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Michigan
Posted Thursday, April 3, 2008
By Lisa Paine
VIEW Sports Editor
LIVONIA — The accolades continue to roll in for Goodrich wrestlers CC Weber,
Kristi Garr and Mark Weber.
The girls earned national titles at the USGWA
11th annual girls wrestling tournament March 29. Garr won the 98 lb. title after
a 3-1 decision over Paige Nemec of Ohio. In the quarterfinals, Karr pinned New
York’s Lisa Anson in 1:23.
Weber won her title at 108 lbs. after a 2-1
decision over Iowa’s Tiffany Sluik. In her quarterfinal bout, she pinned
California’s Amber Rowe in 4:28.
Garr and Weber were highlighted on ESPN’s
Outside the Lines March 9, after a camera crew attended and filmed the girls at
their team district tournament.
Mark recently competed at the National High
School Wrestling Coaches Association’s senior nationals and brought home a
second-place trophy, earning him All-American honors. The event is open to high
school seniors nationwide, who placed second or better at their state
tournaments. Waivers also are given to a select few who have proven themselves
at national tournaments.
Weber, at 135 lbs. and ranked No. 3 in the nation in
that weight class, was on his way to wearing the crown, but fell to Ohio state
champ Chase Skonieczny on a 6-4 decision.
In the semis, he defeated
three-time Wisconsin state champ Nick Hucke, 8-4, after annihilating Arizona’s
Austin Moore, 19-4, Illinois’ Geno Capezio, 5-4, and Florida’s Pierre Frazile,
12-3.
CC Weber, a junior at 103 lbs., will join her brother Mark, four-time
Michigan state champ, who signed to wrestle for U-M next fall, at the Cadet
Nationals in Akron Ohio April 12-13. Last season, CC became the only Michigan
girl to have won a bout at the state finals. This season she finished at 51-3
after winning an individual district title. In her career, she is 104-29 and has
the most single-season wins for an area girl, besting Davison’s Keristen
Labelle’s mark of 50-12 set in 2000. Weber is the first two-time state qualifier
in girls’ high school wrestling. She helped Goodrich earn a team regional title
this past winter season.
The pair will then compete at the national
tournament in Las Vegas where CC will be pitted against the top collegiate women
in the university division. Kim Weber noted that CC will be going up against the
nation’s top female wrestlers at the college level and was understandably
anxious and excited for what lays ahead for both of her talented
wrestlers.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking, but we’ll just have to see how she
does against those girls,” Weber said of her daughter.
USGWA Nationals Pictures
South Dakota
By Jeff Budlong, Journal staff Monday, April 14, 2008
BOX ELDER — Not everything went as planned but the first
all-girls wrestling tournament in South Dakota was considered a success Saturday
at Whitehead Auditorium.
Weather kept the number of participants to just 24, which was below the 40 or
50 that tournament organizers hoped for, but the level of wrestling did not
suffer. With girls from four different states taking the mat there was plenty of
competition to be had.
“This is a pretty good start,” said Ed Malone, who
was one of the event’s organizers. “The girls are out there trying to do some
good, technical moves. No one is out there just lying down or just
trying
to bully someone.”
The all-girls tournament meant there would be no boys
to deal with or their parents who refuse to let them wrestle or make remarks
about their gender.
“Usually, parents will tell their kids to take it
easy on me, but if I win, they jerk them off the mat and they are upset,” said
14-year-old Brittany Palato of Wyoming who has been wrestling for 10
years.
This tournament was more low key with parents or coaches allowed
to sit matside and give instruction and encouragement while their wrestler was
taking part in a match.
The idea of girls wrestling is still relatively
new in South Dakota, but that is not the case in all states and many of the
wrestlers who competed Saturday have much bigger aspirations.
Montana’s
Austin Wortman, 13, has already secured three girls state wrestling titles, but
is hoping wrestling can open doors for her.
“Girls’ wrestling is not that
big yet, so it is easier to get college scholarships,” Wortman said. “That is
what I am going for right now.”
Like many of the wrestlers, Wortman’s
wrestling career began six years ago because her brother was a wrestler, and her
parents felt both kids should get involved in the sport.
“I have been
wrestling guys for five years, but it is hard to get a lot of mat time because a
lot of boys don’t want to wrestle me because there is a chance I might beat
them,” she said. “There was one guy that dropped three weight classes to get
away.”
When comparing girls and boys wrestling one coach said while the
boys may have the strength advantage he believes that girls are quicker to pick
up the technique and different moves without as much repetition.
Malone
began thinking of putting together an all-girl wrestling tournament three years
ago when his daughter first took up the sport. It was not an easy thing to do, but he is hoping this sparks enough
interest to get other tournaments started.
His daughter, Amanda, couldn’t
agree more.
“This is awesome and I am glad my dad supported all the girls
here,” she said. “It has been fun and it gives you a chance to meet new people,”
she said.
Amanda may have been happy to get this tournament started, but
the fact that this was the first all-girls tournament was hard for her to
believe.
“I think it is kind of sad that we have to get together as just
one club, and we can’t get together as a state and make it a bigger tournament,”
she said.
Amanda’s wrestling career got off to an impressive start with
an overtime win over the first boy she ever squared off against in the
circle.
Regardless of how each wrestler did Saturday, they were glad to
have a chance to wrestle other girls closer to their age and physical
abilities.
“This tournament is really good because there are girls from
all over that I haven’t seen,” said Palato.
Every girl who participated
at the tournament received a medal — with an engraving of a girl wrestler on it
— and congratulations from their peers. The organizers closed the tournament by
thanking everyone for attending and promised the first all-girl tournament would
not be the last.
South Dakota
By Jeff Budlong, Journal staff Monday, April 14, 2008
BOX ELDER — The first all -girls wrestling tournament in South
Dakota will be today at Douglas High School in Box Elder.
The USGWA Wrestling Championships will host
girls as young as 5 through college when the tournament gets under way at 10
a.m.
“It is an open tournament so anyone who wants to
come can,” said Douglas Wrestling Club girls head coach Ed Malone said. “We
don’t know how many girls will be there but we are hoping to have 40 of
50.”
The folkstyle tournament will award medals to
the top three finishers in each weight class in each
division.
The tournament is hosted in association with the
United States Girls Wrestling Association, which is a national organization.
Volunteers will handle every thing on site including officiating the
matches.
Malone said he doesn’t know how many girls from
the area will, but he is projecting as many as 10 from Douglas taking to the mat
today.
Malone, who has a daughter who wrestles, said he
believes there is a demand for this kind of tournament in the
state.
“I think they want this for all the girls,” he
said. I know they would love to have a girls program, but because they don’t
that means often times they have to wrestle the boys.”
Girls’ wrestling has continued to grow in
popularity but for girls to compete at the high school level they must wrestle
boys.
Because the exact number of participants is
unknown it has not been determined how many weight classes will be contested or
how big the brackets will be.
Michigan
Monday's sports shorts
POSTED: April 14, 2008
Iron Mountain wins Esky mat tourney
ESCANABA — Iron Mountain took first
place at an Escanaba Youth Wrestling Club tournament held at the high school
Saturday.
Gladstone was second and Bark River-Harris
third:
Seventh-grader Alexis Berube won the Alaina Berube Award for the
best female wrestler.
A summary of top finishers from Escanaba and BR-H
(Gladstone results were not submitted as of press
time):
Escanaba
First — Alec Slaga, Christopher Royer, Travis
Heller, Tyler Tousignant, Evan O’Driscoll, Logan Gluesing, Hunter Larson, Austin
Bourdeau, Devin Patterson, Ethan O’Driscoll, Adam Bruce, Kaleb Rahoi, Devin
Olsen, Collin Arnt, Teddy Peippo, Bradley Kleikamp, Tyler Adams, James
Bruce
Second — Ryan VanEffen, Kevin Pribe, Brett Guindon, Dawson Bruce,
Hunter Royer, Devin Beauchamp, Cameron Beversluis, Justin VanDrese, Braden
Olsen, Tyler Lemerand, Jared Maycunich, Daniel Garza, Ridge Kruger, Kyle
Mathias
Third — Devin Ekberg, Sasha Berube, Laela Berube, Dayton Miron,
Wyatt Curtis, Stevie Johnson, Ethan Stoken, Tyler Ussher, Zachary Priebe, Kyle
Gendron, John Knight, Tyler Kang, Simon Chouinard
Bark
River-Harris
First — Tyler Labadie, Morgan VanLanen, B.J. Krouth, Hunter
Debelak, Anthony McVay
Second — Curtis Labadie, Kadin Mustafa, Ronald
Peterson
Third — Jace Briggs, Daniel Farnsworth, Jamie Schiesser, Timothy
Jarvis, Devin Racicot, Mason Ray, Tyler Racicot
