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California"ö At Minnesota State University
Moorhead last weekend, Caleb Rutner of the Winnipeg Wrestling Club
continued his undefeated run by winning the gold medal in a state
qualifying tournament in folkstyle (collegiate) wrestling. Rutner, 15,
won the cadet (ages 15-16) division's 135-140-pound weight grouping. It
was Rutner's 18th straight win and 18th straight pin so far this year
and he has not yet allowed a point to be scored on him. In 2009, Rutner
had 73 wins and only one loss in the USA regional championships.
Also last weekend in Edmonton, five Manitoba wrestlers competed in
the Golden Bear Classic high school meet at the University of Alberta.
Gordon McNabb of the Niverville/T4 clubs earned gold in the boys' 69-kg
division while Samara Funk of Niverville took silver in the girls'
56-kg division. Niverville's Corey Taylor was eighth in the boys' 63-kg
division.
West Kildonan Collegiate's Amber Philipchuk placed seventh in the
girls' 65-kg division with Caroline Tess placing seventh in the girls'
70-kg division.
Bethel High wrestler Alice
Hoover does not have many matches left in her senior season, but that
has not stopped her from trying to make the most of the time she has
left.
Hoover earned the Times-Herald Athlete of the week after her third
place finish at the California State Girls Wrestling tournament, but
her expectations were a championship after a second-place finish at the
tournament as a junior.
"I was sad when I lost that one match but I got third so it's still
good," Hoover said. "The girl who beat me was really strong. I'm happy
with what I did."
Hoover was on a roll before she even stepped on the mat for her
semifinal match. She pinned her first three opponents before running up
against Samantha Lopez, last year's state champion out of West Covina.
"She knew it was going to be a difficult state tournament," said
Bethel coach Mike Sariano. "There are a lot of quality girls
wrestlers."Hoover was pinned for the first time all season, ending her
run at the state championship, but she bounced back from the emotional
loss to win her final two consolation matches and place third in the
tournament.
"That semifinal loss, it took tough mental attitude to bounce back,"
Sariano said. "She was dominating in those matches."
The Jaguars head to McNair on Friday to wrestle in the Sac-Joaquin
Section tournament next weekend, a meet that Hoover missed due to
injury last year, but she expects to be ready to go for the tournament
this year.
"I was sad and it hurt I wasn't able to reach my goal (at
state). But at times like that you have to re-establish yourself,"
Hoover said. "It was hard to brush it off because it's my senior year.
But since it is my last year I want to do the best I can."
Reach Jose San Mateo at jsanmateo@timesheraldonline.com or (707)
553-6822
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The St. Patrick-St.
Vincent High's girls wrestling team had a rough day at the California
State Girls Championship on Saturday.
Bruins Catrina Gillus (138 pounds) and Elaine Ramos-Tandjung (118)
went 1-2 and did not place in the tournament.
St. Pat's boys team attended the Dusk to Dawn Invitational
meanwhile. Paolo Yap (103), Duane De Castro (125) and Will Goike (130)
all placed third. Kevin De Ocampo (135) and freshman Josh Barrettto
(189) took fourth place and Jonathan Ortiz (103) was fifth.
Earlier in the week, the Bruins took home two gold medals from the
Mark Lance JV Tournament. Edward Brown and Ortiz both won their
classes. Chris Uy, Yap and Cameron Bailey took second, while Kenneth
Sagun and De Ocampo placed third.
The Bruins, coming off a recent 51-18 victory over Athenian, are now
preparing for the North Coast Section Dual Team Championships, to be
held Feb. 13
The 2010 Dave Schultz Memorial International Championships will
celebrate its 12th year of grueling competition, showcasing some of the
greatest wrestlers in the world.
This tournament was established by USA Wrestling, Nancy Schultz,
and Dave Schultz Wrestling Foundation in honor of the late Olympic and
World champion Dave Schultz. The event will take place in Sports
Complex I at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs,
Colo. on February 4-6.
Talented athletes from all across the world are competing in this
tournament. This year, the tournament features top athletes from 22
countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Columbia, Czech Republic,
Ecuador, Egypt, Espana, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Moldova,
Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, United States, and
Uzbekistan. Other nations are possible participants.
The event is sponsored by the “Experience Colorado
Springs” Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Colorado Springs
Sports Corporation.
TheMat.com will provide live coverage of the championship finals
of the event all three days.
Numerous World and Olympic champions have competed in this event,
including 2008 Olympic champion Henry Cejudo of the USA, who wrestled
here in 2005. Past Dave Schultz Memorial champions who have become
Olympic champions include Brandon Slay and Rulon Gardner of the United
States, Carol Huynh of Canada, and Armen Nazarian of Bulgaria.
Women’s wrestler Patricia Miranda (DSWC/Sunkist) is the only
five-time champion at this event.
Greco-Roman star Dremiel Byers (U.S. Army) and women’s
wrestler Stephanie Murata (Sunkist Kids) are four-time champions of
this tournament.
Three-time champions at this event include freestyle wrestlers
Tolly Thompson (Sunkist Kids) and Chris Bono (Sunkist Kids) and
Greco-Roman wrestlers Lindsey Durlacher (New York AC), T.C. Dantzler
(New York AC/Gator WC), Harry Lester (New York AC/Gator WC) and Rulon
Gardner (Sunkist Kids). Alaina Berube (New York AC), Sara McMann
(Sunkist Kids) and Sally Roberts (Gator WC) are three-time champions
for women’s freestyle.
Additional information on 2010 entries will be posted on
TheMat.com early this week.
There will be gold-medal finals all three nights of the
championships. These are the weight classes that will be competing each
day:
Thursday, Feb. 4: Greco-Roman (55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg,
96 kg, 120 kg)
Friday, Feb. 5: Freestyle (55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg,
120 kg)
Saturday, Feb. 6: Women’s freestyle (48 kg, 51 kg, 55 kg, 59
kg, 63 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg)
Adult all-season pass for the three-day tournament are $15. An
adult one day ticket is $10 per day and adult session tickets are $5
for Session I through Preliminaries and $8 for Session II through the
Finals. Tickets for high school students (with I.D.) and senior
citizens (62 and over) are $5 per day. Youth (5-14) tickets are $4 per
day. Coaches are admitted free with five paid wrestlers.
DAVE SCHULTZ MEMORIAL INTERNATIONAL OPEN SCHEDULE
Wednesday, February 3
11:00a.m.-2:00 p.m. – Greco-Roman Registration
2:30-3:00 p.m. – Weigh-ins: Greco-Roman (55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74
kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
<u>Thursday, February 4</u>
9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. – Session I: Greco-Roman (55 kg, 60 kg, 66
kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
1:00-2:00 p.m. – Men's freestyle Registration
2:30-3:00 p.m. – Weigh-ins: Men's freestyle (55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg,
74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
4:00 p.m.-conclusion – Session II: Greco-Roman (55 kg, 60 kg, 66
kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
Friday, February 5
9:00 a.m.-2:15 p.m. – Session I: Men's Freestyle (55 kg, 60
kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
1:00-2:00 p.m. – Women's freestyle Registration
2:30-3:00 p.m. – Weigh-ins: Women’s freestyle (48 kg, 51
kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 63 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg)
4:00 p.m.-conclusion – Session II: Men's Freestyle (55 kg, 60 kg,
66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg)
Saturday, February 6
9:00 a.m.-2:15 p.m. – Session I: Women’s freestyle (48 kg,
51 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 63 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg)
4:00 p.m.-conclusion – Session II: Women’s freestyle (48
kg, 51 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 63 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg)
Updated: 02/02/2010
06:41:37 PM PST
Katherine Fulp-Allen, Menlo College wrestling: The four-time
All-American ended her college career on top by winning her second
consecutive Women's College Wrestling Association National
Championship. It was the last tournament for Katherine, a Half Moon Bay
graduate, and her father, Lee Allen, who is stepping down as the Oak's
head coach. Fulp-Allen beat Missouri Baptist's Amy Whitbeck 2-2, 1-0 in
the 51 KG final. She was also named an Academic All-American and won
the wrestler of the year award.
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Washington -- A Northern Michigan University training center
for Olympic hopefuls might be forced to close and athletes could lose
their scholarships if President Barack Obama succeeds in eliminating
the benefit as part of his efforts to trim $20 billion from the federal
budget.
In his budget submitted to Congress, Obama called for the
elimination of the B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarship, a $1 million
program that each year helps pay college costs for aspiring Olympic
athletes training in Marquette or the nation's three other Olympic
training centers.
Obama cited insufficient data showing awardees complete college and
complained that rich kids aren't exempt.
Among the scholarship's success stories is Adam Wheeler, who graduated
from NMU in 2006, and won a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing in Greco-Roman wrestling, said Jeff Kleinschmidt, the director
of the U.S. Olympic Education Center, which is part of NMU.
Meanwhile, Shani Davis, who periodically trains at the Olympic
center and attends classes at NMU, will be competing in this year's
Winter Olympic games in Vancouver in long-track speed skating. Davis,
who won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics, has had part of his
NMU tuition paid with the scholarship, Kleinschmidt said.
"There's a possibility we'd have to shut the doors of the center
without the scholarship," Kleinschmidt said. "We'd have to find other
sources of funding."
The Marquette center is funded with $74,000 from the $1 million that
Congress has allocated in recent years, plus $175,000 from the
university, $300,000 from the U.S. Olympic Committee and about $40,000
from miscellaneous sources.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, said Tuesday he'll fight to keep the
funding in the congressional appropriations process.
"We have been down this road before, and we have been able to secure
funding each time," Stupak said of a scholarship named after his
younger son, who committed suicide in 2000. The suicide garnered
worldwide headlines when the congressman blamed his son's suicide on a
controversial acne drug.
Each of the four Olympic training centers focuses on several sports.
The Marquette center has about 65 to 70 athletes training in men's
boxing, men's and women's short-track speed skating, men's Greco-Roman
wrestling, women's freestyle wrestling, and men's and women's weight
lifting.
Aspiring Olympic athletes have difficulty getting scholarships in
such nontraditional sports, unlike athletes competing in basketball or
diving, for example.
If the B.J. Stupak Scholarship dried up, Kleinschmidt said, many
Olympic hopefuls in these nontraditional common sports would simply
drop out of college.
"For a lot of these young people, you'd have to give up on your
dream of competing in the Olympics to work to pay for school or just
give up on college," Kleinschmidt said.
Scholarship awardees can get up to $20,000 a year for tuition and
other college-related expenses.
Awardees must live and train at one of the Olympic Training Centers
in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Chula Vista, Calif.;
or at the NMU's Olympic Education Center.
In his budget, Obama said he wants to ax the program because it
"offers scholarships for a limited number of athletes.
"There were fewer than 100 scholarship beneficiaries in 2007-2008.
The Department lacks evidence on the degree to which this particular
program enhances educational attainment outcomes for students because
the Department is not able to track student-athletes after they leave
the training centers. In addition, the scholarships are not
means-tested, so they may go to students who would be able to afford
college without them. Olympic athletes receive generous support from a
variety of sources. Athletes who can demonstrate financial need may
still receive grant, work-study, and loan assistance through other
programs," reads the explanation contained in the president's budget.
Stupak and Kleinschmidt said they would work with the Department of
Education to better track how the scholarships help athletes complete
college.
"We want to do a better job of capturing the data," Kleinschmidt
said. " It may take eight or 10 years for an athlete to finish college.
They keep chipping away at classes. And sometimes they finish their
degree at another university, and we don't have a record of that."
Malerie Fleischman, the only female competitor on Tuesday, wrestled
up a weight class and was pinned at 121-pounds, but Becerra said she is
the strongest female competitor of the handful he’s coached at
San Marcos over the last decade.
Fleischman was one match out of placing at the girls state meet last
week, which was dubbed the largest female wrestling tournament in the
world.
Despite San Marcos’ individual highlights, the Chargers proved
themselves as the best team in the city once again. Califano said that
he has less experience this year than normal, but that he has the best
group of freshmen he’s had in 13 years at DP.
Russia won seven gold medals to
rank first, and Mongolia won one silver and three bronze medals in the
gold medal table of the Golden Grand Prix of the FILA International
Freestyle Wrestling Tournament.
Carol Huyhn of Canada,
a 2008 Olympic champion and three-time World medalist, is among the top
stars expected at the Dave Schultz Memorial International. Larry Slater
photo
Kelsey Campbell (Colorado
Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) has been named TheMat.com Wrestler of the
Week for Jan. 26-Feb. 1.