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Lapeer West senior dominating girls wrestling

Thursday, August 16, 2001

By Keith Morris
JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER

Keristen LaBelle has proven she can handle competing with both boys and girls on high school wrestling mats.

LaBelle was the first area girl to win a league wrestling championship for Davison as a sophomore two years ago then went on to become the first girl in state history to win a regional title. She's won a state girls' wrestling crown as well as three national girls' championships.

So, how would the 17-year-old do against the best adult competition in the world? Take a guess.

LaBelle, who transferred to Lapeer West where she'll finish her high school career this winter, went 5-0 with four pins and a technical fall in reaching the finals of the Poland Open in Warsaw. The teenager wound up second with a 9-3 loss to a 28-year-old French woman.

"She was experienced," LaBelle said. "It was kind of intimidating because all these girls were older than us. It was a senior tournament."

The first four of those "girls" were no problem for LaBelle as she cruised to the title match before coming up short. She said her quarterfinal win was the most significant.

"The girl from Sweden had taken third in a previous world championship and I was real nervous but I ended up pinning her in under a minute," LaBelle said. "That was the big match for me that really gave me some confidence. My coach, Shannon Williams, was telling me the girl was pretty good. She said, 'I can't believe you just pinned her - you're my hero.' "

She participated in the tournament as a member of the Cadet USA World Team, which she qualified for by winning her 108-pound division at the team trials in Dayton, Ohio, in June. The performance there, along with coughing up about $1,300, gave her an experience she'll cherish for years. She said donations from local business owners who are family friends helped her make the Poland trip, which included a wrestling camp in Gadansk.

"At first, I was a little disappointed about finishing second, then I realized it was my first international tournament and I wrestled well," she said. "It really didn't matter because I had so much fun.

"It was just gorgeous. And everything is much cheaper there. I bought so much stuff. Our dinners only cost like two bucks at a real fancy restaurant."

There'll be more tournaments. LaBelle has big aspirations. She dreams of competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics. "I'd really like to be in Athens," she said.

The strong showing in Poland has already put her on the world stage. "Other women wrestlers will start to take notice of me now," she said.

She already had the attention of many of this country's top girl wrestlers by winning the three national titles. Her third crown came this spring as she finished first at 105 pounds in the United States Girls' Wrestling Association Nationals. LaBelle is ranked No. 1 in the nation at 105 in the USGWA's preseason high school girls' rankings.

She'll return to competing against boys this winter for Lapeer West. LaBelle wrestled for Davison for three years before missing the individual and team state tournaments last year after transferring during the season. She was there with her new West teammates, however, as the Panthers won a second straight Division 2 team title.

Just across the mat, her old team was finishing second in the state in Division 1. LaBelle was a member of the Cardinals' team that won a state title in 2000. She compiled a 50-12 record as a sophomore and qualified for the individual state finals by becoming the first girl in the state to win a regional championship. Two weeks earlier she'd also made history by winning the Big Nine Conference title.

Now she hopes to not only become the first girl to win a match in the individual state finals, but to also place among the top eight. She'll compete at 103 pounds for West, the same weight she was so successful at two years ago.

"It's very important that I place," she said. "If I didn't place, I'd be very disappointed in myself because I know I can."

This will be her final season competing against boys, but she said she will continue wrestling.

"I'd like to get a scholarship for women's wrestling, but if not I'm still going to wrestle and hopefully make the Women's World Championships in the senior division," she said.

The tournament in Poland featured freestyle wrestling. Folkstyle wrestling is used in high school competition. The two styles differ in that there is less mat wrestling in freestyle, with competitors mainly wrestling on their feet. There are scoring differences, as well. While it's possible to score from the bottom in folkstyle, there are no escape points in freestyle and action is stopped and wrestlers put back on their feet if a pin doesn't occur shortly after a takedown.