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Athlete of the Week--Katherine Fulp-Allen
2/4/04
Katherine Fulp-Allen, a sophomore at Half Moon Bay High School and an El Granada resident, won the Region 3 Girls Wrestling Tournament Saturday. She qualified for this weekend's state tournament.
The athlete of the week is entitled to a $20 gift certificate for merchandise at Coastside Sports
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By J.P. HOORNSTRA, Times-Herald sports writer 2/6/04
Jesse Bethel's Maribeth Grim applies the pressure to Vallejo High's Anita Xiong prior to pinning her during a recent match at Vallejo High School. Grim begins defense of her state championship today at Vallejo. Photo: Mike Jory/Times-Herald |
Less than 24 hours before defending her state title, the reigning girls wrestling champion in the 100-pound weight class was late for practice.
"You gotta make weight tomorrow," head coach Mike Sariano said, as Maribeth Grim walked in to Bethel High School's small, padded practice room, and stepped onto a digital scale in the corner.
The readout showed 101.8 pounds, exactly 1.8 pounds more than she must weigh by 11 a.m. this morning, a manageable margin by wrestling standards.
"Ah, you're good," Sariano said.
But the pressure is beginning to seep into Grim's head. Not the singular pressure of making weight - that's nothing new to the fourth-year grappler - but the combined pressure of making grades, making money and making weight on a daily basis.
A year ago, Grim was just a trivia answer: the first Jaguar individual or team to win a state championship.
This year, she's a high school senior trying to get into a four-year university, a receptionist at Avery Greene Honda, and, oh yeah, a defending state wrestling champ.
On the verge of the 2004 championships, Grim said that wrestling isn't quite the same priority it was last year.
"I feel like I don't give my school, my job, my wrestling - either of them my all," Grim said. "When I'm at school I'm thinking about wrestling, but I have to hurry up and get to work," she explained. "When I'm at work, I'm already tired, but I have to go to wrestling practice next.
"Then I come to wrestling, my coach is like, 'Hurry up, hurry up.' I'm like, 'Ohhh I just got off work, I'm sorta tired.' "
So far, it hasn't exactly showed. She's 15-2 against female opponents in 2004, but the most recent loss - at the Region II semifinals last Saturday - came as somewhat of a surprise. Mercedes Creason of Tulare Union, who is ranked seventh in the 103-pound class, dropped weight to defeat Grim, ranked second in the 98-pound class.
Grim settled for third in the tournament, but insists it wasn't a setback. She accomplished her goal of a top-five finish, high enough to qualify for the state tournament.
"I didn't think that I'm not going to be state champ (because Creason) beat me," Grim said. "It was more like, 'Okay, now we got tougher girls here.' "
That's not the same mentality Grim had last year, and she knows it.
"Last year I was more into it. It was my goal," she said. "I told myself, I'm going to be state champ this year. I didn't think anything can stop me. I chose not to work, even though I was going to be broke for the next six months."
Grim won the state title by beating Katherine Fulp-Allen of Half Moon Bay in a 4-0 decision last Jan. 31.
She continued to wrestle against male competition through March. Then the state champion opted to work full-time rather than wrestle during the off-season; Grim's first competitive tournament since the end of last year came just last month at Vintage High School.
Since she wasn't about to be flat broke again this year, she kept the job, five days a week, four hours a day. Now she sings a different song, a more humble one, about this season.
"I never thought that I was the best," she said. "You gotta remember there's always somebody working harder than you."
Try telling that to Sariano, who has coached Grim since she placed second in the state as a sophomore, her first year as a high school wrestler.
"When she's in practice, she works hard and she wants to learn as much as she can," he said. "She's been perfecting or getting better at the positions that she's weaker at."
She's even talking about wrestling next year in college. Not bad for someone who thinks that, without the sport, she would be "out running the streets."
"I don't have any school spirit," Grim confessed. "This is the only thing I do that's in the school."
Grim doesn't like wrestling enough, however, to take her game as far east as the University of Missouri, which has contacted her about it. She has, however, considered writing the UC Davis coach to convince him to start a women's squad.
Or if UC Berkeley had a team, she said, "oh hell yeah, I would be wrestling."
But for now, she's planning on going to either Long Beach State, Sacramento State or San Francisco State, where she'd have to give up the sport that made her a trivia answer.
And, at least for one year, a champion.
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New Ulm teen seeks spot on Olympic wrestling team
Ali Bernard has pinned some guys to the mat and now seeks a spot on the first U.S. Olympic women's wrestling team.
BY SEAN JENSEN
Pioneer Press 2/8/04
The details don't matter much to Ali Bernard.
The New Ulm High School senior just knows that she has a broken right hand, that she's struggling to write with her left hand and that she won't be able to wrestle for the next four to six weeks.
"It kind of hit me lately that I won't be able to do very much for a while," said Bernard, 17.
Yet a coach, a teammate and her mother provide the particulars that elevate the story of her broken hand to a legend.
One of a handful of female high school wrestlers in Minnesota, Bernard heard a crack in the first period of a match Jan. 29. She dismissed the noise and proceeded to pin her male opponent.
Two days later, with her hand badly swollen, Bernard went to the doctor and learned of the break.
"That's a testament to how tough she is," said Dan Kurth, an assistant wrestling coach at New Ulm.
That break, however, sets her back in her outside hopes of representing the United States at the Olympic debut of women's wrestling this summer in Athens, Greece. She must either win one of three regional qualifiers, from late March to late April, or finish in the top eight at the U.S. Nationals April 8-10 in Las Vegas. There's also a possibility she could petition for a spot in the Olympic trials based on her injury.
As if that's not enough of a challenge, Bernard also must drop weight to compete at 158.5 pounds, the highest women's weight at the Olympics.
"I'll give it a try," Bernard said, "but there are a lot of older women who have been training for a long time. If not this year, though, hopefully 2008."
But just as she showed in her last match, Bernard is a gritty competitor who doesn't easily give in. After dominating at last year's junior national championship, Bernard lost her opening match at the Junior World Freestyle Wrestling Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, in late July 2003. She rebounded, though, and dominated Maya Hristova of Bulgaria 14-7 in the championship match.
Bernard doesn't surrender this information easily, acting as if she rather would do homework than talk to a reporter about her accomplishments.
"She always says she does her talking on the mat," said Sue Bernard, Ali's mother. "She's very low-key about it."
That's because for all that she has done, Bernard is humbled during the school year, when she wrestles against male counterparts. A four-time varsity letter-winner Bernard was 7-22 in her first three seasons, although she finished 8-11 this season.
Kurth said there's a catch; Bernard competed this year at 160 and 171 pounds.
"There's a lot of horsepower at those weight classes," Kurth said. "But that's phenomenal for her to be that successful in those weight classes. If she was in one of the smaller weight classes, I think she would be as competitive as all the other boys."
That fact doesn't lessen or pacify the displeasure of some parents, coaches and wrestlers.
"The only thing that we run into that's really frustrating is, there are schools that have policies where girls can't wrestle boys," Kurth said. "A lot of schools will hide behind that and not wrestle her. It's an emotional topic."
But Bernard said she relishes the challenge of competing against her male counterparts.
"They have a lot more strength then me," she said, "but it keeps me in shape and makes me better."
And when she beats one?
"They just stand there like, 'I wasn't pinned,' but obviously they were," she said.
Teammate Travis Aufderheide said Bernard is respected on the team because of her work ethic and toughness.
"The way we look at it, all hard workers are welcome," he said. "I think it's pretty cool that she's wrestling on our team."
If she gets her way, Bernard's next team will be of the national variety, on a business trip to the birthplace of wrestling and the Olympics. She and a couple of other high school students are vying for the four coveted spots on the first women's Olympic wrestling team, but they all have outside chances against more experienced peers.
"She's going to give it her best shot," Sue Bernard said. "She's not one to make predictions. But if Ali goes out, she's going to go out to do her best and try to win and see what happens."
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2/8/2004
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
The gold-medal finals action was exciting and important at the Dave Schultz Memorial International Championships, held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 7-8.
The 120 kg/264.5 pound division in Greco-Roman featured a pair of gold medalists: 2000 Olympic and 2001 World champion Rulon Gardner (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) and 2002 World Champion Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army).
Gardner won this showdown, a 2-1 overtime referee’s decision. All three points in the bout were scored off the clinch position. Byers scored the first point, controlling the action and forcing Gardner to release his grip. On the two other clinches, Gardner scored one-point takedowns from the locked-up position. The deciding second point for Gardner came at the beginning of the overtime period.
Gardner and Byers are expected to battle for supremacy in their divisions, right up through the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling in Indianapolis, Ind., May 21-23.
Competition was held in all three international wrestling styles. The Outstanding Wrestlers of the tournament were Patricia Miranda (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC) in women’s freestyle wrestling, Joe Heskett (San Luis Obispo, Calif./Gator WC) in men’s freestyle wrestling and Mukesh Katri of India in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling.
Miranda, a 2003 World silver medalist, scored three clean takedowns to defeat 2002 World champion Brigitte Wagner of Germany, 3-1. Miranda and Wagner have met many times before, and both are top Olympic hopefuls.
Heskett, a young talent who is coming on during the Olympic year, took down past U.S. Nationals champion Ramico Blackmon (Colorado Springs, Colo./Team Excel) right to his back and secured a pin in just 2:50 in the finals.
Katri jumped to a 5-0 lead over Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and engaged in a wide-open scoring bout, ultimately winning the finals match, 9-6.
The competition saw the return to action of 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Garrett Lowney (Appleton, Wis./Minnesota Storm) in Greco-Roman at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. Lowney was defeated in the championship finals by Genadiy Chhaidze of Kyrgyzstan, 3-1 in overtime. Lowney had defeated Chhaidze during the 2000 Olympic Games. It was the first tournament for Lowney since the 2003 World Team Trials, and Lowney is returning from an injury that threatened his career.
In men’s freestyle, Stephen Abas (Fresno, Calif./Sunkist Kids), who is No. 1 in his division within the United States, controlled Jeremy Hunter (Champaign, Ill./New York AC), 4-0 at 55 kg/119 lbs. Abas led 1-0 at the break, and added three more points on takedowns and a turn in the second period. Abas has earned a spot on the last three U.S. World teams.
At 60 kg/132 lbs., Danny Felix (Charlottesville, Va./Sunkist Kids) scored a three-point throw from the overtime clinch to defeat Ryan Lewis (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm), 3-1 at 6:06.
In an battle of young talents, Eric Larkin (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids) used an explosive mat offense late in the match to come from behind and beat T.J. Williams (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC), 11-4. Williams, slick on his feet, led 4-2 early in the second period. Larkin tied it up on a takedown and an ankle lace at 4-4, then opened the scoring, scoring seven more points on the mat with a variety of leg turns and gut wrenches.
Lee Fullhart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) controlled the action to defeat 2001 World silver medalist Brandon Eggum (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm), 6-1 at 84 kg/185 lbs.
2002 U.S. World Team member Tim Hartung (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm) scored two takedowns off the clinch position to edge Dean Morrison (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC), 2-0 in overtime at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.
Steven Mocco (N. Bergen, N.J./New York AC) countered a throw attempt from the clinch position and quickly pinned 1995 World silver medalist Sven Thiele of Germany at 3:08 at the 120 kg/264.5 lbs. division.
In women’s freestyle, two-time women’s World silver medalist Tina George (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) defeated past World medalist Jen Ryz of Canada, 3-1 at at 55 kg/121 lb. George scored all of her points on first period turns from the mat, and held off Ryz in the second frame.
Other U.S. individual champions in the women’s event included Erin Tomeo (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) at 59 kg/130 lbs. and Kristie Marano (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 63 kg/138.75 lbs.
Tomeo defeated veteran Lauren Lamb (Farmington, N.Y./Michigan WC), 7-0. Marano, a two-time World champion, received the gold medal by injury default when Norway’s Lene Aanes could not compete. Aanes, a 2002 World bronze medalist, was injured in her semifinal victory.
International athletes winning gold medals in women’s freestyle were Carol Huyhn of Canada at 51 kg/112.25 lbs., Shannon Samler of Canada at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. and Anita Schaetzle of Germany at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.
Huyhn defeated Melina Hutchison (Anchorage, Alaska) 3-1 in the finals. Samler scored an impressive 10-0 technical fall over Kelly Branham (Apache Junction, Ariz./Missouri Valley) in the gold-medal match. Schaetzle edged Stephany Lee (Honolulu, Hawaii/Missouri Valley) in the finals, 7-6.
In men’s Greco-Roman, in his first tournament as a U.S. citizen, Faruk Sahin (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) won the 66 kg/145.5 lbs. finals, defeating Gurbinder Singh of India, 9-0. Sahin led 5-0 at the mid break, and executing a number of exciting lifts during the match.
Two-time World Greco-Roman fifth place finisher Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) captured the at 84 kg/185 lbs. title with a 3-1 overtime win over Keith Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army). Sieracki scored the first point, but Vering scored a point from the clinch in overtime, then turned Sieracki with a gutwrench for the win.
In a fierce battle at 60 kg/132 lbs., Glenn Nieradka (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) emerged with a 3-3 overtime referee’s decision over Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC). Warren jumped to a 3-0 lead, but Nieradka slowly closed the gap, tying the bout then winning the decision.
Darryl Christian (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) received the 74 kg/163 lbs. gold medal by injury default over two-time Greco-Roman World Team member T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC). Dantzler was injured in his semifinal win over Katsuhiko Nagata of Japan and could not wrestle in the finals.
There are 288 entries this year, including 102 men freestyle wrestlers, 95 men Greco-Roman wrestlers, and 91 women freestyle wrestlers.
The quality of the competition is also high. The field included five past World or Olympic champions, and a total of 20 past World or Olympic medalists.
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Houston Lee High School, Houston, Texas
Grappling with success / Lee wrestlers aiming for solid showing at meet
The 2003-04 season has been filled with its share of concussions,
broken noses and assorted bumps and bruises, but the Lee girls wrestling team
has remained among the best squads in Texas.
Ranked No. 7 in the state recently by the Texas USA Wrestling, the
Generals have been more than competitive as they eye the District 25-5A meet on
Saturday at Westside High School. Weigh-ins will take place at 7:30
a.m., with matches to get under way at 9 a.m.
The worst moment of the season was when head coach John Vogt took a
short-handed four-member squad to the Bryan Invitational and the
Generals failed to make the top 10. But Lee has been consistent in its other
tournaments, placing third at the Capital City Classic in Austin,
fourth at the Katy Invitational and seven out of 25 teams in Frisco.
"It seems like we've traveled all over the state. We went to Austin,
Dallas and Bryan," Vogt said. "We've concentrated on wrestling teams from the
different regions, instead of seeing the same local teams every week."
Lee has a few wrestlers who are capable of holding their own against
anyone in the state.
Senior Jade Prudent has been ranked fourth in Texas in the 138- pound
division. Prudent has bounced back and forth among several weight
classes. A state qualifier last year at 119 pounds, she was second at Bryan at 128
pounds and second at Frisco at 138.
With a 20-4 record, Vogt considers Prudent to be one of the finest
wrestlers in school history.
"This is Jade's third year on the team," Vogt said. "She went to state
last year. Sometimes, you have to go once or twice to get comfortable. She
should make a run at a medal (at state)."
Prudent is one of several Lee wrestlers to represent Team Texas at the
National Freestyle Championships last year in Fargo, N.D.
Another Team Texas member is senior Carmen Ramos. Ramos is ranked fifth
in the state at 110 pounds with a 20-5 record. She was fourth in her
division at Frisco.
Unlike Prudent, Ramos just missed qualifying for state last season. She
was third at regionals.
"That should motivate Carmen," Vogt said. "She felt like she deserved
to go to state last year. She's really eager to get there and show she's one
of the best wrestlers in Texas."
The Generals have several other wrestlers who have turned in solid
results.
Junior Maria Salas, a state qualifier at 95 pounds last year, has moved
to 102 pounds and done quite well. Salas won the Austin and Cypress Ridge
titles.
"Maria's not very big, but she's really strong," Vogt said.
Senior Rosa Calderon, who qualified for state at 128 pounds, is
wrestling at 138 pounds. She has won several medals this year.
"Rosa is one of our veterans," Vogt said. "She's got a great shot at
getting back (to state)."
Sophomore Roxy Serpas and senior Sanja Zilic, a volleyball standout,
are experienced wrestlers. Serpas will wrestle at 148 pounds, while Zilic
is at 165 pounds.
First-year wrestlers who have stepped into the line-up include
sophomore Candy Rivera at 95 pounds, junior Astrid Martinez at 119 and Jasly
Lemus at 185.
The Generals will try to defend their title at the Region IV meet Feb.
13-14 at the Blossom Center in San Antonio. They have placed in the top three
at regionals the past three seasons.
Lee also hopes to take a formidable contingent to the University
Interscholastic League State Wrestling Championships Feb. 27-28 at the
Austin Convention Center.
Vogt's first three league teams did well at state. The first two years,
the Generals finished 10th. Last year, they slipped to 11th.
"We were a little disappointed not to be in the top 10," Vogt said.
"We've gotten the program the point where we expect to be there every year."
Despite a season filled with injuries, Vogt believes the Generals to be
a factor.
"We feel like we've got a few kids who can win some matches (at
state)," Vogt said. "That's what we plan to do."
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