News Page

From the Newcastle Pacer; Vol. 24, No. 30,

Thursday; January 23,2003 By Oanielle Elmore

When the topic of wrestling is brought up it is usually assumed to be a man's sport. Don't tell that to Kassidi Bums,a firecracker with pigtails. Kassidi is the first female wrestler to step foot on the Newcastle. mats, ,end she's only beginning her wrestling career.
Kassidi started wrestling in the sixth grade when she attended Western Oaks in Oklahoma City. "I thought wrestling would be fun," she said. "And now I love to wrestle." In her first year, she won only three matches, but that didn't hold her back. "One of the matches I won was against a boy from Newcastle," Kassidi remembers. "When I moved to Newcastle, the boy decided not to wrestle anymore, I hope it's not because of me."
Kassidi is now an eighth grader and is happy to be in Newcastle. "People here think it's cool that I'm a girl and I wrestle," she said. "Even though I'm in junior high, we practice with the high school," Kassidi said. "I have to- do everything they do. I run with them, lift weights, practice different moves, I'm just one of the guys."
On top of wrestling, Kassidi is a top notch student. As an eighth grader, she's in advanced math class and hopes to be taking Calculus by the time she's a sophomore. "I would love to attend the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics," she said.
When it comes to college, Kassidi would love to attend OSU. "The only problem with OSU is they don't have a female wrestling program," she said. "Colleges like Missouri and Kansas all have female programs." Maybe she will defy all odds and be the first female wrestler at OSU. Kassidi is not sure exactly what she wants to be, maybe a math teacher that coaches wrestling?

Not only does she wrestle at school, she also participates in little league wrestling and a program that is specially set up for female wrestlers. "I've traveled allover for tournaments in the girls wrestling league," she said. Talk about being a group of competitive girls. This league is only for girls to wrestle. "It's fun to be in a league with girls who are just like me, they love to wrestle."

Kassidi is the daughter of Kim and Todd Sheets. She has two older sisters, Tiffani and Staci, and a younger brother, Jake. who also wrestles. Jake is in the third grade at Newcastle and participates in the Newcastle sponsored little league. Kassidi's parents come to all her meets and are very supportive of her decision.

Next time you think of wrestling, be sure you think of our very own female wrestler. Kassidi Burns will be a name she hopes everyone will remember

-------------------------------------------------------

A SCRAPPER ON THE MAT LAWRENCE'S PEREZ GAME TO BREAK BOUNDARIES;

John Vellante, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
The Boston Globe 02-02-2003

LAWRENCE -s Aurelina Perez said she wanted no preferential treatment. If
she made the boys wrestling team, she wanted to do so the good
old-fashioned way. She wanted to earn it.

And she did.Coach Joe Celia insists he did Perez "no favors" when she reported to
tryouts last season. In fact, he says, he was probably harder on her
than with any of the others.

But he was impressed with what he saw, with Perez's dogged persistence,
and awarded her the 119-pound spot on the team.

Perez thus became the first girl to wrestle on the Lawrence boys team,
and although the wins have been few and far between, Celia has no regrets
or concerns about the presence of Perez on his roster.

"Sure I tried to discourage her right from the start. I just wasn't all
that comfortable with a girl wrestling with the boys," said Celia, who has
been head coach the past 10 years and just recently retired after a 33-year
career in Lawrence as an industrial arts teacher.

"I've had girls try out before, but they never wanted to work hard or
do what the boys did, so they never made the team. [Perez] was different,
though. She worked just as hard as the boys, maybe harder in some
cases. She's a tough girl. I didn't treat her any differently than the boys. "

Perez rewarded Celia's confidence with one win last year - a pin
against a Somerville wrestler - and with two more pins this season. That's not a
major contribution in the grand scheme of things, but Celia looks at the
effort more than the wins or losses.

"She won just once at 119 pounds last year, but that wasn't indicative
of how she wrestled," said Celia. "She always wrestles tough, even when
she loses. She knows and I know the boys are more experienced, so we try to
pick our spots and our opponents. On occasion, I've bumped her up to 125
pounds, if I feel the 125 guy is a little weaker than the 119 guy."

Perez was a regular at 119 last year, but this year, with teammate
Gerston Duarte also a 119-pounder, the two wrestle off to determine who will
compete in varsity meets at that weight. Duarte has proved to be a bit too
tough for Perez, so Celia has been forced to use her at 125. She's won twice at
that level against wrestlers from Pentucket and Masconomet.

Perez, 18 and a senior, who played some basketball her freshman and
sophomore years, has managed the football team the past two years and
plays the outfield on the softball team. She said she was always interested
in wrestling and knew most of the boys on the team, and it was those boys,
she said, who urged her to give it a try.

"I've always been known to be aggressive and like the rough sports,"
she said, "so I decided that maybe wrestling was what I really wanted to
do. It was easier that I knew the boys on the team. They were very supportive
and encouraged me all the way. It made it so much easier when I would hear,
`Keep up the good work,' or `You're doing a great job.'

"I think I surprised [Celia] by being so persistent and sticking with
it," Perez said. "I think he thought I was going to quit after a few
practices. I wanted to show him that I was just as tough as some of the boys and
that I could beat some of them if given the chance. I know he's accepted me
now and the whole idea of having a girl on his team.

"I've been pretty much accepted by most teams, but I get a feeling at
some places, that they are reluctant to let their boys wrestle a girl. I
think they feel if they lose to me, it makes them look bad, and if they beat
me, they hear, `So what, it's only a girl.' I think my opponents usually
try harder to pin me and take me out more quickly than they would if they
were wrestling a boy. I really don't want them to treat me any differently
than anyone else."

Perez, who stands just a tad over 5 feet, says winning for the first
time last year, by a pin no less, is something she will never forget.

"The way [my opponent] presented himself to me before the match was
overwhelming," she said. "I mean he was sitting across from me and
doing these pushups and exercises and basically trying to show me his
strength. I thought, `OK, this guy wants to intimidate me. Don't let him.' When I
pinned him early in the first round, I think he was as stunned as I was. I
remember he offered me his hand in sportsmanship, and then his teammates ragged
on him.

"I saw the same wrestler at the sectionals and asked him if he had let
me win. He said no, that I had pinned him fair and square, that I was a
lot stronger than he thought I'd be. To hear him say that made me feel very
good.

"I know I haven't won much and that bothers me to a point, but I don't
mind losing as long as I can say when the match is over that I gave it my
best shot, that I made it tough for my opponent to pin me. I want to know
they beat me by giving me their best effort, that they didn't take it easy
on me because I am a girl."

Perez, who resigned from Lawrence's Junior ROTC program last year after
attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, is looking into Virginia
Military Institute, The Citadel, or Norwich University as places to further her
education and wrestling pursuits.

"If they have wrestling teams, sure I'd like to try out," she said. "If
not, maybe they'll let me play rugby. I'm willing to break some boundaries
if I have to."

---------------------------------------------------------

Katy girls out to repeat '02 wrestling finish

Houston Chronicle correspondent 2/6/03

DEFENDING District 22-5A girls wrestling champion Katy is not about to
let up on neighboring schools this year.

With all but two weights filled and at least four serious state
challengers on board, the Lady Tigers are giving no quarter to Houston schools.
That may explain why very few Houston schools competed in Saturday's state duals
at Westside High School, and why Katy finished third behind Amarillo
Caprock and Arlington Sam Houston.

Saturday's district tournament will bring Cinco Ranch, Taylor and Mayde
Creek to Katy High School Saturday. With the boys starting first-round
action at 10 a.m., the girls will begin at 11 a.m. The boys
championship round starts at 1 p.m., and the girls title round begins at 2 p.m.,
with awards handed out at 3 p.m. by Katy wrestling coach Tim Ripperger. How
good is the Katy Tiger girls' wrestling squad in this growing Texas sport?
Likely good enough to win any dual in the Houston area.

The prowess of Katy, Caprock and other powerhouse girls teams
contributed to the lack of girls dual matches this season as a high percentage of 5A
schools either don't have a girls team or can gather only 2-5 female
combatants.

Without duals to measure their progress, local girls have focused on
their individual records. The Tigers have excelled there too.

Melissa Terry (14-0) at 95 pounds, Stephanie Haver (22-1) at 119 and
Teri Lopez (22-1) have combined to lose two matches by two points total. The
trio is only seconds from being 58-0 combined.

Terry finished second at state last year in a frustrating last-minute
pin when the Katy wrestler was winning on the scoreboard. Now a junior, the
top-ranked female grappler has rebounded to become a leader for Katy
and a coach for the younger girls. She has her sights set for the state
tournament again.

Haver, also a junior, dropped a 4-3 decision to Kim Quinones of El Paso
Hanks in early January. Since then the top-four wrestler has pinned
eight opponents. Her 17 pins and 105 points earned for Katy rank as the best
among the girls before state duals. Only Mayde Creek's standout 110-pound
Tosha McSloy avoided a pin by Haver. Haver is hoping to advance to state and
meet the top seeds early.

Ranked second at 128 pounds, Lopez typically refuses to give up points
to her opponents. In earning 102 team points and 15 pins, Lopez has also
thrown 15 shutouts. Her lone loss came at the hands of No. 1 Suekoilya Shelly
of L.D. Bell in a 3-2 decision. Nationally ranked over the summer, Lopez
displays her skills on the mat with patience and grace.

Although all female wrestlers earn entrance to the Region III
tournament due to the lack of schools competing, these Tigers are worth watching
Saturday at Katy High School as they battle on their home mats:

Gabriella Bruscianelli (13-8), a 102-pound junior, will get a rematch
with Taylor's talented Laurie Ashby. Ashby has won the last four meetings
between these two rivals.

At 138 pounds, Taylor's No. 2 Diana Mato is favored for the district
crown, but Katy's No. 4 Felicia Woodall (15-8) has given her tough matches in
three prior meetings. Mato pulled out a 6-5 win on an empty stomach in
December. These two are expected to battle for top regional finishes, and Woodall
is perhaps the most aggressive of all the Katy girls.

Mary Reddick (20-5) has notched 18 pins this season and has not
wrestled to a decision since Nov. 23 with her quick finishes. She and Amy Lagowski
of Cinco Ranch have met four times, with Reddick winning each outing.

Ashley Weber (17-6) fills the role at 165 pounds, and freshman Kacee
Ravenburg (6-10) anchors the team at 215. Ravenburg's district match
should be worth watching, as it will be a battle of freshmen.

-------------------------------------------------

Bowman going to mat to follow her dream
Edgewood wrestler earns No. 4 ranking; Joppatowne boys tied for first place

By Jeff Zrebiec
Sun Staff , February 9, 2003

She had heard the comments before, but this time it was different.

Christina Bowman of Coltonwas being told by her Edgewood teammates that she was not welcome on the wrestling team.

"When I joined the team as a ninth grader, none of the boys wanted me there," said Bowman, a junior who was the first of three females on the Rams JV wrestling team. "They used to tell me that I [stunk] and that I needed to quit."

Upset but not ready to give in, Bowman asked Edgewood coach Darin Bokeno for permission to talk to the team. When she did, she stepped front and center carrying only a big box.

In the box, Bowman, whose dream is to wrestle for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) - formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) - had figurines, magazines and autographed photos of some of her favorite WWE wrestlers.

"I just told them it was my dream to go to the Olympics, to wrestle in college and to become a professional wrestler," said Bowman, who talked about following in the footsteps of Kurt Angle, a WWE star who won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in freestyle wrestling. "Some of the guys made fun of it, but a lot of guys came up to me and told me to stick with it. They just wanted me to work harder."

Said Bokeno, who has had a girl on his team in each of his six seasons at Edgewood: "She let them know no matter what they said or what they did, she wasn't going to quit. And now she has a national ranking, which is more than any other Edgewood wrestler has."

Against boys, Bowman, 16, has a 10-8 record as a heavyweight for the Rams JV team, including a recent pin in Harford County's JV tournament.

When wrestling against girls in non-high school tournaments, Bowman is undefeated and ranked fourth in the nation among heavyweights by USA Wrestling Magazine.

Bowman, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 226 pounds, likely would be on the Maryland state team that will head to Fargo, N.D., later this year for the nationals. However, stopping her is a recent rule by the United States Girls Wrestling Association establishing 179 as the maximum allowable weight for heavyweights.

In order for Bowman to compete, she would need to lose nearly 50 pounds in the upcoming months.

"It's a big challenge, but I have a lot of support," said Bowman, who will compete in the state indoor track and field championships later this month in the shot put.

That's a far cry from when Bowman started wrestling. She said some high school opponents intentionally forfeited to avoid facing a girl.

"I think everybody at school knows me as the girl that wrestles," she said. "But a lot of people think I'm a leader, too, because I paved the way for other girls to join the team."

--------------------------------------------------

Mt. Blue High School's Shane Webber, right, loses his headgear as he grapples with Marshwood High's Deanna Rix during a 119 consolation match. Webber went on to win the match.

--------------------------------------------------------

Coming back for more Series: WRESTLING REPORT

St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Feb 6, 2003

Saturday is the day Dana Kearny and Jessica Worthington have eagerly
anticipated for weeks.

But it is a day the rest of the state is dreading.

Because that's how good Kearney and Worthington, Land O'Lakes'
returning state girls wrestling champions, have become. Their reputations precede
them.

"Wow, now those are two of the best," Gateway coach Michael Glassburn
said. "They're definitely well-known."

The pair of seniors can add to their fame at this weekend's state meet
in Gateway.

"It would be great to win," Kearney said. "But I know I'm going to do
it."

The fourth annual tournament is not sanctioned by the Florida High
School Activities Association, but it is a testament to the growing popularity
of the sport at the club level and the burgeoning level of talent.

In the Tampa Bay area, no two wrestlers have grown as much as Kearney
and Worthington. Nor is there a more decorated pair.

Kearney is a two-time state champion ranked No. 5 in the state by Web
sites that cover the sport, while Worthington has a state title and a
runner-up medal. Both are ready to add one more championship apiece.

"I'm ready for it," Worthington said. "I'm pretty pumped for it."

Kearney and Worthington snuck up on the competition when the tourney
was in its infancy two years ago. Kearney easily won the title at 122 pounds,
while Worthington finished second. Now there's no way the two can sneak up on
anybody - male or female.

"They talk about them at the girls tournament, they talk about them at
the boys tournament, I think it comes with the territory," Gators coach
Brett Murray said. "It's easier to be the underdog no one knows and sneak up
on them. It's harder to be the top dog and defend your crown.

"But that's what you're putting on the line three days from now."

That is no longer a problem for either. Kearney has six years in the
sport, while Worthington started her sophomore year. Both have honed their
skills against the toughest competition any female wrestler could find: male
wrestlers.

"I think being in it for six years, I understand a lot more and I'm
starting to see more things," she said. "I'm always learning how to counter new
moves."

In the Ocala, Kissimmee and Jacksonville areas, girls wrestlers compete
almost exclusively against other girls.

But because the sport hasn't yet reached the club level in this area,
wrestlers like Kearney and Worthington have had to spar with male
teammates and foes.

Both have wrestled with the Land O'Lakes boys varsity. Kearney lost her
spot at 119 pounds this season and has been hobbled with a hip injury, while
Worthington has been a mainstay in the 130-pound class despite an
injured elbow.

But wrestling against bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced boys
is its own advantage when the two wrestle girls.

"It's a big advantage," Worthington said. "It's just so much better
wrestling guys over girls. It's different. The guys are faster and more
challenging. When I wrestle girls, it's totally different because they
don't wrestle as tough."

Strategy also changes. Wrestling in boys matches, the girls are counted
on not to surrender too many points in their weight class. Both have given
boys tough matches, and have won on occasion. But against the top boys, the
two are counted on to wrestle defensively, avoiding risky moves that could
expose them to a pin or technical fall.

But against girls, all bets are off.

"There's lots of things I can do against girls I can't do against
guys," Worthington said. "Upper-body moves, lateral moves, stuff I wouldn't
even try with guys."

----------------------------------------------------

Graff wins state title
Colton senior wins 152-pound title, while two others also place at California Girls Wrestling Championships.

By MICHELLE GARDNER, 2/9/03

Three county wrestlers placed at the California Girls State Wrestling championships last weekend at Vallejo.

Senior Michelle Graff of Colton won the 152-pound title, while Eisenhower's Amanda Kiggundu (165 pounds) and Felicia Quevedo (134) placed third and fifth, respectively.

Graff, who was battling a knee injury, won her first match 10-1, pinned her second opponent early in the second period, then won an 11-1 decision in the final.

"I looked down in warmup and (the knee) was swollen,' Graff said. "I don't know what I did, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. It definitely affected how I wrestled. My opponents were going for my knee, but I just tried to use a lot of upper body moves.'

Graff finished the season 20-3 (15-0 against girls, 5-3 against boys), and has been asked to participate in exhibition matches during the boys state tournament.

The girls state tournament is not officially sanctioned by the CIF, but the CIF is holding the special matches during the boys meet as a way of promoting girls wrestling and gauging interest.

Kiggundu, 17, won three of her four matches. This was the third time she placed at a tournament, having won first place at Thousand Oaks and second place at an event at Ike.

"I was really happy since this is only my first year,' she said. "I had no idea what the competition was going to be like, but it was a lot of fun.'

Quevedo, 17, is wrapping up her second year of competition. Quevedo went 3-2, with all three of her victories coming by pin. Both opponents Quevedo lost to are nationally ranked.

"It was good to go up there and wrestle new people,' said Quevedo, who has placed in five tournaments over the last two years. "Wrestling around here, we see the same people so it was a good experience.'

Eisenhower's Patricia Bernard and Titi Lawani also competed at the event. Both girls finished the season by wrestling in junior varsity matches against A.B. Miller on Wednesday.

--------------------------------------------------

Wilson's Ashley Denniston made history last week.

The junior became the first female wrestler from the Miramonte League
to advance to the CIF-Southern Section divisional finals, though she will
accomplish it as an alternate.

Denniston advanced to the 105- pound semifinals during Saturday's
league finals at Charter Oak. She had a chance to finish second but lost a
wrestle-back to Charter Oak's Roland Flores.

"It feels awesome to make it,' Denniston said. "This is my first year
of wrestling. I just fell in love with the sport. I kind of feel sorry for
the boys when I beat them but it really does feel good to win.'

Said Bonita coach Brian Sandmark: "She is really tough. She beat Jerrod
Mundt for third place and that wasn't supposed to happen.'

----------------------------------------------

Who says wrestling is a boys sport

By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 11, 2003

LAND O'LAKES -- Ask Dana Kearney and Jessica Worthington why they wrestle -- why they and a handful of girls across the state have staked a claim to an arcane, grueling, male-dominated sport -- and they'll stare blankly, not really sure what to say.

Why do they wrestle?

Why wouldn't they?

"I like it," Worthington said. "I like competition."

"We really didn't do it just to make a difference," Kearney said. "We love the sport so much that we're like, 'Why not do it?"'

Kearney and Worthington are seniors on the Land O'Lakes boys wrestling team but the pair is renowned, and feared, throughout the state in girls wrestling.

Last season, 798 schools across the country put 3,405 girls wrestlers on the mats, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. In Tampa Bay, there isn't a more dominant or decorated pair in this fledgling sport than Kearney and Worthington.

Saturday's state meet at Kissimmee Gateway was the last stop for two storied careers. Kearney won her third state title; Worthington her second.

They're not just wrestlers. They're pioneers.

"Are we?" Worthington said. "I guess so."

* * *
In 1995, St. Petersburg's Kelly Williams became the first girl in Florida to win a boys district wrestling title. Now girls have a choice: They can wrestle boys or they can take on other girls.

Girls wrestling came to Florida four years ago, born as a club sport by central Florida high schools. There are a few girls tournaments during the regular season, and the state championship is in its fourth year.

In central and northern Florida, girls have teams and enough wrestlers to compete against each other. At schools with few girls, such as Land O'Lakes, they wrestle boys.

That's what Kearney and Worthington do. It's why they were so dominant Saturday.

Kearney won the 124-pound weight class, scoring two pins and a 17-2 win. In the final, she defeated Gainesville's Kayte Seusse, taking a 2-0 lead into the second period, then pinning her foe in three minutes.

Worthington, who won the silver as a sophomore, scored two pins in the 132-pound division to reach the final against Lyman's Haly Haritan, state champion at 128 in 2002. Worthington took a 9-1 lead in the second and had Haritan in a hold, quickly working her way to a pin when she heard her foe's chest pop.

"Stop, stop, stop," a pained Haritan told her.

Worthington let go and popped off the mat, knowing what it was: a broken collar bone. The state title was hers by injury default. It was not the win she wanted. "I was hoping the match would last longer," Worthington said. "Just one more period."

Together with freshman teammates Vanessa Tyson (136), who took third, and Elizabeth Lewis, (102) who finished fifth, the four wrestlers led Land O'Lakes to fifth place, nine points out of second.

The seniors leave with several state records. Kearney has the fastest pin in the history of the four-year girls tournament: 13 seconds in 2002. That was the year Kearney and Washington tied for the most pins in a state tourney with four apiece. Kearney is tied with Winter Springs' Kristen Ianuzzi for the most state titles.

"Three years in a row!" Kearney screamed.

"Three years in a row!" Worthington screamed.

It was Land O'Lakes coach Brett Murray's first trip to the girls state meet. He was impressed.

"In a word, it was outstanding," he said. "I mean I probably felt more pressure than they did. But they were like, 'Coach, don't worry about it."'

Wrestling boys prepared them for anything the girls could throw at them.

"Because when I'm wrestling guys, I'm used to that strength," Worthington said. "When I wrestle girls, it's totally different.

"There's lots of moves I can use against girls that I can't use against guys, stuff I would never try against guys."

Kearney came by wrestling the hard way: Former Land O'Lakes wrestler Derek Schiffer used takedowns on her when they played youth football together.

"He'd be like, 'Come here, I want to show you something,' " Kearney recalled, "and then it was like, 'Boom!"'

When Kearney came to high school, the freshman was intrigued enough to attend practice. Then Worthington heard about Kearney. Classmates dared the sophomore to join.

"I said, 'Oh yeah? I'll show you,"' Worthington said. "So I came out. Everybody hated me. Dana hated me. Nobody liked me."

Perhaps. But only for a short time.

"When Jessica came in here, I resented her," Kearney said. "I was the only girl on the wrestling team. I was the princess, and all of a sudden I wasn't the princess anymore. I hated her for like the first couple of weeks.

"I tried to scare her off, but I couldn't do it."

The two laugh about it now.

"I'm very stubborn," Worthington said, "and I wasn't going to quit. I was like, 'I'll show them."'

When did Kearney give in? "When I figured she wasn't going to leave," she said.

Now the two do what seniors are supposed to do: boss the underclassmen around. "I got beat up bad, I got my butt kicked," Worthington said. "But they all get it back now."

The two had to take their lumps, just like any other rookie -- only more so. What they lacked in size, strength, speed and skill they made up for in grit.

Kearney and Worthington ended up on the boys varsity at one time or another.

Coaches use girls wrestlers to fill vacant weight classes. By wrestling boys, girls help the team by preventing a forfeit.

Knee injuries kept Kearney off the varsity this season while Worthington earned a spot at 130 pounds. She is 14-15 against boys with five pins and a sixth-place showing at the Sunshine Athletic Conference meet, the Pasco County championship.

"It wasn't like we just threw her out there to get pinned," Murray said. "Against some of those boys she had a legitimate shot at winning if she had executed some different moves."

But wrestling boys is still a frustrating experience for girls, who are forced to wrestle defensively. They have to be technically sound but can't risk trying complicated maneuvers or new moves lest they get caught on the mat and give up too many points.

Against girls, though, it's a different story.

"The way they dominated the girls was great," Murray said. "They were running from Jessica. She just went out there and dominated. The girls were on the Internet, trying to figure out what weight class she was in so they could get out of the way.

"And Dana had a tech fall and two pins. You can't get much better than that."

Said Kearney: "With wrestling, once you start winning the matches, it's just a domino effect. You feel like you're going to keep on winning."

Organizers hope the Florida High School Activities Association will one day sanction girls wrestling. The FHSAA requires 32 schools that have sponsored the sport for two years to petition for sanctioning. After a year, the board of directors could authorize an official state championship.

The unofficial state tournament has grown each year: 118 girls from 41 schools wrestled Saturday.

"We're trying to do whatever we can," Gateway coach Michael Glassburn said, "to get these girls recognized for what they do."

Why girls wrestling? For the same reasons boys wrestle: they like it, and it challenges them like few sports can.

"You can't hide yourself out there," Worthington said. "You've got to go out there and do it."

It's just getting started in Tampa Bay. Bloomingdale's Elizabeth Hernandez brought back the 167-pound state title to Hillsborough County, pinning Vero Beach's Bridgett Boger in 5:01. Gibbs' Amber Adams (112), Jessica Box (124) and Hudson's Patricia Conner (107) all wrestled.

Kearney and Worthington aren't done yet. Worthington will wrestle with the boys when districts start. Nationals are March 29-30 in Michigan.

Worthington wants to wrestle at the collegiate level. Kearney's future is in firefighting. She's already a lieutenant with the Land O'Lakes Volunteer Fire Department. But she would return to help coach if the school forms a girls team.

And the coach wants to keep their legacy alive.

Said Murray: "Hopefully, the past three years is not the end."

---------------------------------------------------------

100 Years of Wrestling, and 30 of Progress

by Tara Krieger February 11, 2003
Spectator Associate Sports Editor

Last Thursday night, I attended a dinner honoring female student-athletes at Barnard and Columbia. Many of the speaker's remarks focused on how vastly the opportunities for women in collegiate sports have expanded in the past 30 years, a development which can be attributed largely to Title IX. "Look around the room," Barnard President Judith Shapiro said to the couple hundred of us women student-athletes in attendance, "and see what Title IX has built."
She couldn't have put it better. Before the institution of this controversial gender-equity policy in 1972--the exact stipulations of which are now being hotly contested in Washington--women's sports accounted for less than two percent of Columbia's athletic funding. That figure has increased dramatically since then, and I am personally thankful for Title IX, as it has given me the opportunity to compete on a varsity team.

Two days later, in a much different setting, I saw the other side of the issue as I covered the banquet celebrating 100 years of Columbia wrestling, the nation's oldest program. Wrestling has been one of the sports adversely affected by Title IX. It is, after all, one of the few activities conventionally without a female counterpart, and that fact, coupled with dwindling fan interest--wrestling has always taken a backseat to football, that other all-male sport--has caused several universities to discontinue their programs, including Yale in 1991, so many years after Columbia first challenged the school to the nation's first intercollegiate meet way back in 1903.

Thus, as one might might anticipate, on a night dedicated to honoring the history and achievements of one of Columbia's most storied athletic institutions over the past century, there seemed to be a strong undercurrent of concern about the future of wrestling. Alumni that I met expressed their regret that wrestling was such an underappreciated and misunderstood sport. These old-time matmen lamented the extent to which the integrity of the sport has been diminished--these days the only wrestlers you hear about are the ones playing that fake professional clown sport on TV. (I myself must guiltily admit that until a few years ago I was under the assumption that college wrestlers executed the same sort of moves as Hulk Hogan.)

"There is no time more important to the history of wrestling than right now," Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable, the event's keynote speaker, proclaimed.

He mentioned that the International Olympic Committee was considering eliminating either freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling from future summer games.

Gable urged his audience to stay updated on the status of wrestling, a sport which involves half as many student-athletes as it did 15 years ago.

Considering all this, and then considering he strides Columbia has made and has yet to make regarding Title IX (especially within an undergraduate community whose female population is nearly double its male population, if Barnard students are included)' as well as the school's reputation for lack of fan support, I found it intriguing that Columbia wrestling has managed to endure all this time.

And how did it manage to sustain itself? Yes, it's the oldest program in the country, but, as I mentioned before, Yale's program was every bit as old. Is it the best program? Hardly. Columbia wrestlers have certainly had their moments in the spotlight, but never in their history have they ever won a team EIWA title, and since 1947, there have been just two individual EIWA champs from Columbia. Not to mention that, though there have been some formidable runs, the team hasn't won an Ivy title in over two decades.

Perhaps Athletic Director John Reeves said it best in his opening remarks on Thursday night, when he thanked the administration for "sustaining the intensity and interest in this sport over the past 100 years."

"Columbia has chosen to add rather than to subtract," he said. And indeed it has. Columbia may not possess superlative win-loss records or sky-high fan attendance, but that hasn't stopped sports programs from continuing to expand. In the past decade alone, Columbia has added four prominent women's sports to its varsity ranks.

"We need to do all we can to keep [wrestling] on upward mode," Reeves continued, "Ivy League institutions are beginning to realize that they made a mistake and are reconsidering bringing the sport back."

Princeton is the classic example; it cut its wrestling program in the mid-1990's, but revived it a few years later due to popular demand. And Princeton had had varsity wrestling since 1905. Kudos to Columbia athletics for preserving history rather than obliterating it.