TOP STORIES

By Michael Onesi - The Chronicle-Journal

March 02, 2002

Lakehead University wrestler Trish Leibel has given herself a ‘big’ challenge.

The 23-year-old is competing two weight classes higher than normal at the Canadian university championships, taking place at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.

Normally, Leibel is in the 65-kilogram (143-pound) division but at the recent Ontario championship and this weekend’s nationals, she is in the 77-kgs (170-pound) category.

She is taking on the big task to help Lakehead University win the team title. LU already had a female wrestler in the 65 kgs class so putting Leibel in a different division would give Lakehead another wrestler in the tournament, allowing the school to collect more points towards a team title.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen when I get out there but at the same time it’s exciting,” said Leibel.

Lakehead wrestling coach Francis Clayton asked her to make the move to help out the school.

“It’s a challenge. She’s good, she could win,” Clayton said.

Leibel may prove her coach right. She won both her matches yesterday to advance to today’s gold-medal fight against Pam Wilson of McMaster University in Hamilton.

Leibel’s only previous experience at the 77-kgs level was at the recent Ontario championship when she placed second.

The Fort McMurray, Alb., native has found wrestling bigger opponents to be a big adjustment.

“I get tired quickly. I’m not used to moving this much mass. I feel strong in my weight class but no up here (in the 77-kgs division),” she said.

If anybody on the Lakehead team, can make the adjustment, it’s Leibel. She has competed at several world championships, finishing as high as fourth place. She already has a few Canadian university titles to her credit when she fought as a member of the University of Calgary team.

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WRESTLING CHAMP FLAWLESS

BY BRIAN SMILEY, EXPOSITOR STAFF
The Expositor 3/6/02

Layla Staats of North Park Collegiate and David Rector of Simcoe Composite School each won a gold medal on the weekend at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association's wrestling championships in Thunder Bay.

Staats faced Lambton Central's Katie Woodfinder for the heavyweight title and the match was stopped in the first round because Staats was ahead by 10 points at 10-0.

With the win, Staats has won three gold medals and a bronze at OFSAA. The three golds ? won during the past three years ? represent a feat only two other female wrestlers have ever accomplished.

"I was ecstatic," said Staats in a telephone interview from Thunder Bay. "It was great. I wasn't prepared to lose. I just had this feeling I couldn't lose."

Maybe even more amazing then Staats winning the three golds is the way she won this year's title. Amazingly, the Grade 12 student didn't give up a single point in her four victories during the tournament in Thunder Bay.

"She wrestled exceptionally well," said her coach, Mark Harvey. "This is her fourth OFSAA championship and by far this is the best she's wrestled."

Harvey has seen quite a few wrestlers over the years and he said Staats is close to the best female he's ever watched.

"Probably in terms of females, she's one of the best heavyweights I've ever seen," he said from Thunder Bay. "I think she just has an intuition. She certainly is a superb athlete. She also just has a feel for the sport."

Staats, 17, will complete her high school education this year and will attend university this September. She has been pursued by many schools both in Canada and the U.S.

"There's lots of opportunities to go to the States but I'm interested in staying here," said Staats, who was battling a cold during the championships.

Now that her high school wrestling career is over, she is able to put things in perspective.

"If I look back at everything, I wouldn't change anything because that bronze medal made me work harder," she said of her third place finish in Grade 9.

"I think this just brought everything together for a great conclusion to my high school wrestling career."

Last year Staats ? who thanked Harvey, her parents Patricia and Ron as well as grandparents Goldie and Gord for their support ? won the 84-kilogram division but moved up to the heavyweight class this year.

Rector, who is coached by his father Ed and was on his way back from Thunder Bay, couldn't be reached for comment.

He defeated Patrick Okpalugo of Brampton Centennial in the final of the 95-kg. weight class for his first OFSAA championship. Last year Rector was second in the 84-kg. division.

Brian Bates of NPC was fourth in the 44-kg. weight class. Bates, in his first year of high school, is coached by Jason Flinders and Harvey.

Kirby Steinhoff of Delhi District Secondary School also just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the women's 72-kg. weight class. This was Steinhoff's first appearance at the OFSAA wrestling championships.

St. John's College student Anthony Giordano, in his second trip to the OFSAA championships, won four matches to wind up fifth in the 84-kg. division. Giordano, who is coached by W. Ross Macdonald School's Ed Zinger and John Howe, was forced to the sidelines last year with an ankle injury.

Kim Noakes of NPC wound up seventh in the 64-kg. division by winning four matches while Joe Howe of Brantford Collegiate Institute wound up eighth in the 54-kg. division after winning three matches.

As well, Doug Shakespeare won two matches and placed ninth while representing Pauline Johnson Collegiate.

Also, Alison Hyodo of SJC, Shelby Tremblay of BCI, Jesse Jamison of PJC, Jennifer Cronmiller of Valley Heights Secondary School and Jen Temmer of VHSS also competed.

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Rookie Huskie wrestler ready to shine

Darren Zary 3/6/02
Saskatoon StarPhoenix

It's an eye-opener for Megan Buydens, this being her first Canadian Interuniversity Sport national wrestling championship.

Yet, the way that University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling coach Todd Hinds sees it, others will be opening their eyes widely and attentively when they see the rookie, Buydens, wrestle.

"She's a bit of a darkhorse," Hinds said Wednesday from Thunder Bay, Ont., where the CIS wrestling championships will be staged Friday and Saturday.

"Not too many people know about her, but peoples' eyes will open up wide when they see her."

Buydens and Viola Yanik, a rookie sensation last season, lead a strong female contingent for the Huskies. Both women enter the CIS nationals as Canada West champions.

"Our team is just as good as any other we've had," assessed Hinds. "Overall, our team has been consistently solid the last four years. This year is the same, but our women are stronger."

Buydens will be competing in the women's 70-kilogram weight class.

"I'm a little nervous now that we're here," said Buydens. "It's my first year, so I'm not too sure about the girls I'm wrestling because I haven't wrestled most of them throughout the year.

"I'm just going to go out there and try and do my best."

Yanik placed third at last year's nationals. The two wrestlers who finished ahead of her last year have both returned, but Yanik did manage to defeat both of them earlier this season. That includes defending world junior champion, Tara Hedican, from the University of Guelph and Breanne Graham from the University of Calgary.

Yanik defeated Graham at the Canada West championships.

"It's going to be a real tough competition," predicted Yanik. "Everybody's getting better; nobody's getting worse."

On the men's side, Colin Wist returns for another crack at the mat during CIS nationals.

Wist, along with Huskies teammates Mickey Jutras, Danny Jutras and Gosha Kadochnikov, all competed at nationals a year ago.

Wist and Mickey Jutras enter this year's competition as Canada West champions.

"I'm pretty excited," said Wist. "I'm pretty pumped to come out here to Thunder Bay. I think I've got a decent chance. There's definitely some tough competition out here, with the guys from out west plus the guys from out east. Same deal. There's a whole new batch plus the same tough guys from Canada West.

"Confidence is big. I'm feeling pretty good about this tournament. We should do fairly well. We have a lot of strong wrestlers here, but the whole country has strong wrestlers here."

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Non-UIL girls meet next up

Houston Chronicle; Feb 28, 2002; TERRY CARTER

Katy's Linse Meadows finished third at state in 2000 and second in 2001
before taking the gold medal this year. But her work is not yet done.

Ahead of her is the task of completing a successful high school
wrestling career in freestyle and Greco-Roman grappling outside the UIL arena,
beginning this weekend. Katy High School will host the second annual
Texas state championship tournament Saturday, sponsored by the U.S. Girls
Wrestling Association, according to Katy wrestling coach Tim Ripperger
said.

Last year, Meadows won the Texas state tournament in Amarillo and
placed fifth in the national competition before competing in international
events in Poland during the summer. A victory Saturday, for Meadows or any of
the competitors in the field, could mean another international excursion.

The event begins at 10 a.m., and all female wrestlers age 5 and older
are welcome to compete. Admission will be $6 for spectators, and the
round-robin competition will last into the afternoon, Ripperger said.

The tournament will feature four divisions, including elementary,
middle school, high school and women's open, to be subdivided by age and
weight. Although registration continues until weigh-ins Saturday morning, many
of Texas' top finishers at last weekend's UIL state tournament are
expected to compete.

The USGWA's national championships for girls will be held in Lake
Orion, Mich., March 23-24.

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Girls wrestling needs a boost

By DEREK SAMSON
Columnist 3/1/02

If any high school sport needs separate girls and boys teams, it's wrestling.

Contact is constant, and padding is limited. It becomes a no-win situation for the boys, dangerous at times for the girls and uncomfortable for both sexes. Then again, girls who want to wrestle should be allowed to wrestle.

Former Richmond High School wrestling coach Ken Simmons knows the solution -- start high school girls wrestling.

The Missouri Girls Wrestling State Championships will take place Saturday at Richmond High School. The tournament is open to any girl eligible for one of these divisions -- elementary, middle school, high school and college. Last year, 39 girls from three states competed in the inaugural Missouri tournament. Simmons hopes for 60 this year.

"If it catches on, I like the idea that we had something to do with getting it going," Simmons said.

Female wrestlers compete for their high school boys teams and participate in the handful of national girls tournaments close enough for travel. Instead of competing against a rival school, girls go to Tennessee or Michigan for an all-girls tournament.

It's worth it.

Simmons' daughter, Ashley, is a sophomore at Richmond and ranked eighth nationally at 105 pounds. She feels more comfortable at a girls tournament and enjoys talking with girls who share her love for a male-dominated sport.

"It's a disadvantage when you wrestle guys," she said.

Ken Simmons wants to drum up enough interest that Missouri girls can wrestle regularly in Missouri. He has a long road, considering he estimates just 10-15 Missouri high school girls currently wrestle.

He could become a pioneer of Missouri girls wrestling and a hero to boys wrestling. Some wrestlers forfeit matches rather than wrestle a girl. Other boys tend to become tentative if they go through with a match.

If a boy wins, it is expected, and he looks like a bully if he is too rough. If he loses, the razzing may never end.

"Guys go too hard on you or not hard enough," Ashley Simmons said. "Some try too hard and want to inflict pain on purpose. Some don't want to touch or say they're sorry."

Ken Simmons said many guys do dirty things to hurt the opponent. He also worries that it teaches boys that it's fine to throw around a girl.

Then there's the obvious reason for concern when watching a wrestling match. Arms get pulled through crotches. Faces push into chests. Matches feature, well, interesting positions.

Simmons said most boys and girls are uncomfortable with some of the moves.

Richmond junior Malissa Brown, ranked sixth nationally at 118 pounds, said most typical wrestling moves go by unnoticed.

"When you're wrestling, you don't really think about it," she said. "You're just trying to win. There was one time a guy had his chin in my chest and it hurt so bad that I wanted to kill him."

Brown doesn't mind wrestling boys, especially when she wins.

"Competing against guys makes me better," she said. "I have beat a lot of guys. Girls have the ability to beat guys. But a lot of girls feel uncomfortable and their parents feel uncomfortable.

"I feel better when I beat a guy than beat a girl."

Still, Brown thinks wrestling needs to mirror basketball with separate girls and boys teams. You wouldn't get much of an argument from either sex about that, but the problem is finding interested girls.

That's why Simmons started an all-girls tournament in Missouri. If enough girls show interest, they won't need to wrestle boys again.

"More girls would go out if they knew it was there," Ashley Simmons said.

• Registration for the Missouri Girls State Wrestling Championships is $30 at weigh-in. For more information, call Ken Simmons at (816) 776-6519.

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Truman's girl wrestler wins a third state title

By Joe Santoliquito 3/5/02
Inquirer Suburban Staff

Harry S Truman junior Aquilla Hills, competing at 107 pounds, won her third state title at the Pennsylvania United States Girls Wrestling Association championship on Sunday at J.P. McCaskey High School in Lancaster.
Hills, the only female varsity wrestler in the area, competes against boys during the regular season. She won 11 matches in tournaments and during the Tigers' regular season against boys, but only gets the chance to wrestle against girls on the state and national levels.

Sunday's competition was conducted using PIAA rules, and was sanctioned by the PIAA. Hills won all four of her matches, pinning three of her opponents. Hills beat McCaskey's Michelle Gonzalez by fall to take the 107-pound title.

"It's gotten harder for me to wrestle boys, because they're bigger and stronger than me, but it's made it easier to wrestle the girls," said Hills, who finished eighth at 100 pounds at the USGWA National Championship last year.

"With the guys, I take it as practice, because I know there's only so far I can go against the guys. I suppose I wouldn't take a loss so well against another girl."

Hills is 6-0 in matches against girls this season. She currently is ranked No. 6 in the country by the USWGA at 100 pounds. She's hoping to compete at 100 pounds at the national championship on March 23 and 24 in Lake Orion, Mich.

Hills said she wrestled at 107 Sunday because of the small number of girls competing at 100. That weight class, she said, would have been less competitive.

"I think I have a chance to win a national title, and maybe someday going to the Olympics for wrestling," Hills said.

"I really don't know what I'm going to do in the future, because there is no college wrestling for girls. So I'd have to find a school that would let me work out with the boys' team to continue wrestling."

Nothing but wins. Souderton sophomore Dan Geib kept his record spotless by winning the 130-pound class at the PIAA Southeast Regional tournament at Norristown High School on Saturday.

Geib (32-0) is ranked No. 1 at 130 pounds in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer. He beat Garnet Valley's Pat O'Brien, 6-2, in the final.

To reach the championship match, Geib traveled a tough road. He defeated Strath Haven's Matt Tullio, 6-2, and West Chester Henderson's Rick McLaughlin, 3-2. O'Brien was a state runner-up last season at 125 pounds.

"I'm very excited going to states with an undefeated record," Geib said. "I'm not going out there to place in Hershey. I'm definitely going out there to win.

"Coming in, even with the undefeated record, I don't think I got much respect. I'm a sophomore, and no one took me seriously. That's what makes this victory even sweeter. This gave me confidence, just being there wrestling guys like this and knowing what they achieved. It lets me know where I am and what I can achieve at the state level."

Brother act. Nick and Nate Nauroth have been wrestling for about 10 years, most of the time with each other.

Both Quakertown wrestlers will compete this weekend in Hershey after earning qualifying spots in the regional meet. Nick, a junior, won the 125-pound class. Nate, a freshman, took second at 103.

"Getting to the state championship is something we've always wanted to do," said Nick, who is ranked No. 1 in Southeastern Pennsylvania with a 36-2 record.

"It's really neat having Nate around. Every once in a while we wrestle, but we usually don't wrestle that much against each other because of the weight difference."

Nate Nauroth entered the regional meet as the No. 7 seed. He beat second-seeded Josh Meister of Phoenixville, then followed that win with a win over third-seeded Jarrett Hostetter of Oxford. Nauroth lost to Norristown's Tim Harner, 3-0, in the final.

"It's a real pleasure watching him wrestle, because of his talent level," Nick said. "We're really into each other's matches and we both feed off of each other.

"If Nate wins, I feed off of that big time. But if he doesn't, I kind of block that out and get ready for my match. There's no better way for us to go to states, with Nate coming with me."

Going to states with a smile. One of the best stories of the regional tournament came in the 171-pound weight class, where Pennridge senior Sean Slingsby advanced to the state meet with a third-place finish. It is Slingsby's first trip to the state competition.

The win capped a personal turnaround for Slingsby, who was involved in a serious car accident during his junior year. Injuries sustained during the accident prevented him from wrestling in the postseason.

Slingsby (25-6) trailed Upper Perkiomen's Mike Pierson, 3-0, in the second period Saturday night. Pierson seemed ready to take control of the match when he had Slingsby in the air. But as Pierson was bringing Slingsby to the mat, Slingsby grabbed under Pierson's arms and threw the Indians junior on his back to get the pin.

Pierson had defeated Slingsby on two prior occasions, in the Section II and District 1 North tournaments.

"My goal was to get to states and try to place, and I came into the season with high hopes," Slingsby said. "I looked at my bracket and I knew it was a talented division. I didn't set any goals for myself at the regionals. I just wanted to wrestle as tough as I could, so I didn't have any regrets.

"I would have been happy just making it to regionals, and if I didn't make it to states, I wouldn't have been disappointed. I knew I could get to states, but I didn't think it was very likely."

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S.C. GIRLS GET INTO WRESTLING

GERALD DAIVS, Staff Writer 2/26/02

THERE WAS SOMETHING missing during the S.C. State Individual Wrestling
Championships on Saturday - girls.That might not always be the case.
For while there were no female wrestlers competing in the two-day
tournament at the Carolina Coliseum, there are female wrestlers on the high school
level. Swansea, the Class AA champion, has a female wrestler, as do several
other teams in the state.Dreher coach Paul Watson has noticed the increasing
number of females getting into wrestling.

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