WOMENS WORLD TRIALS NOTES: Fargo champions find success at Trials; OCU brings large team to Colorado
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Seven Fargo Junior National champions enter World Team Trials
There is no time like the present, and many of the top young women wrestlers took advantage of an opportunity to improve themselves at the highest level by participating at the Women's World Team Trials.
Seven athletes who won gold medals at the ASICS/Vaughan Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D. in July came to Colorado to try out for the U.S. Senior World Team: Victoria Anthony of California, C.C. Weber of Michigan, Helen Maroulis of Maryland, Tatiana Padilla of California, Schuyler Brown of Virginia, Erin Clodgo of Kansas and Adeline Gray of Colorado.
Some of still high school students and others are now in their first year of college, but all have shown great talent and desire to become Olympians of the future.
The top performer at the Senior level last year was Padilla, who placed third at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 55 kg/121 lbs. and enters here as the No. 1 seed at the weight class. Padilla, a 2007 Junior World silver medalist, has started her college career on the new women's wrestling team at Lindenwood Univ.
"They are all testing the waters," USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach Izzy Izboinikov. "There is an even playing field here with many of the ranked wrestlers from the Olympic Trials not entered. It is an amazing opportunity for them to be at a national event and gain experience. The gap is not that big between the age-group levels and the Senior level. At this time of the year, and at their young age, this is all about development."
Of the group, Maroulis and Gray have joined the U.S. Olympic Education program at Northern Michigan, where they are seniors in high school. Anthony and Weber are also still in high school. Brown and Clodgo are now a college freshman at Northern Michigan. Clodgo spent two years in high school with the USOEC program.
Padilla, Maroulis, Brown and Gray won all their morning matches to qualify for the best-of-three championship series, with a chance to make the U.S. team going to Japan. Maroulis was second at the U.S. Senior Nationals last year, and won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships this summer. Gray was a 2008 Junior World champion at her weight class.
Three of the Fargo champions in the World Team Trials finals are training under coaches Shannyn Gillespie and Tony DeAnda at Northern Michigan.
"The new ones, we have had some time to work with them the last few weeks," said Gillespie. "However, we have worked with them a lot over the last three years at training camps we have held. It is a numbers game. The more numbers you have at the grassroots level, the more who will be competitive as 18 and 19 year olds. They are all getting a lot of competition, including many international matches on tours."
Oklahoma City Univ. team tests itself at the highest level
Now in its second year as a varsity wrestling program, the women's team at Oklahoma City University is already making an impact. The Stars were second at the WCWA Nationals last year behind perennial power the Univ. of the Cumberlands in their first year of existence and is seeking higher goals.
Coach Archie Randall and his staff brought 18 athletes to compete in Colorado Springs at the Women's World Team Trials, the largest contingent of wrestlers in the tournament. Although none of the athletes qualified for the championship finals, the OCU athletes got in numerous matches against high quality competitors.
"This is important to us. The only way we will be competitive on the Senior level is if the girls get experience on the Senior level. They are young, they are still babies. If you want the best athletes, you need the best competition," said Randall.
Three OCU wrestlers will be competing in the third-place matches on Saturday evening: Nicole Woody at 48 kg, Natasha Umemoto at 55 kg, Stefenie Shaw at 67 kg and
Randall is not measuring success by the number of medals the team wins, but how they compete against top competition.
"Our goals here are the wrestle hard. We may not be winning a lot of matches, but they are all wrestling hard. We want to have World and Olympic medalists from our program. If the colleges want to get better, they have to be at these events. We will be at the Dave Schultz Memorial and all the big tournaments. We will bring every wrestler we can who want to go. It is a teaching and learning process."
Helping the OCU women's team this year is two-time World champion and nine-time World medalist Kristie Marano, who is attending class there and assisting with the program. Randall says that she has helped the team make the transition to the Senior level.
"It makes a difference having a woman on our staff," said Randall. "She does all kinds of things that the men coaches can not do. She is like the mom on the team. It is not too shabby to have nine World medals in our room, either."
There is no time like the present, and many of the top young women wrestlers took advantage of an opportunity to improve themselves at the highest level by participating at the Women's World Team Trials.
Seven athletes who won gold medals at the ASICS/Vaughan Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D. in July came to Colorado to try out for the U.S. Senior World Team: Victoria Anthony of California, C.C. Weber of Michigan, Helen Maroulis of Maryland, Tatiana Padilla of California, Schuyler Brown of Virginia, Erin Clodgo of Kansas and Adeline Gray of Colorado.
Some of still high school students and others are now in their first year of college, but all have shown great talent and desire to become Olympians of the future.
The top performer at the Senior level last year was Padilla, who placed third at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 55 kg/121 lbs. and enters here as the No. 1 seed at the weight class. Padilla, a 2007 Junior World silver medalist, has started her college career on the new women's wrestling team at Lindenwood Univ.
"They are all testing the waters," USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach Izzy Izboinikov. "There is an even playing field here with many of the ranked wrestlers from the Olympic Trials not entered. It is an amazing opportunity for them to be at a national event and gain experience. The gap is not that big between the age-group levels and the Senior level. At this time of the year, and at their young age, this is all about development."
Of the group, Maroulis and Gray have joined the U.S. Olympic Education program at Northern Michigan, where they are seniors in high school. Anthony and Weber are also still in high school. Brown and Clodgo are now a college freshman at Northern Michigan. Clodgo spent two years in high school with the USOEC program.
Padilla, Maroulis, Brown and Gray won all their morning matches to qualify for the best-of-three championship series, with a chance to make the U.S. team going to Japan. Maroulis was second at the U.S. Senior Nationals last year, and won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships this summer. Gray was a 2008 Junior World champion at her weight class.
Three of the Fargo champions in the World Team Trials finals are training under coaches Shannyn Gillespie and Tony DeAnda at Northern Michigan.
"The new ones, we have had some time to work with them the last few weeks," said Gillespie. "However, we have worked with them a lot over the last three years at training camps we have held. It is a numbers game. The more numbers you have at the grassroots level, the more who will be competitive as 18 and 19 year olds. They are all getting a lot of competition, including many international matches on tours."
Oklahoma City Univ. team tests itself at the highest level
Now in its second year as a varsity wrestling program, the women's team at Oklahoma City University is already making an impact. The Stars were second at the WCWA Nationals last year behind perennial power the Univ. of the Cumberlands in their first year of existence and is seeking higher goals.
Coach Archie Randall and his staff brought 18 athletes to compete in Colorado Springs at the Women's World Team Trials, the largest contingent of wrestlers in the tournament. Although none of the athletes qualified for the championship finals, the OCU athletes got in numerous matches against high quality competitors.
"This is important to us. The only way we will be competitive on the Senior level is if the girls get experience on the Senior level. They are young, they are still babies. If you want the best athletes, you need the best competition," said Randall.
Three OCU wrestlers will be competing in the third-place matches on Saturday evening: Nicole Woody at 48 kg, Natasha Umemoto at 55 kg, Stefenie Shaw at 67 kg and
Randall is not measuring success by the number of medals the team wins, but how they compete against top competition.
"Our goals here are the wrestle hard. We may not be winning a lot of matches, but they are all wrestling hard. We want to have World and Olympic medalists from our program. If the colleges want to get better, they have to be at these events. We will be at the Dave Schultz Memorial and all the big tournaments. We will bring every wrestler we can who want to go. It is a teaching and learning process."
Helping the OCU women's team this year is two-time World champion and nine-time World medalist Kristie Marano, who is attending class there and assisting with the program. Randall says that she has helped the team make the transition to the Senior level.
"It makes a difference having a woman on our staff," said Randall. "She does all kinds of things that the men coaches can not do. She is like the mom on the team. It is not too shabby to have nine World medals in our room, either."
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