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Shoni Plagmann and Lacey Crabb will be the first girls in the state wrestling tournaments at the Class 4A and 3A levels
Thursday, February 22, 2001
By JERRY ULMER and Abby Haight of The Oregonian staff
Shoni Plagmann and Lacey Crabb will make history today, but the two high school seniors mostly just want to win on the mat.
Plagmann, of Lebanon, and Crabb, of Estacada, are the first girls to wrestle in the OSAA Class 4A and Class 3A state championships, respectively, at Memorial Coliseum.
They follow in the footsteps of Cheryl New, a sophomore from Bonanza who wrestled in the Class 2A/1A tournament in 1997.
"We're just thrilled she's going," Lebanon wrestling coach Jim Vandehey said of Plagmann, who carries an 11-4 record into state. "We thought she should have gone last year."
The tournaments begin at 9:30 a.m.
Plagmann, who wrestles at 112 pounds, nearly missed her chance to go the championship tournament, despite a stellar season during which she finished second in the open division of the Oregon Wrestling Classic.
With 10 seconds left in the 112-pound third-place match at the Valley League district meet Saturday, Plagmann was tied 1-1 with North Salem sophomore Colby Keppinger, the district's No. 2 seed.
"She was giving me a coronary," Vandehey said.
But Plagmann scored on a head-and-arm move for a 3-1 victory that made her the first girl to qualify for the Class 4A tournament, and the crowd at the Salem Armory erupted in approval. More than anything, Plagmann was relieved.
"I had a lot of pressure on me because I knew if I won I'd be the first girl to go to state," she said. "Ever since my sophomore year I wanted to go to state."
Growing up as the seventh of nine children, Plagmann was no stranger to competition. She decided to wrestle as an eighth-grader under the influence of her father Allan, who wrestled at Lebanon, and her four brothers.
She was good enough to win single district tournament matches as a freshman and sophomore and two matches at district as a junior, making it to the semifinals before her bid for state was derailed when she failed to make weight.
This year she won four of five matches at district to become one of the team's five state qualifiers. One of the other qualifiers is her junior brother, also Allan like their father, who placed second at 125.
Plagmann has enjoyed success in girls wrestling. She has won titles at the Oregon Wrestling Classic for the past five years and has placed third, seventh and third in the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association national meet.
Against boys, she relies on her balance and technique.
"I'm not as strong as most of the guys at my weight, so I've got to work for my moves and technique," she said.
While about one-third of her opponents forfeit rather than compete against a girl, Plagmann is just another wrestler to her coaches and teammates. That's the way she prefers it.
"I never think of it as a girl-guy thing. I just go out and wrestle," she said. "The forfeits are kind of discouraging, but I can see where they're coming from, how they don't want to lose to a girl or get beat up by a girl."
Crabb, who is one of 14 Estacada wrestlers at the state tournament, said she has found support from teammates and opponents.
Crabb, who competes at 103 pounds, wanted to try the sport as a sophomore, but couldn't fit it in with a busy -- and costly -- schedule of FFA and 4H activities with her horse. Her chance as a junior was lost when a shoulder injury suffered in a riding accident kept her from turning out for the team.
Finally, Crabb became a wrestler as a senior.
She was attracted to the sport when her brother, Logan, wrestled in middle school.
The two are a year apart in age and carry on an enthusiastic sibling competition.
"I was just like, 'I can do that,' " Crabb said. " 'Hey, Dad, I can do that!' Then somebody told me girls can't wrestle and I said, 'Oh, yeah?' "
Unlike Plagmann, Crabb jumped into the season with little experience. Friends who wrestled warned her of the grueling workouts.
"I thought that the physical part would be a lot harder," said Crabb, who was 7-11 on the junior varsity team and 5-2 after moving up to varsity. "The hardest part was overcoming my independence. I have a real hard time asking for help.
"I set my mind to it that if I'm going to do a guys' sport, I'm going to try for the top."
Crabb advanced to the semifinals of the Tri-Valley League tournament before losing to Doug Gregg of Wilsonville. But she pinned Pat Wilburn of The Dalles for third place and a berth in the 3A tournament.
"She's part of the team now," said Estacada coach John O'Dell. "She's just like anybody."
Like Plagmann, Crabb also relies on attributes other than simple strength. She is extremely flexible and O'Dell recalled a match when Crabb, about to be pinned, did such a high bridge that she flipped her opponent over and nearly pinned him.
The two girls have met before at meets, and Crabb said she was thrilled that Plagmann would be at Memorial Coliseum, too.
"She's so nice," Crabb said. "I'm so happy she'll be there. We were at the St. Helens tournament and she was beating up on the guys. I thought, 'Oh, that's so cool.' "
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GIRL STATE QUALIFIERS
2/22/2001 The Oregonian
Three girls have qualified for Oregon high school wrestling tournaments:
Cheryl New, Bonanza: In 1997, New, then a sophomore, became the first girl
to reach a state tournament when she qualified at 106 pounds in Class 2A/1A.
New finished third at the District 3 tournament and gained a state berth
under a provisional rule that allowed the third-place finisher to challenge
the second-place finisher. The runner-up, Wes Hall, her teammate, was
injured, so New advanced to state. She was pinned at 3:40 in her first match
and lost her second 8-0. She also wrestled as a junior and senior but did
not reach state. As a senior, she finished second in the pole vault at the
Class 2A track and field meet.
Shoni Plagmann, Lebanon: The senior became the first Class 4A girl to reach
state when she beat North Salem's Colby Keppinger 3-1 in the third-place
112-pound match at the Valley League district meet on Saturday. She will
wrestle Grant's Jeff McClain in the first round today.
Lacey Crabb, Estacada: The senior became the first girl to reach the Class
3A tournament when she pinned Pat Wilburn of The Dalles in the third-place
103-pound match of the Tri-Valley League district tournament on Feb. 10. She
will wrestle Benito Gonzales of Vale in the first round today.
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And What? Shoni Plagmann is just anothe wrestler
Between the chalk 2/23/2001
I spent the majority of my Saturday chasing high school wrestlers around the Salem Armory during the Valley League's district championship meet.
You'd think I would have tired of talking about wrestling by the time I reached my friend Andrew's home in Portland that evening.
I didn't.
I was not yet even at Andrew's door when I started: I was at the intercom at the gate.
"I watched a great news story today," I said into the little metal box.
"You gonna tell me from there or do you want to come up?"
"Two words: Shoni Plagmann," I said.
"Sony Walkman? That was news in the mid 80s, buddy."
So began a rather lengthy explanation about Shoni Plagmann: a wrestler you may be hearing about frequently this week as she prepares to be the first woman ever to compete in Oregon's 4A state high school wrestling championships.
If I'm not mistaken, the news worthiness of this occasion will not be lost on many of Oregon's news providers.
She's well spoken. She's polite. At meets, between matches, she plays peek-a-boo with her niece. She was the homecoming queen at Lebanon High.
You can't invent a public interest feature this good.
But Andrew, also a sports reporter by trade, did not share my enthusiasm.
"So, she's a wrestler?"
"Yes," I replied. "She's a wrestler!"
"And she's a girl?"
"A woman. A female. Yes, yes, all those things!"
"And?"
And?
And what? I thought.
She's a wrestler. She's a woman. She kicks you-know-what.
So: And what, Andrew?
The "and what" was the feminist argument that I didn't anticipate.
Shoni Plagmann is a good wrestler. She's a good wrestler going to the state championships, no less. But in the end, she's a wrestler just like her brother Allan, who's also heading to Portland for the championship meet, albeit with less fanfare.
Were all things equal, what would be the big deal about Shoni Plagmann?
Would I care if it were the first black wrestler? The first blonde wrestler? What about Shoni Plagmann makes me think this is such a great news story?
Because apparently, at least in my mixed-up mind, all things are not equal.
I presumed that because Plagmann happens to be a woman, she must have had to work so much harder than anyone else to reach the same level of success as her male peers. I presumed she was a member of the weaker sex.
I should know better. I've seen her wrestle: There's no such thing as a weaker sex.
Plagmann might have had to work harder than her peers to achieve the level of success she has, but that's not because she's a woman, it's because she's not a man. Whatever obstacles she overcame were there because somebody decided long ago that boys wrestle and girls don't.
There is a story here - and it's more important than the first woman wrestler heading to the state championship.
The story is, "Why is Shoni Plagmann the first woman heading to the state championship?"
Why don't more women wrestle?
I suspect the answer lies in attitudes we have but don't know we have.
And the solution lies in people like