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TheMat.com releases first North AmericanWomen’s college wrestling rankings; The Univ. of Calgary earns top team ranking

11/28/2001
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling

TheMat.com, the official web page of the Amateur Wrestling Alliance, has released the first North American Women’s Wrestling College Rankings for teams and individuals.

Women’s wrestling is a growing sport in Canada and the United States on the college level. The International Olympic Committee has named women’s freestyle wrestling as the newest sport added to the Summer Olympic Games program. The United States and Canada are among the most successful women’s wrestling nations in the world.

The team ranking poll is elected by a panel of women’s college coaches, three from Canada and two from the United States. Eligible for ranking are college varsity and club women’s wrestling programs.

The individual rankings are selected by TheMat.com, with assistance from the panel of coaches. Athletes who are considered for ranking are eligible full-time college students, and are members of their college women’s varsity or club program, or a member of their college men’s wrestling team.

The University of Calgary was named as the top U.S. college team in the preseason rankings. Calgary is the defending CIS women’s wrestling team champions, and is currently the top-ranked women’s team in this year’s CIS rankings. Calgary received two first-place votes and 94 points.

Ranked second is Missouri Valley College, with two first-place votes and 92 points. Missouri Valley College is the defending champion at the USA Wrestling Women’s Senior Nationals and the USA Wrestling University National Championships. Missouri Valley College is affiliated with the NAIA.

Ranked third is Canadian NAIA school Simon Fraser Univ. with 91 points. There is a tie for fourth place between Lock Haven Univ., from the United States, and Brock Univ. from Canada with 82 points. Lock Haven received one first-place vote. Rounding out the Top 10 teams are the Univ. of Minnesota-Morris, Lakehead Univ., the Univ. of Alberta, Pacific Univ. and Cumberland College.

Athletes are ranked in the six international wrestling weight classes, used at the Senior World Championships and at major women’s open wrestling tournaments. CIS Canadian colleges compete in seven recognized weight classes, but also wrestle at the international weight classes in some major events.

Three of the top-ranked athletes have won silver medals at the Women’s Senior World Championships. At 46 kg/101.25 lbs., Carol Huyhn of Simon Fraser Univ. won a World silver medal for Canada at the 2001 World Championships. At 51 kg/112.25 lbs., Patricia Miranda of Stanford won a World silver medal for the United States at the 2000 World Championships. At 68 kg/149.75 lbs., Toccara Montgomery of Cumberland College won a World silver medal for the United States at the 2001 World Championships.

The three other top-ranked athletes are Tonya Verbeek of Brock Univ. at 56 kg/123 lbs., Sara McMann of Lock Haven Univ. at 62 kg/136.5 lbs. and Jenna Pavlik of Lock Haven Univ. at 75 kg/165.25 lbs. McMann and Pavlik competed for the United States at the 2001 Women’s World Championships.

Complete individual and team rankings are posted on TheMat.com, in the rankings section.

TheMat.com North American College Women’s Wrestling rankings will be published monthly on the following dates: Nov. 28; Dec. 26; Jan. 25; Feb. 25; March 25; April 25; May 25

TheMat.com has created a composite schedule for women’s college wrestling, which includes events from the U.S. and Canadian programs. Results from these events will be posted on a regular basis throughout the season.

Media outlets may reproduce these rankings only if they identify them as TheMat.com North American College Women’s Wrestling individual rankings.

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Here is a recap of the U.S. team as I saw it.

kips post on themat.com forum 11/28/2001

101,Trish Saunders.
Trish had a tough first round,wrestling a very good japanese girl.Trish was obviously not at 100%,her ribs were still bothering her.After her loss she withdrew.
112 Stephanie Murata.
Murata wrestled a great tournament,avenging a Sunkist loss to Belise from Canada in the semis.In her finals,she was overwhelmed by the very talented girl from Japan.
123 Erin Tomeo
Erin got a very tough pool,getting dominated by the Japanese girl in her first round,winning her second match before losing to a girl from China to finish 1-2 in her pool.Erin came out a little intimidated in her first match and it cost her.This was her first trip to the senior worlds,and won't be her last.Look for her to bring home medals for the U.S. shortly.
136.5 Sara McMann
Sara was definatley a victim of the pool system with,in my opinion,had the three best wrestlers at the weight in one pool.Any one of these three,Sara,Japan,China could have won.Her first match was against the girl from Japan,and it was much closer than the score indicated.She gave up several points in desperation towards the end.The match against the eventual champion from China was also very good,but Sara again came up a little short.
The girl form China was the one I was most impressed with in the whole tournament.
149.75 Toccara Montgomery.
Toccara wrestled very well in her pool,winning all three matches by tech-fall pins.Her semi finals match against the Russian was more of a battle againt nerves than anything.She fell behing 2-0 before getting it in gear and reeling off 8 straight points and the fall.
Her finals match against Nordhagen was a very good match with Nordhagen scoring first for 1 and then getting a turn for one.Toccara came back and scored with a single to make it 2-1 at the end of the first.In the second period,Nordhagen scored again on two 1 point takedowns to make the score 4-1.With about one minute left,she was in a scramble with Nordhagen on their feet when they went out of bounds.When they came back to the center,the official mistakenly put Toccara down instead of keeping them on their feet.We tried to complain,but were waved off by the officials at the table.They kept her down for thirty seconds,and with only thirty seconds left in the match,Toccara could not score.
I would have liked Toccara to have had that 30 seconds back on her feet where she is most comfortable,but you can't cry over it.
Nordhagen is a true champion,and I look forward to many more matches between her and Toccara.
165.5 Jenna Pavlik.
At only 17 years old and thrust into her first world championships at the last minute,Jenna did a great job losing to the eventual champion from Poland.She pinned her first opponant from Brazil,then lost to the girl from Poland.Her last match was against Venezula(sp),where she recorded her second pin of the tournament.She ended up fifth,which is great.
The U.S. team did well considering their youth and the fact that they were very poorly prepared.Hopefully,when a new womens director is hired,they can take steps to better prepare the team.