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Three girls headed to state

By Mark Foyer--Half Moon Bay Review 2/4/04

Jenny Collins earned a first-round pin against Kathy Tom of Lowell.

In a sense, it might not have been a bad thing for Katherine Fulp-Allen to wrestle just two matches Saturday.

The Half Moon Bay High School sophomore was battling a cough and a cold as she competed in the Region 3 Girls Wrestling Tournament.

Not to worry - she won both of her matches by pin to claim the title at 105 pounds.

Three other wrestlers were at the competition held at San Mateo High School. Jenny Collins finished second at 134 pounds, with Michelle Donahue taking sixth.

The top five qualify for the state meet, takeing place this weekend in Vallejo.

Amanda Cox won the 154-pound title by default.

With her illness, Fulp-Allen didn't want to spend too much time on the mat Saturday. That was accomplished, as she won both of her matches with first-round pins.

"I was disappointed that there were only four people in my bracket," Fulp-Allen said. "I was anticipating that there would have been more people."

Region 3 consists of wrestlers from the Central Coast Section, and the San Francisco Section. There were 55 wrestlers entered in the tournament in the various weight classes.

"I knew this would be a small tournament, but I was hoping that it would be a tough tournament," Fulp-Allen said. "It was a tough tournament."

After beating Breahn Loughran of Santa Clara in the semifinals, Fulp-Allen met Tina Linhsmont of Silver Creek in the finals. "When we wrestled before, she gave me a tough match," Fulp-Allen said. "Today, she was feisty at the beginning."

Fulp-Allen was able to get a takedown, and eventually pinned Linhsmont near the end of the first round.

Collins' match also ended in the first round. But she was the one who was pinned by San Mateo's Lauren Yee.

"She's a great wrestler," Collins said. "She's been doing this for a while, while this is my first year doing wrestling."

She was thrilled to take second. Collins first pinned Kathy Tom of Lowell. In the semifinals, she defeated Muriel Manala of South San Francisco.

"This is a great sport," Collins said. "When I started, I didn't know what I was doing. But my coaches and teammates have been showing me a lot of stuff."

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Champs of the Mat — Again
Behind five champs, OHS defends girls state wrestling title

04 Feb 2004
By Rick Pedone News-Gazette Staff Writer

The Florida High School Athletics Association has yet to sanction girls wrestling as an official sport, but there is no disputing the fact that the Osceola Kowgirls are fully sanctioned as the Florida state champions.

The Kowgirls (223) dominated the 43-team tournament at the Osceola gym and had five individual champions among 130 participants. It was Osceola’s second straight championship, and the fourth in a row for Osceola County schools. Gateway won in 2001-02.

St. Cloud (132.5), which had one state champion, was second, followed by Vero Beach (88), first-year program Poinciana (76) and Cypress Creek (73). Gateway (27) was 13th.

“These girls have worked hard for this,” Coach Jim Bird said. “They’ve put in the hours and the work. It doesn’t just happen.”

Candice Pellerin, a Gateway transfer, won the 112-pound title over Sierra Thornton of Vero Beach by pin for her third straight state title.

Vanity Vasquez repeated as the 103-pound champion by pinning Titusville’s Christina Brayboy.

Jolene Sun collected her first state championship at 130 pounds when she pinned St. Cloud’s Norma Morell.

Senior Jenny Glover, a runner-up last year, won the 160-pound crown by pinning Rachel Roberts of Key West.

Katie Orben, fourth last year, collected the 189-pound championship by pinning University’s Julie DeJesus.

St. Cloud’s champion was 140-pounder Yomara Santiago, who pinned Mariah Eberhart (Royal Palm Beach).

Three more Kowgirls reached the finals: Kyrstalee Navarro lost by 5-3 decision to Okeechobee’s Courtney Bush; Kerri Zupofska battled Southwest Miami’s Natasha Guzman at 152 before losing a 12-10 decision and Brandi Castro lost by default to Bloomingdale’s Elizabeth Hernandez.

Poinciana’s Jeanette Valentine reached the 119-pound title match, falling to Ashley Dehnz (Gulf Coast) by pin.

The tournament was essentially over after the semifinal round, when the Kowgirls held a 177-83 lead over St. Cloud.

“Coach Bird has done an outstanding job with his program; he has things going here,” said St. Cloud assistant coach Lee Sill, who ended a 38-year coaching career at the state tournament. “We’re real pleased that we had two girls reach the finals. That is impressive for a second-year program, especially after we lost eight seniors.”

Osceola assistant coach Jason Nusbaum said the Kowgirls dominance was impressive in light of the fact that they did not have the biggest team at the meet.

“We’ve only got 10 girls, but we got eight into the finals,” said Nusbaum. “St. Cloud had a girl in each weight class, so they were able to pick up points that we couldn’t get.”

Poinciana coach Lance Seeright was pleased to see his team place fourth at the state tournament in its first season.

“We started the season with two girls, and then it seems as though they talked to their friends and it grew to seven,” he said. “We work them out hard, and the great thing about girls is that when you tell them something, they listen. I think that makes them who they are today. We’re all sophomores and freshmen, so we expect to keep growing and getting better.”

While the Kowgirls displayed their dominance of Florida wrestling last weekend, their work isn’t over.

Bird is taking the team to Cumberland (Ky.) College on Feb. 21 for the Kentucky state tournament. He said one reason his team performed so well last week was because it still has goals to accomplish other than a state championship.

“We talked about what we wanted to accomplish after this (state tournament). It helped us maintain our focus,” Bird said.

“Nobody was too close to us all year, but we didn’t want to become complacent. We’ll have a chance to see how we stand compared to programs in another part of the country.”

Osceola will also compete in Michigan at a national tournament in March, said Bird.

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Elissa 1st Bear to state in wrestling

Updated: Wednesday, February 4, 2004 3:52 PM PST

Mount Shasta's Elissa Hutton, top, on her way to victory in the Region 1 tournament in San Leandro.

The only female member of Mount Shasta High School's wrestling team, Elissa Hutton brought home a first place in her division at the Region 1 championships over the weekend in San Leandro.

The win moves Hutton to the state championships this coming weekend, February 6th and 7th, in Vallejo.

She becomes Mount Shasta's first wrestler to qualify for the state championships.

"She wrestled extremely well," Mount Shasta coach Rod Grier said of Hutton, a junior in her second year with the team.

Hutton competed against wrestlers from three sections in San Leandro, the Northern Section, North Coast Section and Oakland Section.

After a first round bye in the 108 pound division, Hutton won her first match, 5-3, then came from behind to win her second match, 6-4.

Grier said she gained the advantage in the final with a reversal that put her opponent on her back.

Grier said Hutton's family members, coaches and friends "were going nuts," as she claimed her victory.

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Girls wrestling on the rise

By Timothy Scott, Times-Herald sports writer 2/5/04

Vallejo High School wrestling coach Mike Minahen is a believer.

From his vantage point, girls wrestling has come a long way.

This weekend, Vallejo High will once again play host to the girls high school state championships, with Minahen serving as home coach and proud participant in a fast-growing movement.

"It's great to showcase women's wrestling," Minahen said. "I'm looking forward to some great wrestling."

The two-day event beginning Friday will feature the top girls wrestlers from high schools around the state, not to mention highly-ranked locals like

Bethel's Maribeth Grim, Hogan's Reenie Belamide and Vallejo's Jaime Sage.

But in a larger sense, this competition is indicative of the growth of the girls wrestling movement.

Now in its fourth year, the state meet has annually been held in the cozy confines of Bottari Gym. But Minahen said this likely is the last year for Vallejo as host, with brackets expanding from 32 to 64 next year to accommodate the legions of grapplers gravitating to the mats each year.

Minahen estimates there are probably 1,000 girls competing this year.

His own team is a great example, with the Apaches' numbers hovering around six to eight last year, but expanding to this year's all-time high of 12. That's up from the one or two who would show every once in a while for the boys practice, and who Minahen said never returned for a second day.

Now, in just the last four or five years, the girls have opportunities to wrestle other girls - although past Vallejo girls wrestlers have placed at varsity boys meets.

"It's a great opportunity for the girls to show how tough they can be," Minahen said. "It's improved tremendously, now there's tons of girls wrestling."

For the girls, it's an opportunity.

As Dawn Sage, mom to Vallejo's wrestling sister duo Jaime and Ashley, commented during a tournament earlier this year, it's an opportunity that wasn't available in her own high school days.

And just like it is for the boys, girls wrestling has become an avenue into what outsiders would pleasantly call a niche sport, but what competitors have grown to love, and wouldn't want to give up. Minahen hopes some of the Vallejo girls will continue on to wrestle in college.

Nationally, there are about eight collegiate programs, with the closest in proximity the program at Menlo College.

"It's going in a positive direction," Minahen said. "It's giving girls an opportunity to get scholarships."

And in fact, as Minahen pointed out, the girls could actually help save the boys.

On the collegiate level, men's wrestling was probably the largest casualty of the Title IX political axe.

The sport has reached a sort of fallback point where only the truly hard-core programs exist. Kind of like the crowd at a late-season Raider game when the home team is 4-10.

But with girls wrestling on the rise, schools that may be looking to renew men's wrestling will have an opportunity to balance those numbers with the addition of a girls program.

But first things first, as the sport's next step is to gain status as an official CIF-sanctioned endeavor, something Minahen said should happen soon.

"Two to three years," he said. "If it continues to grow it's inevitable that it's going to happen.

"It's more prestige, validity."

Likely, this weekend, the girls won't be thinking about larger movements and the directions of their sport.

They'll be fighting for pins.

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Still a fighter
"Coming back was my goal," she says. Melissa Edgar's smile lights up the room. "I reached my goal."

Dave Deibert
The StarPhoenix
Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Every time she takes notes in class, picks up a quarter, holds a glass of water, Melissa Edgar is reminded of that April day nearly three years ago.

In Grade 7, one year into wrestling, Edgar had won club provincials. The next year she went undefeated and was named Saskatchewan Amateur Wrestling Association's outstanding female elementary grappler. In Grade 9 at Marion Graham Collegiate, she won high school cities and provincials.

"She showed off an extra gear that great athletes have," Falcons coach Tom Simes says.

In April of 2001, competing at her first national championship in front of a supportive home crowd, she was dominating another overmatched opponent in an early-round bout. Edgar was up big, moments from victory. Win a few more bouts and she'd be making space in her already-crowded bedroom for her biggest trophy yet.

Her opponent attempted a hip toss, one of the most rudimentary moves in the sport. As they crashed to the mat, Edgar attempted to counter the hold. All the weight came down on her right arm.

Edgar said her arm didn't hurt at the time. However, she knew the injury was bad enough that she would have to withdraw from nationals. That did hurt. For that, she cried.

The girl she was wrestling went on to win the title. Doctors told Edgar she should never wrestle again.

---

Edgar's arm was broken in two places. The bone nearly came through her skin. It was ugly.

"That was as bad as I've ever seen a break," says Simes.

That wasn't the worst part. Nerves in her arm were stretched, causing her to lose feeling in her hand. Not only was wrestling taken away from her, she couldn't even pick up a pen and write her name.

While Edgar was a wreck, she rarely showed it. In private, though, she shed a lot of tears. She was angry, bitter. It ticked her off when she saw wrestlers not showing total commitment to the craft. "If you can be there, you should be there," she says.

With two plates and 12 pins in her arm and wearing a cast, Edgar continued to be part of the Falcons. She came to practice every day to offer her expertise and support the other wrestlers, but it was difficult.

She missed the Grade 10 season. Grade 11 was a wash, too, but it did give her something to look forward to. Her first day without the cast was New Year's, 2003, the perfect time for resolutions. Edgar had one: She was going to wrestle again.

It didn't matter that she had holes in her bones after the pins were removed. The fact she would be nowhere near as strong as before was irrelevant. Her mom didn't want her baby girl to go back to wrestling, but there was no talking Edgar out of it.

"She didn't feel sorry for herself," says Simes.

"She worked."

---

Edgar never recognized how special it was every time she competed. That changed last fall when she stepped back on the mat as a wrestler for the first time in nearly 30 months. She wasn't a coach or a fan or a cheerleader. She was a wrestler again. She'll never take that for granted.

"She talked about coming back, and she walks the walk," says Simes.

Edgar is in discomfort after each practice or match. Her right hand, slowly getting better but still without much feeling in her thumb, middle and index finger, works when she concentrates, but if she's holding something and stops paying attention, it could easily escape her grip.

Edgar, basically wrestling with one-and-a-half arms, placed second at the pre-season tournament. She's not the unbeatable force she used to be. There are moments of fear, especially when she feels heavy pressure on her arm. Scars inside and outside her forearm are a reminder of the injuries. She's not at the point where she can forget about everything. It's still too real.

But to say she's not the success she used to be is shortsighted.

The fight she's endured to return to the sport has taken more heart than any match ever required. Prior to her injury, she focused on winning cities, taking gold at provincials, conquering at nationals.

Winning consumed her. Now, putting on the singlet and boots is good enough.

If she medals at cities, great. A medal at provincials would be even better. Neither was the No. 1 target for Edgar this year.

"Coming back," she says, "was my goal."

Edgar's smile lights up the room. "I reached my goal."

Adds Simes: "Knowing how hard it's been, to see her come alive again has been great. It's not easy for her, but I can tell she's enjoying every minute."

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Hernandez Wins Second Women's State Title

By EDDIE DANIELS edaniels@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 5, 2004

TAMPA - Bloomingdale's Elizabeth Hernandez won the 2003-04 Women's State Wrestling Championships held at Osceola High on Jan 31. The Bloomingdale senior, who has verbally committed to attend Kentucky's Cumberland College on a wrestling scholarship, won the 171-pound weight class by going 3-0. This is her second consecutive women's title.
Hernandez has compiled a 13-0 record against the female competition she's faced and a 4-7 record against male competitors. She has won all four of the female tournaments she has entered. In fact, she has yet to give up a point to any other female wrestler.

When Hernandez reaches Cumberland, she will feel right at home. Her brother, Edward, recently transferred to Cumberland from Lehigh University, where he also wrestled.

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She grapples against the grain
Russell, ranked nationally among girls, competes against Section II's heavier boys

By FELLICIA SMITH, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Galway junior Juanita Russell looks every bit the wrestler, donning the weekend garb of sweat shirts and hat during a recent tournament at Schuylerville. (Steve Jacobs / Times Union)

Juanita Russell said she loves to wrestle, regardless of whom she's facing.

It's my life," said the Galway junior, who has been wrestling since age 5.

In the summer, fall and spring, Russell travels across the United States and abroad to compete against the top females in the world. But during the winter, she's just one of the "guys" on the Galway varsity wrestling team.

Unlike most females who wrestle at the high school level, Russell competes in a higher weight class. There are a handful of other female wrestlers in Section II, but they compete as lightweights.

For most of the season, Russell has been in the Eagles' lineup at 160 or 171 pounds. She has a 6-9 record in competition against boys, who she said are always physically stronger than she is.

At the Schenectady Invitational in January, she took third place at 171.

"She's been very successful at 160, 171," first-year Galway coach Mike Sartin said. "She's been very successful considering the caliber of kids in Section II at that weight class. She's had her share of tough matches."

Russell said her third-place finish in Schenectady is her biggest achievement since she began wrestling at the varsity level as a freshman at Broadalbin-Perth. She transferred to Galway from there.

"It's awesome," Russell said of her 6-9 record. "I'm used to coming in first place against girls, but considering I don't even weigh 171, I'm doing great."

Section II wrestling coordinator Marty Sherman said he's not sure how many girls wrestle for Capital Region schools.

"There could be about a dozen," Sherman said. "That's safe to say."

Galway team captain Tom Gregg said Russell shouldn't be overlooked by any opponents in Section II because she is not only talented, but hard-working.

"They shouldn't, but they do," said Gregg, one of Russell's closest friends. "You can definitely tell when they do."

Sartin said Russell occasionally is given a hard time by fans and wrestlers, mostly outside of Section II. But the skepticism doesn't last long, he said.

"A lot of fans and wrestlers laugh when she goes out there," Sartin said. "When she goes out and beats them, she earns their respect."

Russell began wrestling after watching her older brother Isaac compete as a youngster. After wrestling with her brother at home, Russell asked to go to practice.

Juanita Russell of Galway has a 6-9 record this season and is a member of the U.S. junior women's national and world teams. (Steve Jacobs / Times Union)

She maintained her interest.

"I just liked it," Russell said. "It's not because I stood out; I just liked it."

Competing against boys and girls as a member of the T-N-T Dynamite Wrestling club in Schenectady, Russell is ranked No. 2 nationally at 165 pounds by the United States Girls' Wrestling Association.

After a second-place finish at 170 at the Fila Cadet Women's National Championship and a first-place finish at 158 in the Fila Junior Women's National Championship, Russell was added to the junior women's national and world teams for this year.

"My dream is to go to the Olympics," said the 17-year-old, who trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for two weeks during the summer.

Sartin said if Russell continues to wrestle against both girls and boys, she could end up at the Section II tournament in Glens Falls.

"Wrestling at 154, I can see her going to Glens Falls," Sartin said. "She has to realize in her mind it's not impossible. If there is something she wants, she gets it."

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Wrestling with success

The sport of wrestling has taken Aiea's
Donell Bradley to the top of her field -- on
the mat and in the classroom

By Dennis Anderson 3/28/03
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Donell Bradley of Aiea graduated two weeks ago from Missouri Valley College with a degree in athletic training and a future rich in options.

She is the first person in her immediate family to earn a college degree.

Were it not for the emergence of women's wrestling, first in Hawaii's high schools and then as a scholarship sport at some mainland colleges, it might not have happened.

Entering her sophomore year at Radford High School in 1996, a college degree was not on Donell Bradley's radar.

"College wasn't really a big thing in my mind," Bradley recalled. "I thought I would go straight to work after high school or go into the military like my dad did out of high school."

Wrestling wasn't on her radar, either, but her father, now-retired Army Staff Sgt. Donald Bradley, "believed everyone should get involved in a sport because it centers them as a person and teaches them discipline and teamwork," Donell says.

A classmate, Aloha Chaves, was on Radford's girls wrestling team and convinced Bradley to try the sport -- then new to Hawaii.

"The first day of practice, I never felt so bad in all my life," Bradley said. "I wanted to cry -- all these people were grabbing at me and beating me up. I had never had that happen to me before. I didn't know what to do." Ê

Were Bradley a person of less resolve, her wrestling career might have lasted one day.

"I couldn't see myself quitting," she said. "I'm a real stubborn person. Once I start something I finish it."

So she persevered, and learned as the sport grew.

"There were only three or four other girls at my weight in the whole state my sophomore year," Bradley said, "and not a whole lot of competition in the first sanctioned state championship the next year."

Bradley won the first two HHSAA girls state championships, in 1998 and '99, in the 220-pound division, far above her actual weight.

She also won three Oahu Interscholastic Association championships and the 1999 U.S. Girls Wrestling Association national championship. She was chosen Radford's Female Athlete of the Year in 1999.

"Wrestling gave me more motivation and more discipline," Bradley said. "I started picking up my grades."

She graduated from Radford with a 3.4 grade-point average, and thought her wrestling career was over because only one college (Minnesota-Morris) had a women's program and it did not give wrestling scholarships.

But women's college wrestling was about to surge.

"The day before the placement test for UH, I got a letter in the mail from the wrestling coach at Missouri Valley College," she said. "I started talking to him on the phone and he visited Hawaii and talked with some of the girls.

"In June or July he offered me a wrestling scholarship.

"He said, 'We are starting a team and we want you on it.'

"I was set on going to UH and staying at home with my friends, but my parents kind of pushed me out the door.

"They wanted me to get experience with something outside of the islands."

So Bradley went to Missouri Valley in a class that included Radford graduate Lauwa'e Smith, Roosevelt's Clarissa Chun and Moanalua graduates Renee Nakata and Shelley Ann Tomita. (Only Chun, who has been an Olympic Training Center resident and U.S. National Team member for two years, and Bradley are still wrestling.)

At Missouri Valley, Bradley was a four-time All-American, won a U.S. Girls Association college division championship, had second- and third-place finishes in USA Wrestling's University Women's Division and the U.S. Girls' North American championships, and finished in the top five three times in USA Wrestling's Senior Division.

Although she was on a wrestling scholarship at Missouri Valley, Bradley said she "made sure it was known to everyone around that I was there to get a degree and that wrestling was second.

"Some coaches understand that you are a student above all," she said.

Now Bradley has her degree, and she hopes she isn't finished with wrestling.

"I would definitely like to wrestle this year with Olympic trials coming up in the middle of May," she said.

"Money is kind of tight," Bradley said.

"But I would like to get to the University Nationals in Minnesota in March and to the Olympic Training Center to get familiar with the competition" for the Olympic team.

Bradley earned "funded access" to the Olympic Training Center for a year by placing second at the University Nationals last spring. But she has to pay her own way there.