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Mild-mannered young woman is star wrestler

C. RAY HALL 11/11/02
Associated Press

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. - Toccara Montgomery is a mild-mannered sophomore at Cumberland College - an aspiring grade-school teacher with a soft spot for all things cuddly.

She also has a pierced tongue - a $25 souvenir of Las Vegas - that irritates her mother to no end.

Montgomery's favorite things to do: "Playing with small babies or puppies or dogs."

She also owns a pit bull.

"Oh, he's a sweetheart," she says.

And she wrestles.

Last year, Montgomery won a silver medal in the women's World Championships, wrestling in the 149-pound division. This year, as a 158-pounder, Montgomery was upset by Chinese wrestler Xu Wang, the eventual silver medalist. Montgomery finished 10th out of 21 in her weight class.

Montgomery, 19, has been wrestling all of four years.

She hopes to represent the United States in the 2004 Olympics, when women's wrestling will make its debut.

Montgomery is one of 1,743 students at Cumberland College, a picturesque Baptist school in southeastern Kentucky. On Sundays, students dress up for lunch in the Roberts Dining Hall. It's a rule. Other rules involve chapel, community service and two conditions unimaginable to many college students: no alcohol and no coed dorms.

"It's nothing like the colleges you see on TV," said Montgomery, whose home is in Cleveland, a 7-hour drive and another world away.

Even in a cozy place such as Cumberland, where friendliness seems almost obsessive, some folks keep their distance from a world-class wrestler - looking at her as more pit bull than sweetheart.

"I think it's kind of intimidating for people, especially if they don't know me," she said.

For female wrestlers, as a rule, colleges are not extending open arms. There are only six varsity programs in the country, according to the U.S. Girls' Wrestling Association.

Sarah Hayes, the lone senior among Cumberland's 18 women wrestlers, said Montgomery "looks so intimidating on the outside, but once you get to know her, she's nice, she's funny. She's really playful, very intelligent, everything that you wouldn't expect an athlete to be