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Levitt Tells Why She Hopes More Girls Will Give The Sport A Chance

By Susan Levitt Wrestling USA 10/15/05

As women's wrestling gains momentum (it became an Olympic event), Susan Levitt tells PARADE magazine why
she hopes more girls will give the sport a chance.

"At first, everyone thought I was out there just to be with the boys," Levitt says. "But I proved I was serious. I love wrestling because I'm competitive." Her love of wrestling might have something to do with her pedigree. She tells PARADE that her older brother was an All-American wrestler and her dad became a wrestling zealot and began an elementary league. "My sister and I were the only girls on the team. When I was seven, I beat every boy in the league in my weight class."
Levitt began wrestling again in high school, where she was the only girl on a team full of state champions. "By then, the boys were all stronger. I have a lot of muscle, but the boys are naturally faster. In practice, I'd have to push myself as hard as I could just to keep up."
"A lot of guys have refused to wrestle me, because they're afraid of losing," she says. "That's why I'm hoping more girls will come out for wrestling, so we don't have to be matched with guys. Its actually a lot harder to wrestle other girls, because we're! flexible and can do lots of moves guys can't."

Levitt enjoys wrestling because it is a, team sport, yet you can compete individually. And it's a great workout. "People are shocked when I tell them I wrestle, because I'm so girly: I wear makeup, have long hair and curves. It shows that you don't have to be a tomboy or weird. You can just be a regular girl who wants to wrestle."

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ALL GROWN UP

Maine's Rix Ready To Show She's More Than Daddy's Girl

By Kelly Finn, W.I.N. Staff Writer 8/12/05

For most young athletes, their first coach is also their parent. Be it mom or dad, that is where a child learns how to throw a ball or catch a pass. And in the case of Maine wrestler Deanna Rix, her father was the one who first taught her to wrestle.
Rix, named All-American and Girl’s High School Wrestler of the Year by Asics, officially closed out her high school career when the 18-year-old earned the Asics Vaughn USAW Fargo Junior National championship, July 30, in Fargo, N.D.
And her father, Matt, was matside … just as he did when he first started coaching his daughter as a four-year-old beginner back in Eliot, Maine.
“It’s tough to separate sometimes from dad to coach,” Matt said shortly after Deanna scored a 10-0 technical fall over Bethany Harris of California in the 128-pound championship match. “We kind of made a pact together that when we’re in the room it’s coach and out here it’s coach.

“She has a hard time sometimes when I’m trying to coach her and trying to correct her on some things. I’m trying to motivate her and she sometimes can’t separate that from thinking I’m yelling at her. And I tell her, ‘I’m not yelling at you, I’m trying to motivate you. I’m trying to tell you what you’re doing wrong.’”
Although it can get difficult, their close father/daughter relationship makes their coach/wrestler relationship a good match.
“It helps me out a lot because we can go over moves at home if I don’t understand stuff,” Deanna said. “But it does get tough. He’s always pushing me as hard as I can. I prefer having him over somebody else being my coach.”
With her father serving as the head coach of the boys’ wrestling team at Marshwood High School, Deanna also made a name for herself in boys’ wrestling as well.
She is a two-time state freestyle champion in the boys division and won two out of three matches in Greco-Roman before an arm injury forced her to withdraw.
But it was a match last spring that really made people notice around the country as she placed second in the 2005 Maine boys’ state tournament at 130 pounds, losing in double overtime to Shane Leadbetter, who she had beaten twice before. Leadbetter earned the state title when he scored an escape with four seconds remaining in the overtime tie-breaker.
“It was exciting. I was upset because I lost, but second place was definitely good,”Deanna said. “I’d rather wrestle against guys. It’s more fun beating them.”
“This kid she wrestled, other than his mother and maybe his coach cheering for him, most were pulling for Deanna,” Matt said. “I was told it was the most publicized match in state history in Maine. It was phenomenal.”
(You can read the rest of this article by subscribing to W.I.N. Magazine. Either contact our office at 1-888-305-0606 or subscribe through this website by selecting the “Subscribe” section on our front page.)

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Athlete of the Week wrests title from world champion

By Beau Dure, USATODAY.com 10/4/05

Japanese wrestler Kyoko Hamaguchi has won five world titles. Coming into the 158.5-pound final against Hamaguchi in Budapest, Iris Smith had none.

Iris Smith's perseverance paid off with her first world title. By Bela Szandelszky, AP

Smith had only been to the World Championships once before — in 2000. She earned a spot again in 2001 but missed the tournament to attend basic training in the Army, her USA Wrestling bio says. Now a sergeant in the Army, she has continued to wrestle and has a couple of international wins.

None bigger than this.

Smith stunned Hamaguchi with a three-point takedown in the first period and held on to win the period 3-1. She took the lead in the second period with a one-point move and was threatening to close out the match before Hamaguch fought back with a point to win the period.

In the tense third period, Smith and Hamaguchi waited through a video replay that awarded a point to the American. Smith shut out the five-time champion the rest of the way and won her first world title.

For her efforts, Smith is USATODAY.com's U.S. Olympic Athlete of the Week.

The U.S. finished second in the medal count, thanks to six bronze-medal winners (freestyle unless noted): Justin Ruiz (211.5, Greco-Roman), Joe Williams (163), Tolly Thompson (264.5), Sally Roberts (130), Sara McMann (138.75), Katie Downing (147.5).

Other wrestlers in the championships: Mo Lawal (7th, 185), Jenny Wong (7th, 105.5), Stephanie Murata (7th, 112.25), Joe Warren (9th, 132, Greco-Roman), Sammie Henson (second round, 121), Daniel Cormier (second round, 211.5), Lindsey Durlacher (second round, 121, Greco-Roman), Dremiel Byers (second round, 264.5, Greco-Roman), Tina George (second round, 121), Michael Lightner (first round, 132), Chris Bono (first round, 145.5), Harry Lester (first round, 145.5, Greco-Roman), T.C. Dantzler (first round, 163, Greco-Roman), Brad Vering (first round, 185, Greco-Roman).

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PULLING FOR ONE
Fewer Olympic weights force close-knit women to fight friends

By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Sally Roberts had an interesting coach in her corner during her semifinal bout of the U.S. Nationals in women’s competition.
A possible opponent in the 138.75-pound finals: Sara McMann.
“I could have been wrestling Sara in the finals,” admitted Roberts, a bronze medallist at 130 pounds during last fall’s World Championships in New York. “That is what we wanted. I had a shirt that said, ‘Let’s go Sara’ and she had a shirt that said, ‘Let’s go Sally.”’ That was the plan.

“Sara and I have been friends for a very long time. She was the one who helped me get down to (130 pounds last September for the Worlds). I just wanted to get that win over Kristie and I would have gladly liked to have met Sara in the finals.”
That never happened as Roberts lost 5-4 to Kristie Marano, the 2003 world gold medalist who later pinned McMann in 4:52 of the finals.
With so many world medalists at one weight — the most in the history of the women’s nationals — it was impossible for at least two of last fall’s record-setting U.S. women’s team to smile like they did in New York where all seven American women earned medals.
“It turned into one big scramble. Fortunately, I came out on top,” said Marano, who was speaking of her victory over McMann after a takedown turned into a pin by the two-time world champion.
Marano could have been speaking about the dilemma faced by many of the top U.S. women trying to make one of four Olympic weights (105.5, 121, 138.75 and 158.5), which is down from the normal seven international weights.
“This weight is definitely deep, medal-wise and technique-wise,” said Marano, who also won a World title in 2000. (There was no Olympic competition for women that year.) “There are a lot of good girls. It’s a tough weight class. You either cut down from 147 or bump up from 130. Either way you are going to bump heads with someone tough.”
Marano had something to prove against McMann, who defeated Marano, 10-0 and 4-2, during last year’s World Team Trials, which forced Marano to challenge for a spot on the team at a heavier weight.
Marano, who won her 2000 world title at 149.75 pounds, knew two years ago that she would cut down to 138.75 after the International Olympic Committee announced wrestling’s weights for women at the 2004 Games in Athens.
“I’ve been coming down the past couple years,” said the 25-year-old native of Albany, N.Y. “Unfortunately, I lost the wrestle-off at the world weight. But I was able to challenge up (a year ago).”
Marano advances to the championship series of the May 23 Olympic Trials where she will face the winner of the mini-tournament.
Will this competition affect the goodwill that was created and shared by all member of the women’s team in New York last fall?
“No, it doesn’t hurt the chemistry,” Marano said. “We all stay pretty tight off the mat. When competition comes, you do your own thing.”
This trio of medalists were not the only competitors in Las Vegas forced to work even harder in trying to make the Olympic team.
Another tough weight is 121 pounds, where Tina George, a 2003 world silver medalist, will welcome the winner of the mini-tournament after she defeated Tela O’Donnell, 4-2, in the finals in Las Vegas.
“Our weight class is stacked with all the best people in the country,” said George. “I realized that people were moving around just to get into my weight class. I took it a little bit more personal than I should have. I’m looking forward to wrestling the No. 1 person out of the mini-tournament.”

(You can read the rest of this article by subscribing to W.I.N. Magazine. Either contact our office at 1-888-305-0606 or subscribe through this website by selecting the “Subscribe” section on our front page.)