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Rollie Hoover/Mort Geller Women’s Open Slated For Oct. 11-12 in Meadville, Pa.

10/7/2002
John Fuller/TheMat.com

The 8th Annual Rollie Hoover/Mort Geller Women’s Open will take place Oct. 11-12 at Keystone High School in Meadville, Pa.

The two-day event will kick off on Friday, Oct. 11 with a dual meet between the Univ. of Minnesota-Morris and Cumberland College women’s wrestling teams. On Saturday, Oct. 12, an open tournament will take place for women at the Cadet, Junior and Senior levels.

FILA weights will be used, with a 2 kg weight allowance for Junior and Senior level wrestlers.

Minnesota-Morris defeated Cumberland College last year 21-17 in the dual meet. Morris received wins from Liz Short at 46 kg/101.25 lbs., Katrina Betts at 46 kg/101.25 lbs., Patrice Crenshaw at 51 kg/112.25 lbs., and Samantha Branka at 75 kg/165.25 lbs.

Last year’s tournament featured over 70 women, including 2002 U.S. Women’s World Team member and 2001 World silver medalist Toccara Montgomery of Cumberland College.

Montgomery is expected to compete in the tournament again this year. It will serve as her warm-up for the 2002 Women’s World Championships, which will take place Nov. 1-2 in Halkida, Greece. Other returning champions expected to compete in the Senior division are Katrina Betts of UM-Morris, Patrice Crenshaw of UM-Morris, Brandy Rosenbrock of the Shamrock Wrestling Club and Jimi-Dawn Hornbuckle of the NLWC.

Crenshaw and Rosenbrock also captured titles in the Junior division, as did Peggy Van De Mark of UM-Morris.

Beth Larowe of the Wolverine Wrestling Club and Heather Martin of the All-American Wrestling Club are expected to return to defend their Cadet titles.

“We have the most elite women in the country wrestling here, including Toccara Montgomery, who has agreed to return this year as well,” stated tournament director John Stanford. “This is the only major tournament on the East Coast where the women have a place to wrestle freestyle.”

The tournament name was changed from the Keystone Open to the Rollie Hoover/Mort Geller Tournament last year in honor of two of the top officials in the U.S. and internationally who have since passed away.

“Rollie Hoover and Mort Geller were two of the greatest men to ever be involved with the sport of wrestling,” Stanford said. “They did a lot for wrestling. They did a lot for the wrestlers and the officials.”

Weigh-ins for the tournament will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12. The tournament will begin at 10:00 a.m.

For more information on this event, contact tournament director John Stanford at (814) 337-0859.

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W.I.N.’s Journalist of the Year - 2002: Abbott says promotion is crucial

10/7/2002
Tim Tushla/W.I.N. Staff Writer

When he graduated from Boston University in 1982, Gary Abbott wanted to be the world’s best political journalist. But in the midst of a recession, there weren’t many jobs open. So when his college coach, Carl Adams, had an idea to start a national wrestling publication and thought he could help, Abbott took up the challenge.

Twenty years later, Gary Abbott is still involved in wrestling journalism. As a result of his commitment and dedication to the sport, he has been named W.I.N. Magazine's Journalist of the Year for 2002.

“This award certainly means a lot to me,” said Abbott, currently Director of Special Projects for USA Wrestling. “It shows people have noticed some of the work I’ve done and that’s very positive. It is an honor to be recognized by the magazine.”

After five years with Wrestling Master magazine, Abbott accepted a communications position in Colorado Springs in 1988. He has been with the organization ever since.

“It’s been an honor and privilege to work for USA Wrestling. I’ve had great opportunities because I’ve worked here,” said Abbott, who grew up in a wrestling family on Long Island. “As long as I can continue to enjoy what I do and make a difference with my efforts, this is where I want to be. It is something I have really enjoyed doing.”

Although he also still serves as Director of Communications and Editor of USA Wrestler, Abbott has concentrated his recent attention on two fronts.

“Some of my more important activities have been in Title 9 and women’s wrestling,” said Abbott. “Being able to create all the national and North American rankings for women’s college wrestling is helping us get some momentum.”

“With the 30th anniversary of Title 9 and all of the different media initiatives we are involved in we are trying to educate the world on what is wrong with this interpretation of the law. That really pushed me a little bit. I had to use all the skills I had - and some I didn’t know I had - in that area.”

Abbott also takes a great deal of pride in the progress women’s wrestling has made in this country. In 2001, he founded TheMat.com/ASICS Girls High School All-American Team, now the most prestigious national award program for female high school wrestlers. Last year he also created the North American Women1s College Wrestling Poll, a monthly coaches’ poll for women’s college wrestling in North America, which ran in major media in the United States and Canada.

Even with those advances, Abbott knows women in the sport have a long way to go.

“One of our biggest challenges in the future is going to be women’s wrestling. We’ve got to convince people not only involved in wrestling right now, but women athletic leaders, that it is something they need to support and we are going to have to educate the media that this is for real.”

That is old hat for Abbott. Ever since he joined the organization in 1988, he has seen his position evolve into more of a public/media relations position than a news gathering organization.

“I spent a lot of time and a lot of years putting together a stronger communications program where we would provide and work with the media to cover the sport more. I’m not sure there was a lot of that done prior to when I arrived,” he said. “But it became a focus - to do more than just publication work. We’ve really worked hard to try to reach out to the media and build public knowledge and interest in wrestling.”

“I think back in 1988 there weren’t very many fans of international wrestling in the United States. Now we’ve built a pretty strong following for our Olympic-level programs. A big part of that were the 1995 World Championships and the 1996 Olympics being held in this country. That gave us two really big events to promote and get wrestling fans out to see what is going on.”

The reality is, according to Abbott, that very few people have had the opportunity to see the world’s best wrestling. Through USA Wrestling, he feels they’ve been able to bring international wrestling here a lot more than before. That has been pretty rewarding.

“Things like the Goodwill Games in 1990 where we set the international record for attendance when America beat the Soviet Union in front of a packed house,” said Abbott. “Even the Olympic Trials in Spokane with the great Cross versus Brands matches and record-setting attendance. Those are things that we have done which hadn’t reached that level of success prior to 1988.”

“We didn’t have a national teams program back then either. That has been important to help our athletes get support while they stay in the sport. Its made a big difference in our performance.”

Abbott feels the groundwork has now been laid to take advantage of the positives and continue to build wrestling’s future. A key to that is marketing and promotion.

You’ve got two different levels of wrestling - participation wrestling and entertainment wrestling. You can have people that haven’t watched wrestling enjoy a dual meet or the finals of a tournament. But you can’t expect a regular person to sit through three days of wrestling,” said Abbott, himself a four-time lettermen on the Division I level. “What you promote to them are the events that are easier to understand and if you give them an enjoyable experience, they want to learn more and want to come back.”

“But it’s almost like picking your punches. You don’t want to tell families and kids they can’t have these huge competitions because that is very important in wrestling. But what you present to the rest of the world has got to be your best stuff. There are a lot of people that are doing that at all levels of wrestling. You can’t expect everyone to be a wrestling nut but you can show them the good stuff.”

And Abbott thinks wrestling does have an advantage over other sports. The key, he says, is to realize what the sport has in place and build from there.

“We are in just about every community in the country with our youth wrestling programs. That’s one of the reasons we have to fight like crazy protecting our school programs from the challenges of Title 9 and other things. Wrestling is out there in our high schools, junior highs and club programs - and we have to fight for it so the kids that are involved in the early years of their lives have opportunities in college and beyond.”

As with most things, it will be the people deeply involved in the sport who will ultimately make the difference. Abbott deals with public relations people from a number of other sports - both amateur and professional - and knows that this sport has something special, something that has kept him involved for so long.

“We are blessed in wrestling, most of our Olympic athletes are really impressive people. They are all college-educated and very work-ethic oriented. They don’t have the huge egos like professional athletes so they will make appearances and give something back to their sport. I’m very proud that I work with wrestlers.

“People in wrestling are people I enjoy - they are my kind of people. I’m a wrestling guy.”

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Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open Set For Oct. 17-19 in Phoenix, Ariz.

10/7/2002
John Fuller/TheMat.com

The 18th Annual Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open will be held at Wells Fargo Arena on the campus of Arizona State Univ. Oct. 17-19. Some of the top international wrestlers come from all over the world to compete in men’s and women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

The Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open brings an official start to the 2002-2003 international wrestling season.

This will be the first time that the event will be held at Wells Fargo Arena.

Canada has committed to bring two teams and competitors will also be coming from Sweden and the United Kingdomto the event. Bulgaria and Mongolia have shown strong interest as well.

Last year, the U.S. captured six of the eight gold medals in men’s freestyle competition. The U.S. champions were two-time U.S. Freestyle World Team member Stephen Abas (Fresno, Calif./Sunkist Kids) at 54 kg/119 lbs., Eric Larkin (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids) at 63 kg/138.75 lbs., Donny Pritzlaff (Madison, Wis./Dave Schultz WC) at 76 kg/167.5 lbs., Randy Pugh (Cedar Falls, Iowa/Cat WC) at 85 kg/187.25 lbs., Daniel Cormier (Stillwater, Okla./Gator WC) at 97 kg/213.75 lbs. and Tolly Thompson (Cedar Falls, Iowa/Sunkist Kids) at 130 kg/286 lbs.

In 2001 Greco-Roman action, the U.S. captured all eight gold medals, two of which were won by 2002 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team members T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 76 kg/167.5 lbs. and Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) at 85 kg/187.25 lbs. Also winning gold medals for the U.S. were Michael Santos (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 54 kg/119 lbs., 1996 Olympic silver medalist Dennis Hall (Plover, Wis./Sunkist Kids) at 58 kg/127.75 lbs., Darnell Lollis (Marquette, Mich./New York AC) at 63 kg/138.75 lbs., Faruk Sahin at 69 kg/152 lbs., Ross Thatcher (State College, Pa./New York AC) at 97 kg/213.75 lbs. and Brian Keck (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 130 kg/286 lbs.

U.S. women captured four of the six gold medals at this event last year, led by 2002 U.S. Women’s World Team members Sara McMann (Lock Haven, Pa./Sunkist Kids) at 62 kg/136.5 lbs. and Toccara Montgomery (Cleveland, Ohio/Sunkist Kids) at 68 kg/149.75 lbs.

Other women’s champions for the U.S. were Clarissa Chun (Kapolei, Hawaii/Wilson’s Angels) at 46 kg/101.25 lbs. and Jenna Pavlik (Lewes, Del./Lock Haven) at 75 kg/165.25 lbs.

The Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open awards prize money for the participants as part of the U.S. National Team program.

In men’s competition, weight class champions will receive $1,000, second place will receive $500 and third place will receive $250. Women’s champions will receive $750 and second place will receive $250.

This event qualifies for the NCAA Waiver for Outside Competition, so college wrestlers may compete.

For more information on this event, contact tournament director Tim Gressley at (480) 483-2907 or visit the tournament website at www.sunkistkids.org.

Complete coverage of the Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open will provided on TheMat.com.

2002 Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open
Wells Fargo Arena, Phoenix, Ariz., Oct. 17-19
Thursday, October 17
4:00 p.m. - Freestyle & Greco-Roman Registration
6:00 p.m. - Freestyle & Greco-Roman Weigh-in, + 2KG

Friday, October 18
9:00 a.m. - Men's Freestyle & Greco-Roman Prelims
3:00 p.m. - Men's Freestyle & Greco-Roman Prelims & Quarterfinals
6:00 p.m. - Women's Registration
7:00 p.m. - Women's Weigh-in, + 2KG

Saturday, October 19
9:00 a.m. - Women's Prelims
10:00 a.m. - Men's Freestyle & Greco-Roman Semifinals
1:30 p.m. - Women's Quarterfinals
3:00 p.m. - Men's Third Place & Women's Semifinals
4:15 p.m. - Finals & Women's Third Place