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Sister act on the mat

By TIMOTHY SCOTT, Times-Herald sports writer 1/20/04

The first time Dawn and Dan Sage went, they weren't sure what to think.

That was over a year ago, when they first attended a wrestling competition featuring their daughter Jaime.

Last Saturday, they spent all day -from 6:45 a.m. to well past 10 p.m. - cheering and videotaping their daughters Jaime and Ashley as they grappled their way through various rounds of competition at the Napa Valley Girls Classic at Vintage High School.

Consider them won over.

Last year, her first year in the sport, Jaime took second in the state for 120-pounders. This year, freshman Ashley has joined Jaime on the Vallejo High wrestling squad and the pair are making believers out of their parents - along with opponents who often are pinned beneath their strength - in what has become a successful sister act on the mat for the Apaches.

"We weren't very sure about it," said Dawn and Dan of that first meet, but Dan added, "we were really nervous, (but) both kids compete real well."

And it seems they've always been competing.

Dawn remembers how Jaime would stand in front of a mirror practicing pliés for her ballet class. Only she would time herself to see how fast she could do them.

Or there's the time Dan and Ashley were playing football in the street with some neighborhood boys. Ashley squared off against an older, bigger boy and there was, as Dan recalls, a major collision. While the boy was a bundle of tears, Ashley merely said, "dad, that really hurt."

So this wrestling thing is a piece of cake, right?

"It's a lot," Ashley said. "It takes a lot of discipline, it's a challenge."

Or as Jaime said, "It's fun - sorta. Tournaments are fun, practices are hard - we do lots of work."

So it's hard, but both girls admitted they've grown to love it, despite the three-and-a-half hour practices. After all, they love to compete.

Jaime, a junior who also plays softball for Vallejo, is in her second year wrestling, while it's Ashley's first on the mat. Jaime first took up the sport to fill a sixth-period requirement and ended up on the team. Now Ashley's become involved, and admits she's following in older sis' footsteps, but she intends to make her own tracks.

"It was more, 'I'm going to stomp all over her footsteps," Ashley said, but it's not as if there's not an admiration there. "She sets a good example and she's a good student."

And a good wrestler.

Jaime was able to overcome her nemesis this year, Jessica Jauck of Ramona (San Diego), with an overtime win in the final of the Vintage meet on Saturday. Going into the meet, Jauck was ranked No. 1 in the state at 120 pounds, while Jaime was second. Earlier this season, Jaime was ahead on points when she made a mistake and Jauck pinned her. She was focused on not letting the same thing happen in Napa.

"I felt more determined to win than I did last time," Jaime said. "I just felt good that I beat her this time."

It's been a successful year for Ashley too. Although, after an early agreement that put the sisters in different weight classes, it was determined that Ashley's best weight was also 120 pounds. Saturday, they faced off in an early-round bout and Jaime defeated her younger sister for the second time this year.

"We don't want to hurt each other or anything," said Jaime of when the two wrestle. "We try to avoid each other at practice."

"We talk about each other's moms," joked Ashley, who finished 3-2 in Saturday's meet. "My sister has a lot more technique than I do, (but) I think I have a little bit of an edge in strength."

Dawn and Dan, though, aren't particularly fond of the matches where the sisters square off.

"That was a big shaker for us," Dan said. "We were really worried about that."

Added Dawn, "we don't cheer for either one."

Away from sports, there are similarities and differences. They're both solid students, with Jaime boasting a 3.0 GPA and Ashley enrolled in honors classes. Ashley is a bit more shy, while outgoing Jaime has been dubbed "Moe" by teammates. Ashley has shoulder-length brown hair, and Jaime's is cropped short. Both, though, are personable and easygoing. Off the mat, that is.

"Jaime practices moves on her sister, they wrestle a little bit at home," Dan said. "The competition between the two is stiff."

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Hsieh top wrestler at Asics tournament

Monday, January 19, 2004

By MARTY JAMES
Executive Sports Editor

Vintage High School's Jessica Hsieh, who is ranked No. 1 in the country by the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association as well as No. 1 in the state, was named as the most outstanding wrestler of the Asics Napa Valley Girls Classic, held Saturday at Crusher Gym.

Hsieh went 3-0 and scored a 2-0 win in the finals of the 103-pound weight class over Katherine Fulp-Allen of Half Moon Bay. The match was scoreless after three rounds of regulation, but in sudden death overtime Hsieh used a two-point takedown to win.

"There were some great matches," said Jim Lanterman, Vintage's head coach.

A tournament-record 202 wrestlers from throughout California and Oregon wrestled in either 16- or 32-man brackets. There were 69 teams that took part. Eight wrestlers represented Vintage. No team scoring was kept.

"This was a big-time thing," said Lanterman. "It was a great success."

Medals were presented to the top seven in each weight class.

Also for Vintage:

* Kayla Chambers (126) took third place. Chambers is ranked third in the country.

* Diana Douglass (171) lost in the finals by pin in the second round to Anita Ten of Lindhurst. Douglass finished second. Douglass is ranked No. 2 in the state.

* Audrey Garza (195) was sixth.

Meanwhile, Napa High's Stephanie Wigger (103) and Lauren Philipps (138) wrestled well in the tournament.

Wigger posted a 2-2 record.

Philipps, ranked sixth in California, compiled a 2-2 record, which was good enough for a fourth-place medal. Her two losses were to the Oregon state champion and the second-ranked wrestler in California.

Coming up for local athletes is the California Regional Championships, Jan. 31 at Edison High-Stockton, followed by the California Girls State Championships, scheduled for Feb. 6-7 at Vallejo High's Bottari Gym. Vintage was second last year at the state tournament and won the title in back-to-back years (2001 and 2002).

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Brittney Gets To Grapple
Ralston Middle School Has Female Wrestler

January 19, 2004

RALSTON, Neb. -- When a 90-pound seventh-grader at Ralston Middle School tried out for the wrestling team earlier this season, the message came back clear: No way. It wasn't a question of talent. It was a question of gender.

Since last week, that has changed, after one little girl pressed for what she wanted.

Brittney Speckman, 12, loves to roughhouse with her sisters and decided a spot on the wrestling team might be a good venue for her talents.

"I was all for it, said Brittney's father, Rick Speckman. "Brittney's a very well rounded athlete, good at sports. I think she'd be very good at it."

The school wasn't so sure. At winter tryouts, the school turned Brittney away. Officials said there was a concern that boys might touch her inappropriately, that she might be ridiculed by other students, and that they were concerned about the emotional well-being of the boys that she might beat.

"One of our biggest concerns is the level of maturity of kids at the middle school level, and how many people it affects," said Ralston Middle School vice principal Dan Mussmann.

Mussmann said he could tell Speckman was emotionally mature for her age, and that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"If you really want to do something, keep on it," Brittney said. "Don't give up just because someone says no right away. Stick with your decision and make it so that it can happen."

For the first time Friday, Ralston Middle School made an exception, and Speckman went to practice with about 40 boys. Mussman said some boys from other school may forfeit their matches rather than wrestle a girl.

Speckman said she hopes most boys won't have a problem with her wrestling.

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Wrestling With Gender and Competition Issues:[HOME EDITION]

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Jan 18, 2004.

Re "Girl Wrestlers Gain Ground," Any girl who participates
against boys in wrestling is a winner in my eyes. This is an aggressive,
full-contact sport, much like a human chess game, where skill, agility,
motivation and perseverance determine the outcome. It builds
self-esteem and promotes a "can-do" attitude. As a scrawny sophomore at Rosemead High
School in 1968, I wrestled my way to the league championship by pinning four
opposing varsity team captains, all of them seniors who towered over my
5-foot, 2-inch frame. What is the lesson here? Size and brute strength
do not matter.

Boys have been conditioned to think of girls as the weaker sex, which
makes them overconfident. When the girl gets the upper hand, they panic and
then resort to primitive brute strength. Brain will always win over muscle.
In order to win, you have to fight by reflex, have a counter for every
move the opponent makes and have a burning desire to win. You have to invent
techniques that fit your style. Although the girls will not win every
match, the lessons learned on the mats will prepare them later in life for the
competitive battles in the business arena.

Henry Sakaida

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Remiticado sets record

January 19, 2004

Remiticado sets record: Jill Remiticado set a Hawai'i state weightlifting record in the 58-kilogram (127-pound) weight class at the Honolulu Open Weightlifting Championships at the Nu'uanu YMCA on Jan. 10.

Remiticado, 22, lifted 75 kilograms (165 pounds) in the clean and jerk to surpass the record set by Nicola Nakama on March 21, 1998.

She lifted 50 kilograms (110 pounds) in the snatch for a total of 125 kilograms (275).

Remiticado, a former wrestling champion at Pacific University in Oregon, is a girls wrestling assistant coach at Iolani.