iowa. "I'm inclined to believe their figures."

Grant and Pearson argued about what the GAO figures really mean in January at a hearing of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. That's when the CSC decided to crunch its own numbers.

"When you take into account the schools that have been added" to NCAA membership, says Jim McCarthy, a public relations consultant to the CSC, "every men's sport except baseball has seen a decrease or remained static" in terms of number of teams.

Football teams increased from 497 in 1981 to 610 in 2000, but schools sponsoring football dropped from 66.1 percent to 58.8 percent, according to NCAA figures.

"Looking at the number of teams and how they have changed is legally irrelevant," Samuels says. "What Title IX demands is equality as measured by individual participation. And men continue to have more opportunities than women."

There were 219,744 men and 164,998 women playing varsity sports in 2004-05, according to the NCAA.

"Men still have 57 percent of all the participation opportunities," Grant says. "Women get 43 percent. And yet we're the ones being criticized for the drop in men's teams."

Women's groups say colleges that eliminate men's teams do it for a variety of reasons that do not relate to Title IX, including decisions to spend a lion's share of the athletic budget on football and men's basketball.

The CSC says colleges that eliminate men's teams do it mostly in response to the law's participation requirements. A school must pass one part of a three-part test:

Its male and female athletes are proportional to enrollment;

It has a history of expanding opportunity for female students;

It can show the interests and abilities of female students are fully accommodated.
Schools cannot pass the second or third test if they drop a women's team. James Madison plans to cut 10 teams -- seven men's and three women's -- effective July 1, at which point 61 percent of JMU athletes will be women, matching the percentage of women enrolled, meeting the requirements of the first test.

"Unfortunately, the way the law is regulated, it permits discrimination against men," Pearson says. "Title IX says you cannot discriminate based on gender, but that's exactly what's happening."

Nothing in Title IX regulations requires a school to cut any sport. The Department of Education encourages schools to comply with Title IX by increasing opportunities. Schools that make cuts anyway may do so only if they pass one of the three tests.

Samuels says federal courts have consistently backed the three-part test, as have recent presidential administrations, including the current one.

Pearson concedes that's the case and says the best way to get a change in how the law is regulated is for public opinion to demand it.

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Granite Hills' Torres set to wrestle at nationals

By Alex K.W. Schultz, for The Porterville Recorder 3/29/07

Granite Hills’ Erica Torres, right, is preparing to wrestle at nationals this weekend in Michigan. Torres, a senior, finished fourth last year at 122 pounds. (Recorder photo by Chieko Hara)

Granite Hills senior Erica Torres is no stranger to the sport of wrestling and is an outstanding testament to what a little hard work can achieve.

Torres went undefeated in her matches against female wrestlers this past season and will be flying halfway across the country Thursday morning to compete in the 10th annual United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championships in Livonia, Mich. this Saturday and Sunday.

She is seated third in the 126-pound weight class.

“I'm pretty excited and looking forward to the great competition,” Torres said. “It will obviously be tough but I think I'm going to be pretty good. I'm hoping to get into the finals.”

Torres made it to the semifinals in last year's USGWA National Championships and placed fourth. She will be looking to stamp an even better finish this year.

“I fine-tuned a lot of things and everything seems to be working,” Torres said. “I'm constantly changing my gameplan so my competition doesn't get used to what I'm doing.”

Torres excels not only on the mat, but in the classroom as well. She maintains a 3.83 GPA and has put together a pretty impressive resume for GHHS.

The senior has posted an impressive 19-2 record in her last two years wrestling for the Grizzlies. One of Torres' two losses was to Sarah Peasley - a two-time high school national titlist.

In the 2006 season, Torres was ranked fourth in the nation by the USGWA and won the state title in the 122-pound division.

To cap it all off, Torres won the CIF title last year in the 118-pound class.

“She's been a great athlete to coach because she always wants to learn,” GHHS wrestling coach Marty Kouyoumtjian said. “She really leads by example and is a fierce competitor.”

Kouyoumtjian testified to Torres' competitive nature and said this last season's match between Granite Hills and Cesar Chavez proved it.

“It was a close match but Erica wanted to wrestle although she was a little banged up,” Kouyoumtjian said. “She ended up losing 13-12 but it sparked her teammates.

“She's really passionate about the sport.”

Kouyoumtjian hopes Torres will reap the fruits of her hard work and will be rewarded with a national crown.

“I'm hoping she really goes out with a bang and has a great tour,” Kouyoumtjian said. “Hopefully this can be the start to a long, successful wrestling career.

“Whether or not she wrestles in college, I hope she has great memories of her outstanding high school wrestling career.”

Word has gotten out about Torres' success on the mat. She has already been contacted by Oklahoma City University which is a private college.

The 2007-08 season will be Oklahoma City's inaugural season offering women's wrestling.