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Western’s Women Mustangs take bronze at the Brock Duals,

Defeat #3 ranked McMaster

St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada - November 29, 2003 .

Captain, Terri McNutt, breezed through three matches to lead the University of Western Ontario’s women wrestling mustangs to a bronze place finish at the Brock University Dual tournament. Cumberland College of Kentucky placed first beating defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) champions, Brock University in the final. Toccara Montgomery ( 2003 World silver medalist) of Cumberland College wrestling at 70 kg. showed her world class wrestling style, easily defeating all of her opponents.

Western lost to Cumberland College 14-19 in the first round and followed up with three straight dual wins against Lakehead University (15-14 win), Guelph University(31-2 win) and #3 ranked McMaster University(25-10 win). McNutt recorded two pins and a win by technical superiority (10-0) over her opponents along with one win by default.

Competing in the 53 kg weight class, the third year nursing student beat former Mustang and purple blanket winner, Rachel Dean, who now competes for Lakehead and is enrolled in their graduate program. McNutt and Dean had an intense ""scramble"" mid-way through the first round and somehow McNutt ended up on top and caught Dean in vulnerable position and held her for a pin. Coach, Ray Takahashi says, ""McNutt is a tough wrestler and she’’s good at scrambling. The match was still 0-0 at that point when Terri caught Rachel in a bad position.

You could tell they were both up for the match. It’’s a good win for McNutt as I see them having a re-match at the Ontario University Association (OUA) championship finals."" Coach, Josip Mrkoci was pleasantly surprised by McNutt’’s performance given he had to make two unscheduled stops on route to St.Catherines as McNutt was feeling sick on the drive up. The defending OUA champion is currently ranked third in the CIS at 53 kg and ranked second at 51 kg. in recent North American women’s wrestling poll.

Other notable winners for the Western mustang women were: Katie Wilson (48 kg), Shannon Smart (61 kg), Jen Kryszak (65 kg) and Jill McCallum (70 kg). Coach Takahashi, says he was impressed with Kryszak noting the rugby ""transfer"" won two matches by pin. ""I can see why she is such a highly regarded rugby player and leader of the mustangs. She has good intensity and picks up on the techniques fast.""

McNutt to compete in Canadian Olympic Trials, Dec 11-14/03.

Terri McNutt , University of Western Ontario student and London-Western Wrestling Club member will compete in the Canadian Olympic Trials held in Sherwood Forest Park, just outside of Edmonton, Dec 11-14, 2003. Women’’s wrestling will make its inaugural appearance in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The Canadian Team has fared well internationally always placing in the top six in the world since women’’s wrestling has been sanctioned by the National federation (CAWA) in 1990. McNutt, who recently placed third at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships earlier in the summer will enter the 55 kg weight class.

Coach Ray Takahashi says of her chances, ""Terri’’s in a tough weight class, the two favored Canadians, Tonya Verbeek (Brock Wrestling Club - Ontario) and Jen Ryz (Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club- British Columbia) both have world medals and are internationally ranked. McNutt is a pinner, however, and I wouldn't’’t put it past her to find her opportunity. I’’m hoping that this will give her credibility on the national scene and provide her with a great opportunity to compete at this event.""

Mustang Men upset #5Lakehead, place 5th overall.

The University of Western Ontario’s mustang men upset Lakehead University (24-13) at the Brock University duals –– their first win over the Thunderwolves in over four years. Coach Takahashi remarked, ""in a dual meet format, where wrestlers go head-to-head, the dynamics change because a solid performance is needed over all the ten weight classes. We fielded a very good team that matched up well with theirs."" Rookie, Adam Shields (54 kg) started the mustangs off beating Chris Canarata 13-2.

Western's Ivey Business School student, Seth Ross (57 kg) continued the quick start pinning Murray Payne using his ""Seger leg-ride series"". Other mustang wins came from Tosh Jeffrey (65 kg), Jamie Gillman (72 kg), Scott Swarbreck (82 kg), and Alan Bermingham (90 kg). Takahashi says, Tosh Jeffrey had an outstanding tournament, winning all his matches easily only losing a heart-breaker to his Niagara College (USA) opponent in overtime 11-10.

The mustangs, tied for 10th in CIS rankings, beat Queen’’s (36-6) and lost a close dual to Niagara College (NY) 23-20 and to Guelph (25-19). Both men and women are off until the new year. Coach, Takahashi says, ""the challenge will be to maintain our conditioning over December –– it could basically, make or break our season.""

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Athletes bring message to girls: Just try it Get involved in sports programs, group told
Dupuis, Akuffo share lives with youngsters

RANDY STARKMAN 12/1/03
SPORTS REPORTER

Lori Dupuis and Ohenewa Akuffo first delivered a passionate message about sports to a rapt audience of girls: Play early, play often and, most importantly, have lots of fun.

Then Dupuis, an Olympic women's hockey gold medallist, and Akuffo, an Olympic hopeful for Athens next summer when women's wrestling makes its debut, helped hand out about 400 pieces of used sports equipment to a group of Boys and Girls Clubs across the GTA.

It was all part of an event entitled "Game On! A Celebration of Girls in Sport" held at the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club in Toronto. It was organized by She's Got Game, an initiative led by women to encourage girls to participate in sport. A cheque for $700 was also presented to the Boys and Girls Clubs to go towards a girls' sports program.

Alisha Morris, 13, attended yesterday with friends Tasheka Jones, 14, Monique Robinson and Olivia Sparks, both 12, all from the Albion Boys and Girls Club in Rexdale, and was impressed with Akuffo's story about at first being afraid to try wrestling.

"I thought it was really good, especially the way she talked about not wanting to go in at first but then going ahead, anyway," said Morris.

"It motivates me to think that you can do something with a life in sports," added Jones, who was taken with the stories the athletes told of travelling around the world.

Dupuis says that even in these enlightened times, getting girls involved in sport is still often an afterthought.

"I don't think the encouragement is still there for girls," said Dupuis, a member of Canada's 2002 Olympic women's gold medal hockey team. "I know even in my own family, I have a couple of sisters and brothers that really encourage their boys to get out there and do physical activity and they really encourage their girls just to be girls.

"I think it's just a matter of we need to get the awareness out, we need to tell young girls it's okay to be involved in sport. I think the confidence thing is huge with girls."

That notion is definitely seconded by Akuffo, who attended yesterday's event despite being only two weeks away from the Olympic trials that determine if she'll have a berth for Athens.

"I hope that by telling them a bit about my life they might be intrigued about it and also learn there's so much more to sports than achievement within it," said the Brampton native.

Tony Puopolo, executive director of the Dovercourt club, notes the strong statistics that support the importance of girls participating in sports — they're 92 per cent less likely to use drugs; three times more likely to graduate from high school and 80 per cent less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy.

"Probably 12, 13, is the cutoff time when girls all of a sudden lose interest because of a number of other things happening in their lives, hormones kicking in and all that stuff," he said. "But when they're younger, if you can instill some positive things about sport and give them opportunities, then I think more girls would carry it past that 13 year cut-off point."

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Miranda wins gold; Tobin, Warren and O'Donnell win silver at the 2003 Henri Deglane Challenge in Nice, France

12/1/2003
John Fuller/USA Wrestling

NICE, France - Patricia Miranda (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC) won a gold medal at 55 kg/121 lbs. at the 2003 Henri Deglane Challenge in Nice, France on Nov. 29.

Overall, the United States came home with eight medals in all three styles from the event.

Miranda, a two-time World silver medalist and the 2003 World Cup gold medalist, pinned Camille Saillard of France to capture the gold medal.

Also winning a medal in women's freestyle action was Tela O'Donnell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC), won a silver at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. in a one-pool round-robin competition.

O'Donnell recorded two technical falls in the tournament. Her only loss was to Aurora Fajardo of Spain by a 7-6 score. Fajardo placed twelfth at the 2003 World Championships.

In men's freestyle, Ryan Tobin (Philadelphia, Pa./Dave Schultz WC) won a silver medal at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

Tobin won his first three matches to advance to the finals before losing an 8-5 match to 2003 European Champion and two-time World Cup champion Khadzimurad Gatsalov of Russia.

Winning bronze medals in men's freestyle were Jared Frayer (Cambridge, Mass./Dave Schultz WC) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., Joe Heskett (Grover Beach, Calif./Gator WC) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Lee Fullhart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) at 84 kg/185 lbs.

Frayer pinned Pablo Pintos of Spain in the bronze-medal match.

Heskett won three of his four matches. His only loss was to eventual silver medalist Sergey Vitkovskcsy of Russia.

Fullhart lost a close 4-3 semifinal match to Yusup Abdusalamov of Tajikistan before defeating Simon Garcia of Spain 12-2 in the bronze-medal match.

Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) won a silver medal in Greco-Roman at 60 kg/132 lbs. Warren lost by a fall to 2003 World Cup bronze medalist Alexei Shevtsov of Russia.

Also capturing a medal in Greco-Roman was Heath Sims (Huntington Beach, Calif./Dave Schultz WC), who won a bronze at 74 kg/163 lbs.

After dominating his pool, Sims lost a semifinal match to Mikhail Ivanchenko of Russia, the 2003 World Cup and 2003 CISM Military World Championships gold medalist. In the bronze-medal match, Sims defeated Maxym Podolsky of Ukraine 3-2.

See Women Results

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Oklahoma Junior High Rankings

12/1/03

94-
1. Bryan - (BA) - 8
2. Gomez - (Jefferson) -
3. Griffin - (Jarman) -
4. Hodges - (Union) -
5. Miller - (Woodward) -8
6. Palmer - (Barnsdall) -
7. Partain - (BA South) - 8
8. Rogers - (Owasso) - 9
9. Teague - (Norman High) - 7
10. Umbarger - (Sand Springs) -

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Updated on 12-01-03