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Sara Fulp-Allen: nation's best

By MARK FOYER, Half Moon Bay Review 11/26/03

Sara Fulp-Allen can still remember the first time she wrestled in a match.

She was 9 years old, circling the ring against a boy her age.

"The boy's dad said this would be an easy win for his son," Fulp-Allen recalled. "He said his son was good."

And the dad had good reason to feel that way: Fulp-Allen had never wrestled in a match before.

"I didn't know what I was doing," she said, "and he knew what he was doing."

The final score of the match was 20-0. It was a tough way to open the season.

That boy never had a chance.

Fulp-Allen, the young lady with no idea of what to do on the mat, came away with a convincing victory.

That was the beginning of an impressive run of winning wrestling matches. When Fulp-Allen first broke into wrestling, there weren't many girl wrestlers. She had to wrestle a lot of boys.

There is no program or league for girl wrestlers in California - but as more and more girls started wrestling, some tournaments for girls began to crop up.

In looking over her high school wrestling career, one word comes to mind.

Awesome.

She is a three-time Peninsula Athletic League wrestling champion. She has won the girls' state title three times.

She won the Napa Valley Classic, one of the first girls' wrestling tournaments in the state, four times.

Twice, she was the best girl wrestler in the nation. Twice, she was champion of the United States Girls Wrestling Association. Three times, she was the Fila Cadet Champion in freestyle. She was the junior champ once.

She is Half Moon Bay High School's co-girls' athlete of the year.

The list of accomplishments is just part of the story. She became a crowd favorite at just about any tournament she entered.

At a tournament at Mills High School several years ago, this feisty lightweight captured the fans' attention as she rallied to win an early-round match at a tournament.

All the fans who were watching the match gave roaring approval after Fulp-Allen got the win.

While there had been a few strong female wrestlers to make a mark, Fulp-Allen kicked the door down. Now, girls' wrestling tournaments traditionally draw in excess of 100 participants.

She is a pioneer in girls' wrestling. With the medals, the trophies and the acclaim, Fulp-Allen could spend quite a bit of time reflecting on the tournaments she has won and the places she has been.

She has wrestled all over the world, including France, Sweden, Bulgaria, China and Poland.

But she hates to do that. She doesn't look back on past accomplishments - she prefers to look forward.

"I'm too busy thinking about my next wrestling challenge," Fulp-Allen said. "The challenges never end. Once something ends, I'll go to something else. I'm looking forward to the next challenge."

That next challenge will be at Menlo College, where she will go to school and where her father, Lee Allen, is the wrestling coach.

"Wrestling is something that's very special to me," she said.

And she's special to it. She has made a unique mark on the sport as one of the best girl wrestlers in the country - and, for that matter, in the world.

"I don't want people to say that I'm a great girl wrestler," Fulp-Allen said.

"I want people to say I'm a great wrestler."

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All alone at the top of her game

By Rick Mauch
Special to the Star-Telegram 12/4/03

Even though she's surrounded by teammates, wrestling practice is a lonely experience for Martin's Jennifer Miller.

The only girl in a program that has featured dominant boys teams for years, Miller has emerged as one of Texas' top high school girls wrestlers.

The senior's career record of 44-19 includes two fourth-place state-tournament finishes (at 185 pounds as a freshman and 165 last season), a runner-up finish (at 148 as a sophomore) and a 4-0 start this season at 165 pounds.

Those accomplishments have helped her earn the respect of her male counterparts.

"It's hard jumping rope by yourself, running by yourself when the other wrestlers are going through moves and wrestling each other," Martin coach Tony Warren said. "But she's tough and determined.

"Of course, we can't let her, but I have no doubt that if she could wrestle against these guys she'd hold her own against a lot of them."

UIL rules prohibit girls from wrestling boys, even in practice. Miller wrestles boys in her club program, the Southwest Eagles in Fort Worth, but with practice and meets for Martin, plus her studies, she rarely gets to Eagles practices these days.

"I can shadow-wrestle," Miller said. "But it's not the same as having a workout partner.

"One thing that has made a big difference for me is that I do all the same conditioning as the guys. Whatever they do, I do, and coach Warren doesn't hold anything back for any of us."

Miller has had teammates in the past, but for the most part the girls never lasted. She said they just couldn't stand up to rigorous conditioning.

"One girl started crying; she just couldn't take me pounding on her," Miller said. "I'm not mean, but that's how you get better, by not holding back, and they just can't seem to take it."

As a freshman, her first season to wrestle, Miller had a teammate for the entire season. Randi Miller, no relation, finished second in the state at 165 pounds but was a senior, and Jennifer has been the only girl consistently in the program since.

"I was hoping we could build a girls program from the two of us, but it just hasn't worked out," Jennifer Miller said. "I've tried to recruit girls to the program, but the girls at this school just don't seem to think it's for them.

"It makes me sad to think that it might be years before another girl comes along and sticks with it like I did, but at least I left an impression on the program."

All that's missing from Jennifer Miller's résumé is a state championship. Teammate Chase Haughland said that whether she gets one or not, she has to be mentioned with the great wrestlers to pass through Martin's program.

"I thought she was already on the list," Haughland said. "She was one of only two people for us who placed at state last season, and she's done well at state every season she's been here."

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USA Womens Wrestling News Table of Contents: December 2003 - January 2004