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Girls Wrestling Report

January 15, 2003 -Wrestling U.S.A. Magazine(Kent Bailo)

Seven defending National , Champions return to defend their crowns.

Foremost is senior Brandy Rosenbrock of Montrose, Michigan. Brandy can become only the second 4-time USGWA National Champ if she wins the crown this year - and the first to do it in four consecutive years (Alaina Berube of Escanaba, MI won in 8th grade, then 10th, 11th, and 12th.) Brandy placed 7th in Nationals as a 7th grader at 123 lbs, then in 8th grade she snagged 3rd place at 125 lbs. Brandy has not lost a folkstyle match to a girl since she has entered high school, well over 100-0!! She was 40-0 versus girls during the 2001- 02 season.

Laura DiCesare, Momoe, Michigan ,looks to grab her third title, and 6th finals appearance during this, her senior season. That's right, she was in the finals of the Over-165 class as a 7th grader!! And again as an 8th grader, finally won the champi-
onship in 9th grade, lost an overtime thriller to 2-time champ Samantha Lang of Oregon in her sophomore year, then won by first period pin over Minnesota's tough Alaina Mena last year. Amazingly, Laura is not on the school wrestling team!! She plays basketball in the fall, volleyball in the winter, and is on the school softball team in the spring. She just wrestles in the USGWA Michigan State and National Championships.

Senior Wendy Casey, of Binghamton, New York, goes after her third title this year. Always exciting, Wendy won by pin in last year's finals over Madeleine Briones of California. Wendy has lost only twice to a female in folkstyle, thrilling matches to Brandy Rosenbrock, last season in West Virginia and New York. She looks to defend her 130 lbs crown and contribute to her high school boys team this season.

It's hard to write about the Oregon dynamic duo separately! Samantha Lang of Tualatin and Shawn Swartzlender of Burns are both juniors, both have already won two USGWA National Champion- ships, so both are on track to become 4-time Champs. Lang's only loss at the USGWA Nationals came as an 8th grader to Alaina Mena, and then she cruised to 3rd place in the 173lbs division. Last season she had 2 pins and a major decision in winning the crown -her closest match was 13-3. Swartzlender has never lost to a girl in folkstyle. During her freshman year, she came in seeded low, and continued to knock off quality wrestlers and finished by pinning Georgia's tough Patrice Crenshaw. Last season, she had a great match with Ishpeming, Michigan's Hilary Lucarelli, but Shawn took control near the end of the match and scored the fall in the last minute. The 118 lbs. finals this year could be a rematch.

Ali Bernard, of New UIm, Minnesota, returns as a junior looking for her second title. Last season she pinned all five of her opponents in winning the Nationals -only two got into the second period: 0:30, 3:11, 3:34, 1:15, and 1:11 in the finals. The only thing that kept her from winning as a fresh- man was a "questionable" slam call in the quarter-finals. That loss put her in the con- solation, and she came back to defeat that same wrestler in the 3rd place match. Look for All to storm the competition again this year. If she goes up to 152 lbs she'll be on a collision course with 2-time runner-up, junior Heather Martin of Ohio. Everyone knows a great match would ensue.

Senior Sara Fulp-Allen of California pinned tough 8th grader Caitlyn Chase of Illinois in the finals last year at 105 lbs. Sara had previous places of 3rd as a sophomore, and 5th in her freshman year. Her father, Lee, is the head women's wrestling coach at Menlo College in Atherton, California, and Lee is a former two-time member of the US Olympic team. Sara, along with her California teammates led Team California to their first USGWA National Championships as they captured the dual and tournament championship.

Other tough girls worthy of mention who have not yet won National titles are Lizz Sanders of Iowa, Heather Martin of Ohio, Na'Tasha Umemoto of Oregon, Samantha Collett of Ohio, Caylene Valdez of Hawaii, Caitlyn Chase of Illinois, Deanna Rix of Maine, Hilary Lucarelli of Michigan, Iris Mucha of Alaska, Dawn Schneiderwent of Wisconsin.

Sanders, last year just a freshman, led DiCesare in the Nationals semi-finals with less than a minute to go. She was on top riding for the win. DiCesare took a pull over headlock from the bottom to get the pin. DiCesare had a much easier time in the finals. Expect that to be the championship match in 2003. Expect Dallas Monreal Berner, a freshman from Illinois to make some noise. She lost a pair of close decisions to Sanders in Tulsa, OK in November.

Martin is a two-time National runner- up. She finally got her first national title at USA Wrestling Cadet Nationals freestyle in Fargo, ND in July. Expect her to be on fire this year. Umemoto burst on to the scene at last year's Nationals by coming out of the 7th seed position at 110 lbs, the tournaments most loaded weight class, to get into the finals against tournament MVP Malinda Ripley. Collett has only been denied because she'd always meet Alaina Berube in the semis. With Berube gone, look for Collett to grab the prize at 126 lbs. Valdez can become Hawaii's first 4-time state champ in one of only two states in the country that have a high school state asso- ciation sponsored state championship for girls, (the other is Texas). Rix could be the queen at 118 lbs. Last year she dropped a 5-2 decision to National Champ Brooke Bogren of Kansas. Bogren pinned every- one else. Lucarelli has been in the finals twice, dropping the match as a 7th grader- to Katrina Betts, now a sophomore at University of Minnesota-Morris and 3-time National Champ. Mucha, unseeded last year at 122 lbs, dropped a 7-1 decision to Swartzlender in her first match and ran off six straight wins to place third. Dawn Schneider went of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, placed 3rd at 138, improving from her 5th seeded position. She starts the year rated #1 at 138 after a great year last season. Many more not mentioned will surely jump to the forefront this year at Nationals.

A great crop of middle schoolers include Chandra Peterson of Lake Mills, Iowa, Lisa and Chelsea Maslowsky of Tekamah, Nebraska, Cheyenne Stokes of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Joey Miller of Woodward, Oklahoma, and Morgan Holland of Minnesota will preparing to make the jump into the high school division and making some noise.

Nationals
This year the 6th Annual USGWA National Championships will be held at Lake Orion High School in Lake Orion, Michigan, on Saturday & Sunday, March 29-30. The USGWA hopes to better last year's total of 546 wrestlers and continue to be The Biggest Girls Wrestling Tournament in the WORLD!!
Wrestlers can either pre-register by using the entry form mailed to them or get- ting the form off of the USGWA website at www.usgwa.com., or you can register at weigh-in, which will take place on Friday,March 28, 2003 at Lake Orion High School from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Girls Everywhere
In recent middle school wrestling meets in Michigan (during November), your favorite referee (the one with the bad knees, who also dabbles in USGWA busi- ness) saw 10 teams, and six of them had girls. Girls on middle school teams are not the exception anymore. More than half of the teams have girls and many of them are winning versus boys. And I am sure that even more girls would be there if school's offered girl teams versus girl teams from other schools. Technique, desire, hard work, skill are equally shared by the boys and girls. It's time for more state associa- tions to recognize the latent interest in wrestling by girls. Girl's participation would quadruple at a rapid pace if any state association adopts the sport. Texas, the leader in number of girl's teams, went from 33 teams in their first, to 80 in the sec- ond year, then over 105 teams, and 120 last year (approximately). California gets great numbers and this year the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) approved girls exhibition matches at the boys state finals. State association approval can't be far behind. And in Michigan, girl's wrestling is one of 12 sports that the MHSAA will consider when it adds three new sports for girls in the near future. Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, and others could make strong bids to their high school associations if their numbers and interest continue to increase.

Special coach mention to Scott Auderer of Gilbert, Iowa, Dave Storm of Spencer, Iowa, Carl Murphree of Napa, California, and Trever Keifer of San Diego, California. These guys have all done a great job of organizing teams at their high schools, and then heading up contingents to come to USGWA Nationals. Iowans have improved as much as anyone. Their girls are getting national notice and several will be headed for collegiate careers. I wait for the day when Iowa-Iowa State mix it up on the mats -with the women's event preceding the men's meet. That's when women's wrestling will have arrived. What about Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Michigan- Michigan State, Ohio State-Penn State, Minnesota-Iowa, in WOMEN'S WREST- LING!! That's where this sport needs to go. Fast forward in your mind ten years. It will happen.

Other coaches doing a great job are Joel Kawachi, Keith Matsumato, and Reggie Torres of Hawaii, Jim Martin in Ohio, Eric Betterman in Minnesota, and Bobo Umemoto in Oregon.

Ratings:
Using a system of giving 8 points to a #1 rated wrestler, 7 points to a #2 rated wrestler, 6 points to a #3 rated wrester and so on, California seems to be the best state
team going into the 2002-2003 season.
Here is the statistical breakdown with number of wrestlers rated in parentheses:

1- California 69 points (13)
2- Michigan 65 points (17)
3- Pennsylvania 38 points (6) 4- New York 35 points (7)
5- Ohio 33 points (5)
6- Minnesota 29 points (6)
7- Hawaii 27 points (7)
8- Oregon 24 points (3)
8- Iowa 24 points (5)
8- Alaska 24 points (5)

11- Kansas 16 points (5)
11- lllinois 16 points (4)
13- Florida 12 points (5)
13- Vermont 12 points (3)
15- Wisconsin 9 points (2)
16- Washington 8 points (1)
16- Maine 8 points (1)
18- New Mexico 7 points (1)
19- Connecticut 6 points (1)
19- Maryland 6 points (2)
21- North Dakota 5 points (1)
21- Texas 5 points (2)
23- Kentucky 4 points (1)
23- New Hampshire 4 points (1)
23- South Dakota 4 points (1)
26- Missouri 3 poionts (2)
26- Colorado 3 points (1)
26- Idaho 3 points (1)
29- Massachusetts 2 points (1)
29- Virginia 2 points (1)
31- Indiana 1 point (1)
Thirty-one states with girl wrestlers rated is excellent. Keep up the good work as this sport expands and grows in numbers and quality.
Have a great girls season. See you at Nationals.

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