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Missouri Valley takes Northwest Women’s Wrestling Championships team crown

2/17/2003
Blake Timm/Pacific U

FOREST GROVE - Thanks to pacing seven wrestlers in the top-three of their weight classes, Missouri Valley walked away with the women's team championship at the 2003 Northwest Wrestling Championships Saturday at the Pacific Athletic Center.

The Vikings scored 57 points, 25 points better than second place Simon Fraser and 26 better than third place Pacific. The Vikings, who lost a dual to the host Boxers the night before, picked up individual championships from Marianne Vollmer at 114 pounds, Leigh James at 133/138 pounds and Kelly Branham at 145/154 pounds.

Desireé Lockhart (So., Port Townsend, Wash.) picked up the Boxers' only individual championship at 121 pounds and was recognized as the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler. Kristin Fujioka (So., Kaneohe, Hawaii) placed second at 107 pounds and Jennifer Miyahira (Fr., Honolulu, Hawaii) was second in the combined 133/138-pound class. Jill Remiticado (Sr., Aiea, Hawaii) placed third at 121.

Simon Fraser, the top-ranked Canadian and North American team, received a championship from Kathleen Takeda at 107 pounds.

First-year Pacific head coach Scott Miller was voted Co-Coach of the Year at the tournament, sharing honors with Simon Fraser's Mike Jones.

Pacific Northwest Conference
2/15/2003
Forest Grove, Ore.
Entered by Blake Timm

Team Scoring
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES
Missouri Valley 57
Simon Fraser 31
Pacific 30
Menlo 19
Douglas 17
British Columbia 7.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: Desireé Lockhart (Pacific).
CO-COACH OF THE YEAR: Mike Jones (Simon Fraser) and Scott Miller (Pacific).

Results By Weight
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
107: 1st- Kathleen Takeda, Simon Fraser; 2nd- Kristin Fujioka, Pacific; 3rd- Heather Ball, Simon Fraser.

114: 1st- Marianne Vollmer, Missouri Valley; 2nd- Tanya Miyasaki, Menlo; 3rd- Ophelia Pickard, Missouri Valley.

121: 1st- Desireé Lockhart, Pacific; 2nd- Shannon Briginshaw, Simon Fraser; 3rd- Jill Remiticado, Pacific.

128: 1st- Lindsey Owens, Menlo; 2nd- Danya Martin, Douglas; 3rd- Kierstin Hyatt, Missouri Valley.

133/138: 1st- Leigh James, Missouri Valley; 2nd- Jennifer Miyahira, Pacific; 3rd- Jessica Peterson, Simon Fraser.

145/154: 1st- Kelly Branham, Missouri Valley; 2nd- Brandy Golt, Missouri Valley; 3rd- Colby Palfy, Simon Fraser.

165/165+: 1st- Ashley Cross, Douglas; 2nd- Shannon Samler, British Columbia; 3rd- Hillary Leith, Missouri Valley.

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It's crunch time for Pam Wilson

McMaster wrestler takes Ontario title

Jeff Dickins 2/17/03
The Hamilton Spectator

Pam Wilson wants to be a chiropractor.

But for now she's content to perform her bone crunching on the wrestling mat.

The Mac kinesiology student won her third consecutive title at the provincial championships on Saturday. Next up is the nationals at Brock (Feb.28 to March 1) where she'll attempt to recapture the Canadian university crown.

"It's great to have the OUA (Ontario tournament) here. I think Mac is a great venue and the event is well organized. Hopefully, this will help the sport."

Wilson has wrestled for only three years but is emerging as a major force in women's wrestling. She won the nationals as a rookie and finished with a silver last year. This season she is seeded number one heading into the grand finale of the university campaign.

She advanced with a victory in the 76kg category. The Mac team finished sixth as Brock continued to dominate the division. On the men's side, James Byers was tops with a first place finish in the 82kg category to lead the team to fourth spot.

Wilson made major inroads on the international stage in 2002, emerging as a top prospect despite her relative lack of wrestling background. However, she did have a decade of experience in competitive judo and utilized those throwing techniques to full advantage.

She's continuing to adapt and adopt to the nuances of grappling.

And she's climbing the ladder while riding the learning curve.

"Winning the nationals was so unexpected. I got to travel to all these countries and see what is happening at the world level. At the elite level the talent is just so amazing. Every division is so impressive and the competition is amazing. "You rarely get to see wrestling where all the matches are so close, so exciting."

The other Mac medal winners were silvers for Ellen Marco (57kg), Josiah Boyd (61kg) and Steve Hansen (76kg). Dave Rennalls (65kg) won bronze.

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Buydens a lock for nationals

Doug McConachie
The StarPhoenix , February 15, 2003

SP Photo by Richard Marjan / Megan Buydens (top) of the Huskies wraps up her bout with Robyn McDonald of Calgary SP Photo by Richard Marjan / Viola Yanik (green) of the Huskies was undefeated in the 65-kg class

On this Valentine's Day, when many of her friends were receiving roses and others were being dined, Megan Buydens was having a fight.

She wasn't thinking of sweetness and chocolate -- although she did have a chocolate muffin for energy. Her focus was on three other women in her weight class at the Canada West conference wrestling championships, and on qualifying for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships Feb. 28-March 1 at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

"That's my goal," said Buydens, a 19-year-old kinesiology student at the University of Saskatchewan.

Buydens finished second in the 70-kilogram class to Simon Fraser's Ashley McManus. Buyden's only loss was a 3-1 decision to McManus. With the top three in each of the seven weight classes advancing to nationals, the one loss didn't hurt her. Buydens was third last year in her first year at the CIS championships,

"When you tell people you wrestle, their first reaction is to stay clear of you," Buydens says with a laugh. And boyfriends? "It didn't seem to bother them."

Not that there's a lot of time for boyfriends anyway, not when she's hitting the books and training five, sometimes six times a week.

Her love is the sport.

"And no, it's not like WWE at all," she says with a laugh. "I don't even watch that."

There's no hair pulling or finger bending or flying off the turnbuckle. This is about starting out all square in the centre of the mat and outbattling the opponent with takedowns and escapes and pins. Referees don't turn blind eyes. Competitors don't slam opponents with chairs.

"It's about strength . . . part of it is psychological and thinking you're tougher than them," she says.

"It's about being in really good shape, both physically and mentally.

"It's . . . when I want something, I work as hard as I can to get it."

That's a Buydens trademark.

Growing up, she battled her brother, Hubert, now a centre with the Saskatoon Hilltops.

"If I was pushed, I'd push right back."

Her older sister, Jessie, loves rugby and her mom, Pam, was active in almost every sport in her youth in Craik.

In Grade 9, Megan and five other girls at Walter Murray Collegiate signed up for wrestling. By the end of the season, she was the only one left. The others packed it in.

"I enjoyed it. It was fun," she says. "I went out and built (the program up) to where we won the city championship in Grade 12." And she was tops in her weight class and provincial champion, to boot.

Now, in what spare time she has, she helps coach the Walter Murray program and talks with pride that 31 girls signed up this season.

Wrestling has been good to Buydens: A gold medal last year at junior nationals in Winnipeg, a trip to Germany where she finished fourth in a tournament, a return to junior nationals this season in Fredericton, and now to St. Catharines for CIS nationals.

With luck, she hopes to make Canada's national junior team and compete at the world championships in August.

She has three more years of university eligibility. She hasn't decide if she will teach physical education, but "I do want to coach."

The Huskies' Viola Yanik, a silver medallist at the world university championships, won all four of her matches to finish first in the 65-kg class. She was pushed to the limit by Breanne Graham of Calgary and had to go to overtime.

Other winners were Carol Huynh of Simon Fraser (48 kg), Belinda Chou of Regina (53 kg), Heidi Kulak of Alberta (57 kg) and Kristina Wolfe of Simon Fraser (77 kg).

Emily Richardson of Simon Fraser defeated Erica Sharp of Calgary in the final to go undefeated in the 61-kg class.