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By STAFF WRITER 3/31/03

San Leandro High School Senior Madeleine Briones took first place at the United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championships on Sunday.

Briones defeated Othella Lucas of Crawford High School of San Diego with a second-round pin, said San Leandro coach Dylan Souza.

"She's the first national champion San Leandro High has had in any sport, I believe," Souza said.

Other wrestlers from the girls team representing the San Leandro Pirates at the nationals held in Lake Orion, Mich., included Alexis Gonzalez, a senior who finished in 9th place in the 118-pound division; Juana Juarez, junior, 10th place, 152-pound division; Estella Pino, junior, 11th place, 130-pound division; Stella Brown, freshman, 11th place, 144-pound division; and Kim Hoang, senior, 13th place, 118-pound divsion.

Girls high school wrestling is an emerging sport and the North Coast Section is one of the sport's most represented areas in California, said Souza.

"I think the girls had a lot of fun being at a national tourney and in cheering each other on," he said.

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Westwood wrestler Lucarelli places 2nd in nation

By CRAIG REMSBURG
Senior Sports Writer 3/31/03

ISHPEMING — It was a long ride home from downstate Lake Orion near Detroit in more ways than one for Hilary Lucarelli on Sunday.
The Westwood High School senior lost a 2-1 overtime decision to Iris Mucha of Anchorage, Alaska, in the 126-pound title match in the U.S. Girls’ Wrestling Association National Championships at Lake Orion High School.
It’s the third straight second-place finish for Lucarelli in the event.
Losing was tough enough for Lucarelli. Losing the way she did was even tougher.
“It was tied 1-1 in regulation and went into overtime,” she said this morning. “She (Mucha) was stalling and should have gotten a penalty point in regulation.”
Known for her aggressive wrestling style, the WHS product went for a takedown against Mucha in overtime.
“She got around me and I was going to the edge of the mat. The ref then gave her a point for that,” Lucarelli said. “It was a bad call.
“I asked the ref about it after the match, but he just shrugged me off. He didn’t give me an answer.”
The Patriot wrestler said she after winning three bouts Saturday and one Sunday to reach the championship match, she was “confident I was going to win it.”
“I couldn’t ‘shoot’ in on (Mucha), though. She was stalling and backing up. It’s hard to wrestle someone who doesn’t wrestle back.”
Lucarelli, 18, who won a Michigan title two weeks before at 128 pounds and carried a national No. 1-ranking into the weekend, got a medal for her runner-up finish vs. the No. 2-ranked Mucha.
“It’s really frustrating,” the WHS grappler said. “The ref didn’t let the aggressor win the match. He gave the penalty point to the wrong person.
“I’m really disappointed. There were a bunch of good wrestlers in my class. It was a tough bracket.”
A sprinter in track, Lucarelli said as of this morning, she’s leaning toward attending Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky., this coming fall to wrestle.
“I may go there and try it for a year (to see how it works out,” she said. “They have a good (women’s) wrestling program. I’ll decide by the end of the month.”
An All-Upper Peninsula Class A-B-C Second Team pick last November after averaging 11 points per game, she’s also considering going to Finlandia University as a basketball player.

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Girls Grapple With Ever-Bigger Competition

SHANNAN D. POWELL Tribune correspondent 3/24/03

Pinning down the fastest-growing high school girls sport in the country
might be difficult. But pinning is the name of one game boasting that
kind of growth.

Girls wrestling is sanctioned in only two states, Texas and Hawaii, but
high school girls wrestlers can be found almost everywhere. One example:
Bloomingdale's Elizabeth Hernandez.

Though Hernandez is not officially a Bloomingdale wrestler, she was the
only Bull to bring home a state title this year, winning the 165-plus class
of the 2003 Florida Girls State Wrestling Tournament in February at
Kissimmee's Gateway High School. She defeated Vero Beach's Bridgett Boger, ranked
11th nationally by the United States Girls Wrestling Association, in 5:01.

Hernandez and her family moved to Valrico last year from San Antonio,
Texas, where Hernandez wrestled on Judson High School's girls team, winning
her district and placing third in regionals.

Finding no team in the area, she enrolled in a wrestling class offered
by Bloomingdale boys head coach Don Peek. There was the usual assumption
that she had found the wrong classroom.

After explaining her background and that her brother is wrestling at
Lehigh University as a freshman, she stayed - and made an impression.

"I was disappointed," Hernandez said of the lack of girls wrestling.

"But I wasn't going to give up. I still wanted to wrestle, even if it
was with the guys."

"She's a real strong wrestler," Peek said. "She uses defensive
countering as her offense. She waits for her opponent to make mistakes; then she
capitalizes on them."

Hernandez said the boys were hesitant to wrestle her, but once she went
hard at them, they did the same to her. Not bad for a 5-foot-11, 167-pound
junior who competes with opponents sometimes more than 100 pounds heavier.

Though a first for a Bloomingdale girl, Hernandez's accomplishment has
gone largely unrecognized at the school, except for an engraving Peek
provided for the state medal. Given that hers is not an official sport and not
part of a club at the school, perhaps Bloomingdale is justified in not
making a big deal.

But Hernandez was the only Bloomingdale wrestler, male or female, to
win a 2003 state title, and that is usually a big deal.

On Sunday, another high school girls wrestler competed for a state
title. Dana Kearney, a senior at Land O' Lakes ranked fifth in the nation,
vied for the 122-class championship at the USGWA Florida State Wrestling
Championships - and a chance to advance to nationals in Michigan.

With a field of more than 500 expected at nationals, up from 272 at the
first tournament, in 1999, girls wrestling is indeed growing. Thirty
states now have tournaments, and six colleges offer women's wrestling
programs. One has contacted Hernandez.

With the expanding numbers of girls wrestling, and with more and more
Florida high schools implementing girls programs, preconceptions about
girls' being able to compete in traditionally male sports may change.
For the Hernandezes and Kearneys, it may be one school at a time.

"Part of me thinks they don't want wrestling to become a coed sport,"
Hernandez said. "But it's so much fun, and you learn so much about
yourself. It gives you confidence and makes you feel good about yourself."

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Tribune athletes of the week 3/31/03

Monica Gochiocco Bishop Amat HS, wrestling

The junior made a strong showing at the girls national championships in Huron, Mich., over the weekend. Gochiocco finished eighth in the 122-pound division. She won three of six matches and earned All- American honors while competing at the nationals for the first time.

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Female wrestler relishes accomplishments

Columns by local high school students appear here Mondays.

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IT WAS MY FIRST wrestling match, last November, and I was incredibly nervous. I had been on the team for just a few weeks and I was wrestling in a weight class where girls were heavier than me (126 pounds). To make matters worse, I would be the first to wrestle on my team.

I told my coach I didn't know what to do. He told me, "Just wrestle.

When I stepped on the mat, my heart was pounding. I put on the red anklet, faced my opponent and waited for the whistle.

I knew my aggressiveness was nowhere near high, so I waited for my opponent to shoot in first. I defensively sprawled on top of her a few times and scored some takedowns. I struggled to get my opponent on her back. It all went by so fast, I just remember holding her on the mat with all my might for a victory by pin. I couldn't believe I won.

So how did I, a 118-pound, Asian-American

girl, start to wrestle?

Last fall I was complaining to the school trainer that I stank at almost every sport I tried. He suggested wrestling, and said the team always wanted more girls. Sure I used to be a tomboy, but wrestling?

I could not picture myself on the wrestling team. In fact, I was dismayed that he even thought of it. I didn't want to roll around and wrestle boys. Turns out, girls' wrestling has grown, and San Leandro High School now has its own team.

The trainer dragged me to the wrestling room and introduced me to the coach, who told me to come the next day. I wanted to do a winter sport, so why not?

I took a big risk by taking on a new sport, being made fun of, and not succeeding in wrestling. My parents didn't want me to join -- they thought it was too masculine and worried that I would get hurt. But all came out better than I thought.

My first weeks of practice were tough. I was intimidated by being on the same team as the No. 2 girl in the nation, and six out of the 10 girls on the team were Latina and they spoke Spanish to each other. I encountered no welcoming vibe. I thought I would quit.

I had to learn the basic movements: the wrestling stance, shooting and sprawls. I had to get over my self-consciousness.

My coach was shocked that I joined the team because he saw me around school as a leadership student into her studies. But he was confident and told me that staying on the team would be one of the best experiences of my life. I hate to admit it, but he was right.

Wrestling at seven tournaments, I collected plenty of experience. I wrestled against strong girls including the No. 1 girl in my weight class. I gained the respect of my teammates, we started talking, they gave me nicknames, we started saying hi to each other in the hallways. And they helped me become a better wrestler.

I had tons of fun, and being called a "wrestler" was a hoot, but I was proud of it.

In February, our team won the state title -- the first team ever to do so at San Leandro High School. It was an amazing accomplishment. The team, and the sport itself, got major recognition at our school.

I placed seventh in state in my weight class. People at school found out that I wrestled and couldn't believe it. My friends started to goof around and say that I was getting muscular and that I could probably beat them up. My parents watched a match of mine, and their excitement after my win made me feel accomplished.

Five months ago, I never thought I'd stick with wrestling. Now I only wish I had joined sooner.

Kim Hoang is a senior at San Leandro High School. Send her e-mail at revlet@angnewspapers.com or write in care of Beneath the Surface, 22533 Foothill Blvd., Hayward, 94541.

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San Leandro's Briones grips national mat title
Top female wrestler dreams of 2004 Olympics

By Ken Silman, STAFF WRITER 3/1/03

IT MAY HAVE been the shortest long road to a national title, but the length of the journey just to reach the national tournament is what is special.

Madeleine Briones pinned Othella Lucas 1:47 into the second period to capture the 130-pound United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championship on Sunday.

Briones needed to win only three matches at the tournament in Lake Orion, Mich., to capture the national title, but her travels to reach that point started a long time ago.

When Briones started wrestling for San Leandro High as a freshman, she was instantly one of the top female wrestlers in the state -- actually one of the only ones.

There weren't a lot of girl-only tournaments or matches to be had, and Briones was forced to wrestle with the boys. Just three years later, colleges have women's wrestling programs, and the ultimate goal for female wrestlers is the Olympics

Briones wrestled in a handful of selected dual meets as a freshman and competed in a number of junior varsity events, growing rapidly as a wrestler. Meanwhile, this athletic sparkplug was also developing into a top-notch softball player.

As a sophomore, Briones was the starting shortstop for the San Leandro softball team that reached the North Coast Section 3-A title game for the first time.

The following summer, Briones hit the weights hard and wrestled freestyle in preparation for her junior wrestling season. The work paid off as she captured the unofficial state championship and medaled in the national freestyle tournament.

But the extra muscle made Briones less flexible for softball and gave her troubles in the early going. On top of that, all the national tournaments and freestyle events simply overran her schedule.

Eventually it all became too much, and Briones was forced to quit softball, but her name was left on the roster and she attended almost every game.

The move has paid huge dividends for Briones, who is now in contention for a spot at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, where women's wrestling will be an exhibition sport.

Then there are the handful of colleges throughout the country that have established women's wrestling programs. Briones doesn't know what is going to happen for sure, but the best is likely still ahead for this talented athlete and the sport of girls wrestling itself.

"It has come a long way," Briones said. "Just by the girls that started going out, going to the state (exhibitions) and having our own national tournament, we are sort of equal with the boys. That's the goal, I just don't know how long it will take."

If athletes continue to take the sport as seriously as Briones, the process will certainly speed up.

Will it ever catch up with the boys completely?

The Seats says probably not, simply based on trying equal the number of boys who already compete in the sport, but don't tell that to the determined girls in the sport now, because they are bound to prove you wrong.

OTHER FINISHERS: San Leandro sent several wrestlers to the open-invitation nationals with Alexis Gonzalez finishing ninth at 118 pounds, Juana Juarez placing 10th in the 152s, and Estella Pino (130s) and freshman Stella Brown (144) grabbing 11th place spots.

While there where competitors from Hawaii, Maine, Alaska, Connecticut and other states, some of the 14 weight classes had no more than a dozen competitors.

Until the numbers get into the 30s and 40s per weight class and only state champions and runner-ups are invited, the national tournament will be missing some of the prestige it deserves.