Deanna Rix, left, the former 100-win wrestler at Marshwood High School, has had some recent ups and downs in her wrestling career, but is back on track. (John Sachs photo)
News
Girl 3rd at league wrestling meetOAK GROVE'S JIMENEZ QUALIFIES FOR CCS
By Dennis KnightMercury News 2/15/06
Oak Grove sophomore Michelle Jimenez took third place in the 22-team Blossom Valley Athletic League Tournament on Saturday to qualify for the Central Coast Section wrestling tournament Feb. 24-25.
At 105 pounds, Jimenez dealt a 12-10 loss to another one of the section's top female wrestlers -- Silver Creek's Tina Linhsamount -- while helping Oak Grove win the team title.
``I'm a little surprised at how well she has done,'' Oak Grove Coach Bruce Shelton said. ``Her technique has really improved, and she is not afraid of wrestling guys anymore.''
Jimenez (31-11) wrestled five matches, her only loss coming by fall to champion Al Quenga of Overfelt.
``My goal at CCS is to try to stay in the tournament as long as I can,'' said Jimenez, who is ranked in the top 10 among 105-pounders in the CCS. ``I'd like to place in the top six and win a medal, but as long as I do my best I'll be happy.''
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A Fresh Start: Deanna Rix rewrites her wrestling world
By STEVE CRAIG 2/14/06
Democrat Sports Correspondent
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Deanna Rix, left, the former 100-win wrestler at Marshwood High School, has had some recent ups and downs in her wrestling career, but is back on track. (John Sachs photo) |
DOVER — Her old wrestling mates were trying to get to the Maine state finals.
Two time zones away, Deanna Rix was getting her head back into wrestling after the most challenging time of her young life.
Last Saturday, Feb. 4, the former 100-win wrestler at Marshwood High School finished second in a field of top North American women wrestlers at the Dave Shultz Memorial International meet in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Rix, 18, was pinned by 24-year-old Canadian graduate student Breanne Graham in the championship bout. Graham is currently ranked 13th internationally in the 59-kilogram (130-pound) division, by USA Wrestling's official website, TheMat.com. Fifth-ranked Sally Roberts, the top American and a two-time World Champion bronze medalist, finished third. Rix was unranked.
"This last tournament I wasn't in as good a shape as I should have been because I hadn't been on the mat for two weeks," Rix said in a telephone conversation Wednesday night.
Why wasn't the former three-time Junior National champion been wrestling? Wasn't she attending the elite United States Olympic Education Center (USOEC) in Marquette, Mich., so she could continue her wrestling career, and get a paid-for education in the process?
The short answer would go like this: No. Rix dropped out after a semester at Northern Michigan University, where the USOEC is housed. Therefore, she was no longer eligible to practice with the USOEC team.
"It became apparent we had a different track that would be better suited for Deanna," USA Wrestling national women's coach Terry Steiner said.
As is so often the case, there is a longer, more detailed answer. In the details are the real reasons why Rix has left Marquette and has no plans to return.
Rough start
Rix started her freshman year on a high note, going to Marquette shortly after winning the National Junior Women's Championship, in Fargo, N.D., last July 29-30. In winning the 128-pound weight class, Rix was named the meet's outstanding wrestler. It was her third career Junior National title, a record for girls.
The campus experience was strained from the start. By choosing cosmetology as her course major, she locked herself into a 6.5-hour a day class schedule. The instructors teaching her the beauty business weren't particularly interested in her Olympic dream. Her Olympic training center coaches weren't particularly understanding of the hair-and-nail thing.
Balancing school with sport is a challenge for any college athlete. Rix was doing it far away from her family, in a place where the team, in reality, is not part of the university. Then on Oct. 2, 2005, her on-campus support system was shattered.
That morning, Rix's good friend and wrestling teammate Toni Copeland knocked on the door of the room shared by Rix and fellow 130-pound wrestler Amberle Montgomery of Maple Valley, Wash. Copeland and a friend, NMU freshman Cassiano Huckabee, were going for a swim in Lake Superior, the coldest, deepest and largest of the Great Lakes. Did Rix want to come along?
"We went swimming there a lot. The water was really cold there," Rix said. "They asked if I wanted to go that day and I had been sleeping, I was too tired."
Rix skipped the swim.
Copeland and Huckabee drowned.
"They were swimming in Lake Superior and the undertow came and her and (Huckabee) couldn't fight the current," Rix said.
"I knew Toni through wrestling. I met her in fifth grade, she was the same age as me," Rix said of the McDonough, N.Y., native. Copeland was still in high school, attending classes at Marquette High as a senior, but had become Rix's best friend on the USOEC team.
"I had other friends but me and Toni we were always together," Rix said. "Me, Toni and Amberle, we called ourselves the Trio, we were always together. Amberle, she went back home to Washington. I think it was about another month before she left."
Matt Rix was pretty sure his daughter would be coming home, too.
"It was quite devastating for DeeDee," her father said. "Toni, she was on the same scholarship as DeeDee. They'd been to China and Germany together. ¿ I really thought she was going to wind up going home. That's a long ways without any family or anything and to go through something like that."
Even with the class conflicts and the tragic death of her friend, Rix and her father believe Deanna might have made a go of it at the Northern Michigan outpost if it had been a better fit for her wrestling goals. Her father says there was a lack of practice competition.
"The coaches were the only ones giving her a workout," he says.
Deanna tried to be more diplomatic.
"The training just wasn't what I thought it would be like," she said. "It wasn't as hard as, oh, I don't know. It didn't fit my training. It's more of a building program I think. For people who are starting out, and go at a slower pace."
New start
Despite the personal turmoil, Rix has continued to excel in competition. Prior to leaving the USOEC program, she was ranked the No. 1 North American women's collegiate wrestler at 130 pounds. But she never did officially wrestle for the USOEC team. Even at the Sunkist Invitational on Oct. 20-22, Rix was listed as affiliated with the New York Athletic Club. Wrestling up a weight class, to 138.5 pounds, she finished fourth. That was followed up with a second at the New York Athletic Club meet in November, losing a championship decision to Canada's Graham, and a first at the Canadian Cup.
Following the recent Schultz Memorial, Rix was invited to stay in Colorado Springs to train with the U.S. Olympic team and a visiting squad from France. She came home this past weekend for a visit with her father and to see her younger brother Matthew — and three other Marshwood wrestlers — compete at the Maine State Championships on Saturday.
In time — either a couple of weeks or later — she intends to return to Colorado Springs to resume training under the direction of the Olympic coaching staff headed by Steiner.
"The training's a lot better out (in Colorado Springs)," Rix said. "It's more upbeat. There's more competition out here. Everyone's at a more advanced level."
Matt Rix and Steiner want her back in Colorado quickly.
"If we didn't think Deanna was in the picture with our future world and Olympic teams, we wouldn't be making this move," Steiner said. "With the right guidance and leadership she's someone we think can be on our world and Olympic teams."
Steiner said accepting Rix to the national training center without having had the desired year or two at the USOEC development site is "definitely bending the rules a little bit for her."
They're willing to do it because of her potential and her performance.
"As a wrestler, she has performed up to ability," Steiner said. "She has that drive for wrestling. We feel comfortable with that."
The next major competition is in mid-April in Las Vegas at the U.S. Senior Nationals. The top six in each weight qualify for the World Team Trials in late June, where the winner makes the world team. Another option for Rix is the Junior Worlds, for wrestlers age 17-20. Rix will likely compete at 59 kg this year, one of the seven World Championship weights, with an eye toward getting down to the 55 kg (121 pounds). That weight is one of the four Olympic women's wrestling divisions.
Future education plans, she said, are "probably on hold for another year."
What hasn't been waylaid is her desire to wrestle, something she's done competitively since she was a little girl, through a high school career that earned her national attention.
"It got hard but I love wrestling. I wouldn't want to give it up," she said.
John Sachs courtesy photo Deanna Rix, top, of South Berwick, Maine, may have changed her wrestling scenery, but she is still going strong.
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