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Ex-Caprock star Adams captures a bronze medal

Amarillo Globe-News

8/20/2001

MARTINGY, Switzerland - Former Caprock All-American wrestler Tori Adams recently won the bronze medal in the 139-pound weight division at the World Junior Women's Wrestling Championships by pinning Angelique Vaissie of France in two minutes, 15 seconds.

She finished the tournament with four wins and one loss.

After winning her pool, Adams, a sophomore at Missouri Valley College, pinned Daniela Lambert of Switzerland in 2:48 and then lost in the semifinals to Daria Nasarova of Russia, 5-3. Nasarova was beaten in the championship match by a wrestler from Canada.

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Wrestlers make mark
State wrestling champions McIntyre, Valdez named $1,000 McGuire winners

By Roger Clarkson
rclarkson@amarillonet.com

If you judge by the winners of the John McGuire scholarships, wrestling just might have taken over as the No. 1 sport in Amarillo.

A pair of state champion wrestlers walked away with the top prizes when the winners of the John McGuire Scholarship were announced Monday during a lunch meeting of the Amarillo Downtown Kiwanis Club at the Polk Street United Methodist Church.

Palo Duro's Dyana McIntyre and Caprock's Ricky Valdez garnered $1,000 each in scholarship money. Six other finalists from the Amarillo Independent School District also picked up $500 to go toward their future education.

Other finalists for the John McGuire scholarship included Michael Don Slade and Kami Collins from Tascosa, Arash Zoobin and Adrian Fincher from Amarillo High, Dwight Mayberry from Palo Duro and Jennifer Massey from Caprock.

"It (wrestling) is definitely a growing sport, especially with the women," McIntyre said. "People think that it's just six minutes on the mat, but there's a lot of dedication and training that goes along with it. If they think it's easy, let me stick them out there on the mat and wrestle and see just how hard it is."

McIntyre is the second consecutive girls wrestler to receive the top McGuire scholarship. In 2000, Caprock's Tori Adams won the girls award.

In just her second year to wrestle, McIntyre won the UIL state championship in the heavyweight class last February. McIntyre went 33-2 in her senior season en route to the state championship. As a junior, she had a 17-2 record and finished third at the state meet. As a team, the Lady Dons made history, becoming the first school to win the national girls wrestling championship. The Lady Dons also won dual state and state team championships to sweep girls wrestling's triple crown.

"When I started, I had to lose 50 pounds to make weight," McIntyre said. "That helped teach me determination and discipline to train and lose that weight and have some success. Winning state was kind of sweet revenge. We knew we had a good team coming back. We tied last year for the dual state championship. We knew that nobody was going to stop us."

McIntyre is an all-around athlete and student at Palo Duro. She participated in basketball, track and field, softball and wrestling in addition to playing the bass clarinet in the band and will be Palo Duro's salutatorian with a better than 99 grade-point average.

Since women's collegiate wrestling does not sanction the heavyweight class, McIntyre plans to attend Oklahoma Baptist and play softball. In school, McIntyre plans to major in social work and eventually go to law school. Her ultimate goal is to sit on the state supreme court.

Valdez will go down in history as one of the busiest athletes in Caprock history. Valdez earned 12 varsity letters at Caprock, including cross country, football, basketball, wrestling and baseball. However Valdez had his greatest success on the wrestling mat.

Valdez earned a 42-1 record in 2000-2001 and won the state title at 140 pounds. His only loss came at the Randall Invitational when he wrestled up a class at 152 pounds.

The seeds of his success as a senior came courtesy of some frustration as a junior. Valdez lost in the regional tournament and did not make the trip to Austin in 2000.

"That's one thing that helped me," Valdez said. "It kind of hurt to not make it to state and that showed me I had to work that much harder than last year. I got into the weight room and really got after it. I trained a lot harder and really devoted myself to wrestling."

Valdez weighed in at 160 pounds at the beginning of the season. He was just coming off football season and needed to carry the extra weight. However as the wrestling season progressed, his weight dropped to 140 pounds. During the season, Valdez never lost to an opponent at 140 pounds.

"I like the idea of wrestlers winning awards," Valdez said. "People like to think that wrestling's not that big in Texas. But it's a growing sport, especially here in Amarillo. That's why we can go out and win state championships."

Valdez is fielding several offers to attend college. He plans to go to junior college for two years before transferring to an four-year school to complete his education. He plans to major in education and become a coach once he completes college.

The John McGuire Scholarship is awarded each year to one boy and one girl graduating from an Amarillo Independent School District high school. Each AISD high school nominates one boy and one girl for the scholarship. Criteria for selection is based on athletic achievement, academic accomplishment, financial need, citizenship and intangibles.

John McGuire was a coach in the AISD for 26 years until his death in 1984. He is a member of the Panhandle Sports Hall of fame in two sports - football and track and field.