News Page

Don’t mess with Vanessa

Thursday, April 14, 2005

By Damon Poeter

Gilroy - It’s not every day that a wrestler gets to make history. It’s definitely not every day that a wrestler pins her opponent while making history.

Vanessa Gutierrez got to do both when she took part in the first-ever Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic Dual Meet featuring a girls’ wrestling bracket. The Gilroy High senior, ranked No. 6 nationally at 165+ pounds, pinned Katy Klammer of Lake Highlands High at the 2:18-minute mark to score six points for Team U.S.A. at its April 9 meet with the Texas All-Stars in South Grand Prairie, Texas.

Gutierrez, wrestling at 185 pounds, was one of three California wrestlers on the 10-girl Team U.S.A. roster, which included Lily Eagle Dorman Colby of Berkeley High and Shelby Brown of Seaside High of Monterey. Colby also pinned her Texas opponent, while Brown lost on points to hers.

The team was coached by Kent Bailo, a Michigan-based coach and referee, who started the United States Girls Wrestling Association (USGWA) in 1998.

“It was awesome,” said Gutierrez, who went 21-0 in state competition against girls her senior season, 5-1 at the junior varsity level against boys and finished third at the TCAL JV championships in the 191-pound class. “It was a great experience. I got to meet three Olympic gold medalists.”

Attending the meet were U.S. wrestling gold medalists Cael Sanderson (Athens), Brandon Slay (Sydney) and Kendall Cross (Atlanta).

Gutierrez also made her second trip in as many years to the USGWA Girls’ National Tournament in Michigan on March 19. She placed 5th, competing against much heavier girls - the USGWA format places all wrestlers above 165 pounds in a heavyweight division.

“She wrestled a 237-pound girl who was like a giant,” said her father, Gabriel Gutierrez, who attended the Nationals. “My daughter ended up pinning her.”

Fresh off the trip to Texas, Gutierrez is back with her club team, the Gilroy Hawks, guided by Gilroy High head wrestling coach Armando Gonzalez. The Hawks travel to Lemoore for an open tournament this weekend.

College also looms for Gutierrez. She is currently entertaining scholarship offers from Menlo College in Atherton and Lassen Community College in Susanville. Gutierrez plans to study criminal justice and would like to work for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

How would she feel taking down a suspect, given her obvious skills?

“No problem,” said the wrestler.

---------------------------------------------

Caitlyn busy Chase-ing her dreams

April 18, 2005

BY TINA AKOURIS STAFF REPORTER

She fits in like one of the guys, so much so that it is unclear if being a female on an all-male team is troublesome to anyone else, opponents included.

It's an odd problem for a female athlete to wrestle with these days -- no pun intended.

With female athletes playing male-dominated sports like hockey and football, Glenbard North junior Caitlyn Chase has made a name for herself in wrestling. On the heels of the 2004 Athens Olympics, where women's wrestling debuted, Chase became the first girl in Illinois history to qualify for the state individual meet in February.

"She comes in and works like we do, and we're all brothers, so she's like our sister,'' junior John Malizzio said. "She is very comfortable with herself. She's intense, and she can bust her butt [in practice].''

Chase's road in the individual tournament started when she won a regional title over Ricky Krauze of Wheaton-Warrenville South and then placed second in the sectional to Hinsdale Central's Matt Tolbert. But she didn't really wow wrestling fans until her bout in the Class AA dual-team tournament, where her match in the championship round was something for the history books.

State champ gets a scare

"She wrestled the state champion [Sandburg's Mike McAuliffe] and threw him on his back, but the match was stopped because of blood,'' Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn said. "But if it wasn't, who knows?''

Chase ended up losing to McAuliffe 9-6.

Glenbard North was winning the dual 19-17 when Chase's match started, but after McAuliffe won, Sandburg took a 20-19 lead. Glenbard North led again on a major decision in the next match, but Sandburg tied it at 23 and then won its final match at 125 pounds for the dual-team title, 26-23.

"I wouldn't say it was just my match [that was the difference],'' Chase said. "I wasn't supposed to win.''

But she didn't want to brag about those other accomplishments from this season. Instead, she'd rather shun the publicity and defer credit to her teammates.

"I went at 103 [pounds] this year, and my goal was to qualify for state,'' Chase said. "Without those guys, I don't know what I'd do.''

Chase gives a shout- out on her Web site (www.caitlynscorner.com) to her six teammates who went Downstate with her for the AA individual tournament -- Jon Ranck (125), Vince Ramos (130), Bryan O'Connor (135), Jon Isacson (140), Tony Dieppa (160) and Matt Smith (171).

At the individual state meet, Chase let nerves get to her and lost her first match. But that's not typical of the way she competes.

Chase may be a petite 103-pound blond, but she's just as aggressive as the guys. And she faces her share of discrimination because she is a female wrestler on an all-male team. She won't get into what exactly that discrimination is, but Chase is able to block it out and just do her job on the mat.

"People ask about it,'' Malizzio said. "But over time, people get used to it. She's just like anybody else.''

If you go on Chase's Web page, you see a picture of a smiling teenage girl who doesn't fit the image of a tomboy. And you wonder how she got interested in wrestling, of all things.

"I was 10 years old, and I was always a tomboy,'' Chase said. "I like sports, but nothing challenged me to where I could keep learning. I did swimming and football, but wrestling was challenging.''

Offseason no time for rest

Now that the high school wrestling season has been over for a while, Chase is jet-setting to Europe and other parts of this country for tournaments. She also is using her Web page to try to get sponsorships; she has to pay her travel and training expenses, and those can get pricey. If she wants to make it to the Olympics someday, which she undoubtedly does, Chase is going to need some cash.

So far this offseason, Chase placed third at the senior women's open in Sweden, and she competed at the Medved International in Belarus.

Chase also is training with two clubs -- Mat Rats at Glenbard North and another, Martinez, at Montini. She also runs cross-country in the fall to maintain weight.

But Chase really wants to promote women's wrestling, and she sees herself as the perfect vehicle to do so. Women's wrestling may have gotten a big stage in Athens, but Chase is a realist when she says the sport won't take off with her generation. It will be the girls now in grade school who will be the beneficiaries of a women's wrestling boom -- if there ever is one in this country.

"Women's wrestling is more accepted in Europe because they've been doing it for so long,'' Chase said. "We're slow [in the U.S.] in that process, but everybody has to be open to the idea of women's wrestling. Times are changing.''

--------------------------------------------------------

Kristie Marano Finds a Way to Win

By Katie Downing

The US can count on a medal whenever Kristie Marano goes to a world championship competition. She has earned a total of six world championship medals over the course of her career to date. Anyone who is involved in women’s wrestling knows Kristie’s name. She is only a year older than I am, but she was already considered a veteran of the sport by the time I began to climb the senior ranks. The thing many people may not know about Kristie Marano is that she can always be counted on to come up with any movie line from Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, or Jim Carrey. Seriously, if you say a quote from just about any funny movie, Kristie won’t miss a beat to give you the next ten lines. Another list you can add to Kristie’s impressive stat record is a complete repertoire of Backstreet Boys songs. That’s right, folks, the embarrassing dirt comes out here! I have personally witnessed more than one Backstreet Boys performance with Kristie on lead vocals, and Lauren Wolfe singing her monotone backup part. Kristie’s sense of humor is as much a part of her as wrestling and her competitive drive to win.

Wrestling, New York, and family are completely inseparable with Kristie. She grew up in Albany, New York, is an avid Mets and Giants fan, wrestles for the New York Athletic Club, coached New York girls at Fargo, and she even won her world championships gold medal at home in Madison Square Garden. All the while, her family was there. Anyone who has ever wrestled Kristie has probably heard her daughter, Kayla, screaming her head off for her mom during your match. And if you’ve been around wrestling for a while, you’ve probably seen her parents and brothers at tournaments as well.

Kristie’s dad and brothers have contributed to her wrestling and her competitive nature her whole life. One time Kristie’s dad got tired of his kids arguing over who could use the car for the night, so he had them wrestle on the front lawn for the keys to the car. Kristie won. Kristie’s dad, Conrad, has always been full-time dad and full-time coach. He had a background in judo before Kristie was born, and knew the local judo sensei well. Conrad got Kristie to roll around with him on the judo mats when she was four, and it has been a part of her life ever since then.

During the week, Kristie’s evenings were spent in dojos or practice rooms, and her weekends were spent competing at judo tournaments or cheering for her brothers in pee-wee wrestling tournaments. Her dad even talked her into competing in one or two pee-wee tournaments. Kristie always focused on competitions. That’s what sport is all about for her. Kristie loves to compete, whether it’s for her parent’s car keys or in one sport or another. Training and competition are one and the same to Kristie. Practices are personal competitions to get her ready for tournaments. Small tournaments are competitions to get her ready for the most important events.

Kristie and her dad really believe in transitions and adapting when it comes to training. By her junior year in high school, Kristie was playing basketball as well as judo. She and her dad decided that basketball wasn’t really helping her judo at all. The two sports did not contribute or transition to one another well. Kristie decided to switch to wrestling as a form of cross-training for her judo. Kristie’s high school wrestling coach told her she had to make a total commitment to wrestling. She couldn’t just cross train. She had to be a dedicated member of the team, and had to compete for her team as well. That’s when Kristie became a wrestler as well as a judoka.

At that time, most of the girls wrestling on boys’ high school teams had to fight for their right to join the team, and had to earn the respect of their coaches and teammates over time. Kristie had been around wrestling so long that her coaches and teammates already knew what kind of competitor she was. They immediately supported her as a part of the team.

At first, Kristie wrestled to supplement her judo. She used as much judo in wrestling practices and competitions as she could, and took bits and pieces of wrestling over to judo practices and competitions. This is how Kristie began to develop ways to make her opponents wrestle her style and to wrestle her kind of match. That is what Kristie is known for now-she makes her opponents wrestle where she’s strongest and has the most success. Kristie’s dad watched her practices in both judo and wrestling, and spent many hours after practices one-on-one with her to make adjustments that best fit her style in both sports. With such a focus on transitions, Kristie and her dad shaped her style that started when she was four. Kristie took all of the skills from judo and found a way to make them work in wrestling. When she learned new things in wrestling, she found a way to make them work in judo. When you combine Kristie’s attitude to ‘find a way to make it work’ with competition, her attitude and style become ‘find a way to win.’ When Kristie has to wrestle with a bum knee, or wrestles someone bigger, stronger, faster, or more flexible than she is, she simply finds a way to win. She adapts to the situation and finds a way to win.

----------------------------------------------------------

More down with Downing

-------------------------------------------------

17 wrestlers medal

Times Herald 4/17/05

Seventeen girls wrestlers from Springstowne Middle School took home medals in the inaugural California Girls Middle School State Wrestling Championships at Vallejo High on Saturday.
Mary Jane Fernandez won the gold medal at 94 pounds, and Ariana Reyes took first in the 105-pound division. Johanna Knight won the silver medal at 123 pounds for the Lady Wildcats.

Christine Alcantara of Franklin Middle School - the only Vallejo representative not from Springstowne - took third place in the 100-pound weight class.

Other third-place finishers were Brenda Luke (80 pounds) and Danielle Alojado (105), both from Springstowne. The Lady Wildcats also finished second in the overall team standings.

Springstowne's Dimitrius Berry medaled at the boys' California Junior High Championships in Selma, CA on March 23.

Berry, an eighth grader, took bronze to cap a 20-2 year.

---------------------------------------------------------

Gonzalez earns state freestyle title

By Times-Herald Staff

Vallejo High School freshman and Vallejo PAL wrestler Monica Gonzalez earned first place at the Junior Girls State Freestyle Championships in Lemoore on Saturday.
Wrestling in the in 160-pound division, Gonzalez qualified for the Junior Girls National Championships in Fargo, N.D. The top three finishers in each weight class are invited to compete at the national event.

Just a week earlier, Gonzalez placed third at the Cadet Fila National Championships in the 165-pound division in San Diego on April 9.

Concluding her first season with the Apaches, Gonzalez earned ninth place at 165 pounds in the United States Girls Wrestling Association national championships in Lake Orion, Mich. on March 20.

She also took second place in the state tournament in the 173-pound bracket on Jan. 29.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Getchells keep family wrestling tradition alive

BY DUANE NORBY
Sidney Herald 4/17/05

duane norby | sidney herald Tori Getchell displays second-place medal and quick-pin trophy won from an AAU tournament held in Williston this season.

A trio of brothers and sisters are in competition this weekend at the State AAU wrestling meet for Sidney's wrestling club. Included in this cast of wrestlers are Dace and Shaylyne Fisher and J.J., Mercedes and Chris Klein. Wrestling runs in the family for these five young athletes as the two Fishers and three Kleins call themselves cousins.

However, for the final brother-sister team of Tori Getchell and brother Trevor, wrestling is somewhat more of a family tradition. Relatives to legendary Sidney wrestling families of the Prevosts and Melbys, wrestling is more than a sport - it's in the blood.

Wrestling at 215 pounds for Sidney High School this past season, Trevor fought his way to a divisional championship as well as fifth-place state finish. He is also competing at this weight in the Elite division this weekend at the State AAU tournament. Ten-year old sister Tori wrestled her way to a second-place finish this season at a tournament in Williston and pinned an opponent at that tournament in seven seconds to claim the quick pin trophy from her division. She is in competition in the 95-pound Midget division this weekend.

Trevor, though, is more than just a teammate to little sister Tori. Helping coach Sidney's AAU program, he's an important part of Tori's young wrestling career. When asked whether he gets nervous watching his little sister going up against boys, Trevor responded confidently to Tori's abilities.

"Since my little brother decided not to wrestle this year, I guess I kind of think of her as a boy. I know she can handle it because she's tough," Trevor said. "I tell her before every match to stay in her stance, low and balanced. She just needs to work on being a little more aggressive."

And tough she is. At an early age she has learned to accept pain as just part of the sport. "In practice sometimes I'll get the wind knocked out of me," Tori said. "The first few times it kind of hurt, but you get used to it."

Wrestling against boys, to a lot of girls, can be somewhat intimidating. However, wrestling with her younger brother Tate at home and knowing your moves, according to Tori, has helped her see her male counterparts as 'just another opponent.'

"I like to use the head and arm takedown. It works for me quite a bit," Tori said. "I've only wrestled one girl and it's not much different than wrestling against boys. It's more fun, though, when I beat a boy because wrestling is supposed to be a boys' sport. I really like the feeling of winning because it makes everybody happy - especially my brother."

Although Tori remembers one bad instance following a match victory over a boy, most of her opponents have treated her with respect and showed good sportsmanship. "One boy kind of got mad at me when I told him good job after a match, but most tell me good job back."

Although Tori is uncertain whether or not she wants to compete at the high school level someday, the certainty of her and girls like her competing in the sport is changing the face of wrestling.

--------------------------------------------------------

ALL-GREATER HOUSTON WRESTLING

Houston Chronicle 4/17/05

Girls wrestler of the year

Hailey Hale.

• Name: Hailey Hale.
• School: Cinco Ranch.
• Class: Senior.
• Notable: Hale, who did not advance beyond district competition in 2004, finished second at regionals before winning the state title with a 4-0 record. Her 7-3 championship final over El Paso Hanks' Jenny Franco represented a pinnacle in opportunistic strategy to cap Hale's high school wrestling career.
Hale's inspiration to win state arrived after a bi-district semifinal victory over 2004 110-pound state finalist Laurie Ashby of Katy Taylor.

• Quotable: "I didn't want her to think she was beaten by a nobody. I had to do well at state. When I turned and pinned Laurie at district, it was completely a make-or-break situation for me to get to the regional tournament."
—Hailey Hale

Girls
Lightweight
Maria Sala Lee

102-pound fourth-place state finisher.

Sara Cevallos Mayde Creek

119-pound fifth-place state finisher.

Laura Hamilton Katy Taylor

110-pound state placer who earned 44 consecutive victories and 30 straight pins to open the season.

Laura Ashby Katy Taylor

119-pound wrestler who finished third in District 22 behind state champion Hale and Cevallos.

Middleweight
Lindsey Brooks Klein

148-pound state champion with record of 44-1.

Tiffany Sanders Friendswood

128-pound, state third-place medalist.

Jessica Allen Klein

128-pound, fourth-place state finisher.

Karen Howe Woodlands

138-pound, fourth-place state finisher and nationally ranked.

Heavyweight
Ashley Weber Katy

165-pound, state third-place medalist and nationally ranked.

Kaccee Ravenberg Katy

185-pound, state third-place medalist.

Kiki Williams Katy

215-pound, state third-place medalist who helped her team to a fifth-place finish in Austin.

Madeline Jones Katy Taylor