News
Wrestling Report: Musante wins national titles for Napa club
By Register Staff
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Members of the Napa Sheriff’s/Napa Valley Wrestling Club participated in the ASICS U.S. National Wrestling Championships last weekend at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Four wrestlers competed against U.S. and international athletes from France, Bulgaria, Russia and Italy. The top four placers qualified to advance to the World Team Trials to be held in May.
Another club coach, Eric Jones, competed in his first national event. Jones captured fifth place in the 187-pound division, including a pin along the way. Jones also wrestled well in the Greco-Roman division but did not place.
John Arrambide (145.5) and Sam Rodriguez (185) competed in the Fila Junior Division, which is comprised of college age students with most competitors at the Junior and Senior level. The two recent Vintage High School graduates performed impressively against collegiate and military opponents, though neither placed.
Two champions from this years ASICS Napa Valley Girls Classic, Marina Piccolotti and Samantha Phillips, also won national championships at the event. Both women are considered potential Olympians.
“This just shows how not only our wrestlers from Napa can stand out at the national level, but the level of competition we draw to our women’s tournament at Vintage,” said Jim Lanterman, a coach for both the wrestling club and Vintage High School. “I’m proud of every single one of them.”
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European wrestling championships open in Sofia
www.chinaview.cn 2007-04-18 08:26:10
SOFIA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The European Greco-Roman, Freestyle and Women Wrestling Championships opened in Bulgaria's capital of Sofia on Tuesday.
Nearly 500 entrants of the record-high number of 40 countries are taking part, two countries more than in previous championships in Moscow in 2006.
This is the biggest wrestling event in Europe and by far the biggest sport event in Bulgaria this year.
Attending the opening ceremony were Chairperson of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee Stefka Kostadinova, FILA President Raphael Martinetti, FILA's European Committee (CELA) President Tsenyo Tsenov and the President of the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation Valentin Yordanov.
The champioships will continue until April 22.
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Matmen's Davidson wins silver medal at nationals
Bob Vrbanac, Waterloo
(Apr 18, 2007)
SUBMITTED PHOTO St. David's Andrea Davidson slams an opponent to the mat on her way to a silver medal at the national championships.
St. David's Sarah Runstedler tries to pin an opponent to the mat during the 2007 Canadian Cadet and Juvenile wrestling championships. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
You might have heard about the Matmen youth wrestling club . But what about the women who wrestle for them?
What do they think about being called Matmen? Not a lot actually if wrestling with the local club keeps getting them the kind of results that St. David's Andrea Davidson saw this weekend at the 2007 Canadian Cadet and Juvenile Wrestling Championships in Whitby, Ont.
Davidson, 18, who won a silver for the Celtics at the OFSAA wrestling championships earlier this year, brought home another silver at the youth wrestling nationals in the 81 kilogram weight class.
Not bad for a wrestler in only her second year of organized wrestling. Even better when you consider she only has boys her own age and weight class to spar with most of the time, and that the latest sparring session last week left her with an injured shoulder going into the nationals.
"The night before weigh in, I was attempting a gut wrench on one of my wrestling partners and I hurt my shoulder, aggravating a previous injury," said Davidson. "I was really worried about that, but luckily we have a doctor on our coaching staff."
Dr. Ivan Jagas, who once was an outstanding high- school wrestler at St. Jerome's, is one of the coaches involved with the Matmen, which has started to mold some good local high-school talent and turn them into strong competitors for the provincial and national stage. The arm quickly got the attention it needed, and proceeded to do a lot of the heavy lifting at the national tournament.
Davidson said she had zero expectations going into the national finals, with her inexperience in the sport leaving her to wonder if she would even score a point. She proceeded to beat a wrestler from Calgary and another girl she had already beaten from the OFSAA championships before beating another out-of-province competitor.
That set up a final match against Emma Brightwell from Guelph -- the daughter of Wayne Brightwell, who used to coach with the University of Guelph Gryphons' wrestling program.
The odds weren't in Davidson's favour. Which might explain her strange reaction after she was pinned by the much more experienced Brightwell.
Teammate Sarah Runstedler, a fellow St. David student who also joined the Matmen this year to improve her wrestling skills after win WCSSAA gold in the 54 kg weight class this year and was at her first nationals, was blown away by Davidson's reaction.
"Usually when someone loses a match they get all upset and stomp around all angry," said Runstedler, who also earned a bronze at the CWOSSA finals for the Celtics. "When Andrea lost she popped right up with the biggest smile on her face and jumping around.
"It was like she won."
"Truthfully, I thought I was going to get my butt kicked," said Davidson. "I was going in expecting to see wrestlers from all over the country and be humbled.
"I didn't think I was going to score a point, and I was hoping not to get injured."
With that mission accomplished, the silver medal was a nice surprise. And it was the best result of the three St. David wrestlers entered in the event.
Runstedler, 16, in just her second year of competition, managed one win before being knocked out of the double elimination tournament. Wade Leaman, a Grade 9 student who had earned silver at WCSSAA in his first year of high-school competition, was knocked out in two straight matches. but still appreciated the experience.
Experience was the thing that all three wrestlers were looking for from the event, with aspirations to go on someday and maybe compete at the university level.
Especially Davidson, a three-sport standout, who is already being recruited to wrestle and play soccer at the next level at schools like the University of Western Ontario.
She was especially looking forward to matching up with girls who are closer to her weight category instead of sparring against guys or the smaller Runstedler.
"There's nobody even close to my weight category," said Davidson. "I practice with Sarah sometimes but we just don't get anything out of it because it's just not the same."
"I'm a little bit smaller," laughed Runstedler, who took up the sport to follow in her dad's footsteps.
Most of the time it's sparring with guys. That can be interesting in those awkward high-school years, but the self-confident Davidson just thinks of it as another learning experience.
"They're a lot stronger but that's the only real difference because we're all wrestlers," she said. "The guys who I happen to wrestle with have a lot better technique than me, so it really helps me wrestling with them.
"It helped at nationals because I'm used to wrestling with people who are a lot stronger than me. They can pick me up and throw me over their heads and slam me down.
"Most of the girls I wrestle against can't do that."
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Russia grabs two titles in European wrestling championships
People's Daily Online 4/18/07
Russian women wrestlers took two titles on the first day of the European Championships of wrestling in Sofia.
At the final in the class of 51kg Zamira Rakhmanova overwhelmed her Romanian opponent Estera Dobre 2-0.
Her compatriot Anna Polovnjova won the gold in the category of 67kg after winning by 2-1 over Ukrainian Katerina Burmistrova.
European champion in the class of 59 kg was Ida-Teres Karlsson from Sweden.
Source: Xinhua
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Dad mourns loss of 'blue-eyed girl with an amazing smile'
By AARON SANBORN
Democrat Staff Writer 4/18/07
Courtesy photos FOUR-YEAR-OLD SAPHIRE PERRO, left, shows off one of the medals she won while wrestling. In the right photo, she poses with her father, Nicholas Perro. Saphire and her grandmother, Donna Dube, died on Monday after being swept up in floodwaters on Chick Road in Lebanon, Maine.
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LEBANON, Maine — Four-year-old Saphire Perro was forever in motion.
Whether it was dancing, swimming, exercising or outwrestling the boys, the athletic little girl showed no interest in sitting still.
It was this flair for life that set her apart from other youngsters her age, according to her father, Nicholas Perro of Lebanon.
Saphire and her grandmother, Donna Dube, 50, died Monday afternoon after rushing flood waters swept them into the Little River as they tried reaching Dube's home on Little River Road by crossing a large puddle on Chick Road.
Tuesday afternoon, Nicholas Perro shared some of his favorite memories of his daughter.
"She was a little blue-eyed girl with an amazing smile," Perro said. "Anyone who's ever seen her remembers her because of her dynamic personality."
Like most girls her age Saphire enjoyed dressing up like a princess, singing and dancing around the house. But, it was her amazing athletic ability that really impressed her father.
"She could do so many sit-ups — there were times she could bust out between 50-100 of them," Perro said.
Saphire was also an accomplished wrestler, beating boy wrestlers on many occasions in local wrestling competitions. She earned two silver medals and a trophy for her victories.
She also had a passion for swimming, reflected in numerous family photographs.
When she wasn't being active, Saphire was busy being both a big and little sister to her stepbrothers Jordan, 6; Alexander, 4; and 9-month-old Christian, of whom she was especially fond.
"She was infatuated with him, tickling him. She always wanted to be around him," Perro said.
Saphire spent the end of each week with her father at his Lebanon home and lived with her mother, Rachel Dube, in Manchester, N.H., the rest of the time.
On Monday she was visiting her grandparents at the couple's Little River Road home.
"Saphire was their spice for life — they looked forward to seeing her every week," Perro said.
Perro described Saphire's grandmother, Donna, as a "free spirit who loved nature and flowers."
Dube's husband, Richard, could not be reached for this story.
Perro said he misses his daughter and now plans on keeping a puppy from his dog's litter of eight, an American pit bull terrier that Saphire named Angel because it was Saphire's favorite and the one she wanted to keep.
"I called her my angel without wings and now she's got them," Perro said. "She's in a wonderful place now. She has whatever she wants now and we all get to have her with us"
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