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Melyssa Fuqua
wwlp chanel 22 Athlete of the week 3/29/2001
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Melyssa Fuqua
This week's athlete of the week is a National Champion Wrestler from Westfield. Melyssa Fuqua won the 144-pound title at the United States Girls Wrestling Association's National Championships this past weekend in Michigan. Fuqua is a three year member of the Westfield High Wrestling team and she was the Bombers' 152-pound varsity wrestler for most of the season. Fuqua finished 10th at last year's National Championship, but an increased workout regimen gave her an edge this year. Melyssa lifts weights and does cardio workouts in the morning, goes to school during the day and then works out again after school. And most remarkably, Fuqua is an A+ student in the classroom.
Congratulations Melyssa
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Gateway's girls wrestlers excel at nationals
Frank Carroll of the Sentinel Staff
April 6, 2001
KISSIMMEE -- You know them as state champions. Now meet All-Americans
Candice Pellerin, Suelika Cuevas, Salome Gipson and Naomi Santiago, Gateway
High School wrestlers.
The foursome represented the Sunshine State on Team Florida, which recently
placed seventh at the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association's National
Championships in Lake Orion, Mich. That finish came on the heels of last
year's fourth-place showing.
"We took more quality, less quantity, than last year," said Clark Coldiron,
Team Florida's co-head coach with Ocala Forest's Scott Peters.
Coldiron, the Panthers' first-year coach, on Feb. 4 watched Gateway's
seven-member team defeat Forest 113-1051/2 and exit with a mythical state
championship among a 28-school field at Oviedo High. Santiago won the
Panthers' lone state championship in the 175-pound-up class.
In Michigan, Team Florida found itself up against as many as 32 wrestlers
per weight class. Pellerin, a freshman in the 114-pound division, and
Cuevas, a junior competing at 119 pounds, placed 10th in respective weight
classes. Gipson, a 129-pound senior, and Santiago, a junior, placed 12th.
The top 12 in each weight division are recognized as All-Americans.
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In her element on the mat
By Jenn Hildreth 3/23/2001
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
JOHNNY CRAWFORD / Staff |
Some girls, when they're 8, wish for dresses, ballet slippers or Barbie dolls.
Patrice Crenshaw wanted muscles.
Crenshaw used to follow her mother, Sylvia, along to the gym. So Sylvia Crenshaw wasn't surprised when she heard her 8-year-old daughter huffing in her room while lifting weights.
"You know how you kind of want [your daughter] to be a feminine-type person," Sylvia said, "But because I was like a tomboy growing up, I could see that in her, too, when she started lifting weights. So I said, 'Go for it.' "
Sylvia Crenshaw's response was the same six years later when Patrice, a freshman at Tri-Cities High, came home and declared that she wanted to try wrestling.
Now a senior at Tri-Cities, Patrice recently completed her fourth season of wrestling, in which she won more than 30 matches in the boys 112-pound class and placed third at the Area 7-AAAAA tournament. The top-four finish earned Patrice a berth to last month's state meet, and she is believed to be the only female in Georgia to have qualified for state in boys wrestling.
While she has wrestled against boys for most of her career, Patrice gets a chance to compete against all girls at this weekend's United States Girls' Wrestling Association national tournament in Auburn Hills, Mich.
"Last year, I made it as far as the finals and lost in the finals to the girl who placed first the year before," said Patrice, who will compete at 115 pounds, a weight class found only in female wrestling. "This year, yeah, I'm taking it all."
Patrice's confidence is something that immediately impressed Tri-Cities wrestling coach Doug Hutsell. He admits he wasn't too keen on Patrice's decision to wrestle, but he quickly saw that she was determined to compete.
"After that first day, we saw how hard she worked," Hutsell said. "She was able to take that physical punishment and not come back and whine like a lot of people do -- males or females. We were sold on her."
Patrice's reasoning for wanting to try wrestling was simple -- she wanted to do something athletic after volleyball season. At 4 feet 11, she quickly ruled basketball out, but she was taking a weight training class and could already bench press more than her body weight (approximately 100 pounds). The challenge of wrestling, especially since it was a sport normally reserved for males, caught Patrice's attention.
"I saw these signs posted up around the building and they said, 'Six minutes of hell, are you man enough to handle it?' " Patrice said. "I don't consider myself a feminist, but I do believe that women can do anything men can do, and sometimes better. When I saw that I was like, 'Are you person enough to handle it?' That's what I was thinking it should have been. It didn't make me mad, but I just felt like, you know, I'll show them."
In the beginning, some wrestlers refused to compete against Patrice, either due to concerns from their parents or coaches, or, as Hutsell suggests, because they were worried about what would happen if they lost to a girl.
Patrice had to endure the strict demands of a sport many athletes call the most trying, struggling to keep her weight down while working hard to retain her strength. It was all Patrice's father, Patrick, could do to let his daughter to keep competing.
"The first couple times I came home with some black eyes he was like telling me, 'No more, no more,' " Patrice said.
But Patrice was unwilling to quit, no matter how much she struggled or how hard it was to keep going. She said it wasn't until this year that she realized how much she enjoyed the sport. Next year, she'll attend the University of Minnesota at Morris, one of the few colleges in the nation to offer female wrestling. She also has her sights set on the 2004 Olympics, when female wrestling could make its debut.
"Not being able to eat, no social life, those are the only two sacrifices I've had to make," Patrice said with a laugh. "I'm doing what I love. I love to wrestle."
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Lyle brings home national championship
By Chuck Curti , Assistant Sports Editor
3/27/2001
SPECIAL REPORT
The Community College of Beaver County got its national champion after all.
While the men's basketball team fell short in its quest to capture the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championship - the Titans finished sixth - CCBC freshman Sissy Lyle came home from the United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championship with a gold medal.
Lyle, an Ambridge High School graduate who wrestled with the Quigley Catholic team, took first place in the collegiate division's 150-pound weight class at the national championships in Lake Orion, Mich., over the weekend. She also received the award as the tournament's most outstanding wrestler.
"I'm so excited right now," she said by phone late Sunday night. "I wanted to prove I could do it."
Lyle had been to the national tournament three times prior, each time as a high schooler. Each time, she failed to claim victory. Last year's tournament was especially heartbreaking as she lost in the title match by one point.
This year, however, she dominated the competition to achieve her goal.
She opened with a close 7-6 decision over Kate Zeitler of Kentucky, then reeled off four straight pins. She put Ohio's Alex Maple on her back in 1:12, stopped Jessica Lawson of Ohio in 2:14, recorded a fall over West Virginia's Lori Fisher in 3:10 and then took 6:55 to pin Minnesota's Alexandra Augustine.
That set up a rematch with Zeitler in the 150-pound championship. (The wrestlers were divided into "block" weight classes, so the 150-pound class was any wrestler over 140.3 pounds up to 150.)
Lyle had little trouble with Zeitler the second time around, shutting her out, 3-0, to claim the gold.
But she's not through yet. Not after she took so long to win the first title.
"Next year I'm going back to defend my title," she said.