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Woman wrestler first to joing Hall of Fame
By Roger Moore 6/3/06
STILLWATER NEWSPRESS (STILLWATER, Okla.)
When elected into a sport’s hall of fame, most athletes recall a certain idol or someone who inspired them at an early age.
For Tricia Saunders, there weren’t too many female wrestlers to pick from. But 20 years from now, most, if not all, will consider Saunders the first female star in a sport that didn’t allow opportunites for women less than two decades ago.
“I never really had too much of a problem with the other kids, it was the adults sometimes who didn’t really like to see girls wrestling,” said Saunders, who spoke just before being inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member. “Some of the girls out there right now don’t believe that there wasn’t wrestling 20 years ago.
“It’s changed dramatically. At the grassroots level, there are still some things said, but the fact that we had an Olympic Team in 2004 and that we do pretty well attitudes are slowly changing.”
At the junior high level in Michigan, Saunders had to compete in gymnastics due to a school board ruling that would not allow her to compete with the boys in wrestling. Not until after college would Saunders return to a sport she loved as women’s wrestling did not become an international sport until the late 1980s.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Winning World Championships in 1992, 1996, 1998 and 1999, the mother of three never lost a match to an American women.
“At the top level, there are always going to be those three or four who are just better than everybody, but I really think we are starting to see some depth in the U.S.,” Saunders said. “You don’t see technical falls in the finals anymore. In Japan they are probably six or seven deep while we are starting to build something.”
At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Saunders joined husband Townsend and head coach Terry Steiner in coaching the squad that brought home two medals.
“She wouldn’t have accomplished the things she did if she didn’t have a level head on her shoulders,” said Townsend. “It’s one of those things where she was a little ahead of her time. There is going to be female athletes in the future that read the history books and they are going to see Tricia’s name in there as one of the first. She certainly paved the way for some wrestlers who will come after her.”
While Tricia Saunders recalls things learned from watching videos of Russians and Kendall Cross and Kenny Monday, many future U.S. women wrestlers now have their first star of reference.
“I think it’s come a long way and not just because of the small bit that I’ve done in wrestling but what women have done in all sports,” Saunders added. “Those doors I think will continue to open over time but never fast enough for me.”
Also inducted tonight as the Class of 2006’s Distinguished Members are Pat Smith, Terry Brands and Josiah Henson.
Smith won four NCAA Division I titles — the first to do so — while competing for Oklahoma State and Brands is a two-time World champion and current coach of the U.S. freestyle squad.
Henson was an Olympic bronze medalist at the 1952 Olympics and his efforts in officiating and the sport of wrestling rivals any member of the NWHOF.
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A family on the run
Riverview foursome getting ready for race in Trenton
June 4, 2006
BY KURT KOSMOWSKI FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
The family than runs together stays together.
It's not exactly the old adage, but it fits the Goocher family from Riverview.
Tina and Brian Goocher and their two children will participate in the 24th annual Zanglin Run on June 16.
The popular evening 8K (4.8 mile) and one-mile fun run winds through the streets of downtown Trenton and Elizabeth Park. Tina will run the 8K event, while Marina, 9, and Nathan, 11, will try to better their mile-run times from the recent Wyandotte River Run.
Brian is still deciding which event to run.
"I run to stay in shape and it's my way of relaxing," Tina said.
But Marina says "it's fun."
The Goochers often bike to Elizabeth Park. It's about 3.5 miles from their home when they take the side streets to avoid Fort Street. After their ride, they sometimes will run the one-mile loop at the park.
Tina, 39, a teacher at Raupp Elementary in Lincoln Park, started running while in middle school and completed her second Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon in 2004. She continues to include leisurely running in her schedule.
Brian, 40, includes running in his ongoing fitness regime and says he'd like to run the Free Press Marathon one time, but favors biking, including local competitive run-bike-run duathlons.
That's probably because Brian works in the family business started by his grandfather, Edward (Jack) Goocher, in 1935. The family has two Jack's Bicycle and Fitness stores, one in Dearborn and one in Monroe. Brian runs the Dearborn store.
While Tina and Brian are rightfully proud of their own fitness, they are even more proud of their two children.
Both Marina and Nathan attend Huntington Elementary in Riverview. Nathan runs, swims and plays baseball and soccer, and excels in academics. Academics are also important to Marina; however, it is clear she is the aspiring athlete.
"If you asked Marina, she would say she will make the Olympics as a runner," said Brian. "She's 210% athlete."
Marina is a member of the Downriver Wrestling Club and is perhaps best known, athletically, as a top Michigan Youth Wrestling Association wrestler. She placed second in a national girls wrestling tournament in April. She placed first in a regional coed wrestling tournament in 2005.
Brian said Marina and Nathan would like to eventually run longer distances, such as the four-mile Winterfest run held in Riverview each February.
"I like the races and all the people," Nathan said.
Tina not only runs, but also has helped others take to the streets, including her children, and, ironically, Zanglin Run race director Eve Howell. She works with longtime race chairman Jim Zanglin to put on the event.
"Tina used to baby-sit my kids, but she was the person who took me out on those first few runs when I was slower than a snail and was trying to fight off the side-stitches," said Howell, 51 of Riverview, whose kids are now grown.
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Cataline, Miller, Lee win gold medals in women's freestyle at Pan American Championships
USA Wrestling 06/04/2006
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Jackie Catatline, Randi Miller and Stephany
Lee each captured gold medals in women's freestyle
wrestling Sunday as the Pan American Championships concluded.
Cataline (Corona, Calif/Cataline's Wildcats) won the
title at 63 kg/138.5 lbs., Miller (Arlington, Texas/USOEC) won at
67 kg/147.5 lbs.
and Lee (Honolulu, Hawaii/Missouri Valley) won the
championship at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.
American Jenny Wong (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist
Kids) was second at 51 kg/112 lbs. while Mary Kelly (Mahomet,
Ill./USOEC/New York AC) was third at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. and Malinda Ripley
(Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) won a bronze medal at 55 kg/121 lbs.
The seventh member of the U.S. team, Erin Tomeo
(Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), did not place after suffering an
injury in her semifinal match at 59 kg/130 lbs.
Lee and Cataline both went 4-0 in the round-robin
format that was used in their weight classes.
The U.S. World Team Trials for women are set for June
30 in Colorado Springs. Wong, Ripley, Tomeo, Cataline, Miller and Lee
each placed second at the U.S. Nationals on April 15 in Las Vegas.
Kelly was third in that event.