Women’s Wrestling Week: Missouri Valley wins first Women’s College Nationals on home mats in 2004
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Mollie Keith of Missouri Valley College (left) and Toccara Montgomery of Cumberland College (right) were among the champions at the first Women's College Nationals held in 2004 at Missouri Valley College.
Women’s college wrestling got started in the mid-1990’s, with a few pioneer programs that decided to provide opportunity for women to wrestle, even before the sport had an organized structure.
The University of Minnesota-Morris was the first team, and shortly thereafter, programs were started at Missouri Valley College, Cumberland College (now called the University of the Cumberlands), the University of Pacific and Menlo College. Some of the other early programs with women wrestlers included Cal-State Bakersfield, Neosho CC, Lassen College and MacMurray College.
Most of these teams entered in USA Wrestling national freestyle events on the Senior and age-group levels, and sometimes ventured north of the border to compete against Canadian college teams. In fact, for a number of years, USA Wrestling published a North American women’s college ranking which included both the U.S. programs and the Canadian colleges.
In 2004, the U.S. women’s college teams decided to hold a national tournament of their own. Missouri Valley College, one of early powerhouses among women’s college teams, agreed to host the Women’s College Nationals on their campus in Marshall, Mo. on March 20. The women competed at the existing international freestyle weight classes, using the international freestyle rules.
Cumberland College had been No. 1 in the U.S. women’s college team rankings that season, led by Coach Kip Flanik, one of the pioneer coaches for women’s wrestling in the USA. The team was led by athletes who were already successful on the U.S. Senior level, including 2013 World silver medalist Toccara Montgomery and Senior National All-Americans Alaina Berube and Othella Lucas.
That year, Missouri Valley College hired Carl Murphree as a full-time women’s coach, after successfully coaching girls wrestling programs in California. Murphree followed in the footsteps of Mike Maccholz, who founded the Mo Val women’s team and coached both the men and women for a number of years. When Murphree came to Missouri Valley, Maccholz went back to focusing fully on the men’s team. It made sense for that first national event to be held on their campus.
“We had a good facility and good support at the school. I think we have the best facility in the current WCWA to host a national tournament. At Missouri Valley College, from the president on down, our women’s wrestling team was important,” said Murphree.
Missouri Valley has some of their own wrestlers ranked on the Senior level, including captain Mollie Keith, and talented transfers Brooke Bogren and Stephany Lee. With a large roster, Missouri Valley had a good mix of experienced wrestlers and strong recruits up and down the lineup.
“At the time, women’s college wrestling was very strong at the top. It has nowhere near the depth that we now have in the WCWA. But the top athletes were as competitive as anybody who is competing today,” said Murphree.
The timing of the tournament was shortly after spring break, and Coach Flanik did not have his Cumberlands team train through the time off from school. When they went to Missouri Valley for the nationals, his lineup was much different than it would have been during other parts of the year. Most of the key wrestlers were up at least one weight class, and a few went up even two weights.
“It was not a great tournament for us. It was a mistake for me to move the girls around like we did. It was after spring break. I didn’t want to bring them back early. Whatever weights they were at when they returned, that’s where they wrestled,” said Flanik.
Flanik’s team wrestled an international schedule, not only competing in many USA Wrestling events, but also going up to Canada for some quality competition. As this was the first U.S. women’s college tournament, it did not hold the prestige that the event has today.
“It was just the beginning of what became the WCWA (Women’s College Wrestling Association). I didn’t see the vision at that time. For us, the tournament was about getting matches for our girls. I was more focused on making National Teams and World Teams at the time,” said Flanik.
That said, the battle for the team title between Missouri Valley and Cumberland College was competitive and it ended up being a very close battle.
At the Women’s College Nationals, Missouri Valley crowned four champions: Debbi Sakai at 112 pounds, Brooke Bogren at 130 pounds, Mollie Keith at 138 pounds, and Kelly Branham at 158 pounds. The Vikings also had two runners up in Brandy Golt at 147 pounds and Stephany Lee at 176 pounds.
“I wrestled Iris Mucha of Cumberlands in the finals. She originally from Alaska. I did pretty well. I don’t remember the details, but it was a good match for me,” said Bogren, who needed overtime to edge Mucha for the title, 3-2.
Bogren did remember which of her teammates also won gold medals, and recalls that winning as a team was something Missouri Valley took pride in.
“It was a fun tournament. It was exciting because of the fact it was the first. It was hard to think about that when you were competing. There was an excitement to having a national tournament which there never was one before. You realized that this was progress and it made you look forward to the future of women’s college wrestling,” said Bogren.
Murphree, who continues to coach Missouri Valley’s women’s team 14 years later and is the current president of the WCWA, still appreciates that first national college champion team.
“I have lots of good memories of people who turned out to be successful, both in USA Wrestling and in life. We adjusted our lineup to beat Cumberland College that year,” said Murphree.
Cumberland placed five women in the finals, with two champions and three runners-up. Capturing individual titles were Alaina Berube at 147 pounds and Toccara Montgomery at 176 pounds. Berube usually competed at 130 pounds, while Montgomery was regularly at 158 pounds.
The finals at 176 featured two wrestlers usually who wrestled at 158 pounds, as Montgomery defeated Missouri Valley’s Stephany Lee, 5-2. Later in their careers, Montgomery made an Olympic team, while Lee went on to compete for Team USA at the World Championships. Flanik, who also coached Montgomery when she was in high school in Ohio, was working with the best athlete among the women college wrestlers.
“I don’t want to diminish the achievements of the other girls. Toccara came in so far ahead of the other wrestlers. She was shunned by those in boys wrestling in high school in Ohio. Because of that, she trained with the guys, but we often went up to Canada on weekends to wrestle. She could get up to 20 matches in a weekend there. By the time she got to college, she had hundreds of matches. At the time, there was no Fargo, no freestyle tournaments for younger girls. Toccara was unbelievable as an athlete. I coached in a good part of Ohio, and Toccara would practice with the guys and do very well,” said Flanik.
Wrestling up in weight, Berube pinned Brandy Golt of Missouri Valley in 4:20 to win the title. Like Montgomery, she had a long career on the Senior level with USA Wrestling, including a berth on a Senior World Team. Berube also went on to serve as head women’s coach for the University of the Cumberlands.
“Alaina was a great talent, and one of the easiest girls to coach. She came to college not knowing much freestyle, but she had an extensive folkstyle background. She picked up freestyle so easily. One of the reasons she blossomed in freestyle was that she had a great offense. She came to college with strong basics, a double leg, a single leg, and a good front-headlock series. She had learned to wrestle. Her high school coach didn’t hold her back at all,” said Flanik.
Sara Fulp-Allen, who wrestled at Menlo College which was coached by her father, the legendary Lee Allen, was the first lightweight champion in women’s college history. She won the title at 105 pounds, scoring a 10-0 technical fall over Kristen Fujioka of Pacific in the championship round.
“I remember it was a small tournament. I remember the gym. I remember the hotel and I remember cutting weight. Those are all wrestling memories, right? Those first years, so many of our competitions were on the Open circuit. We’d go to Canada, we’d go to Phoenix for the Sunkist Tournament every year. Until my junior and senior years, we weren’t truly on a college circuit. Especially in 2004, there was a lot of Olympic preparation and going to a lot of tournaments with the Senior girls and not just the college girls,” she said.
Now, it is 14 years later, and there are expected to be as many as 30 teams at the WCWA Women’s College Nationals in Oklahoma City, which starts today. As one of the pioneers, Bogren marvels at the sport’s growth since that first college nationals.
“It is amazing, for me personally, to think you have a vast choice of colleges now. They are spread out enough so you can even be close to home where you go to college. It is mind-blowing for a person who competed when there were five college programs and who remembers when there were just one or two. We are on the cusp of being an emerging sport on a number of levels. You can compete in Div. II, the NAIA, even in junior college. The diversity of women’s college wrestling is amazing now,” said Bogren.
2004 WOMEN’S COLLEGE NATIONALS
At Marshall, Mo., March 20
Championship Finals
105 – Sara Fulp-Allen (Menlo) tech. fall Kristen Fujioka (Pacific), 10-0
112 – Debbi Sakai (Missouri Valley) dec Kapua Torres (Pacific), 16-5
121 – Desiree Lockhart (Pacific) tech. fall Alexis Gonzalez (Pacific), 10-0
130 – Brooke Bogren (Missouri Valley) dec. Iris Mucha (Cumberland College), 3-2, ot
138 – Mollie Keith (Missouri Valley) dec. Suekoila Shelly (Cumberland College), 3-2, ot
147 – Alaina Berube (Cumberland College) pin Brandy Golt (Missouri Valley), 4:20
158 – Kelly Branham (Missouri Valley) pin Othella Lucas (Cumberland College), 4:20
176 – Toccara Montgomery (Cumberland College) dec. Stephany Lee (Missouri Valley), 5-2
Top Three Teams
1. Missouri Valley College, 97
2. Cumberland College, 87
3. Pacific University, 55
Women’s college wrestling got started in the mid-1990’s, with a few pioneer programs that decided to provide opportunity for women to wrestle, even before the sport had an organized structure.
The University of Minnesota-Morris was the first team, and shortly thereafter, programs were started at Missouri Valley College, Cumberland College (now called the University of the Cumberlands), the University of Pacific and Menlo College. Some of the other early programs with women wrestlers included Cal-State Bakersfield, Neosho CC, Lassen College and MacMurray College.
Most of these teams entered in USA Wrestling national freestyle events on the Senior and age-group levels, and sometimes ventured north of the border to compete against Canadian college teams. In fact, for a number of years, USA Wrestling published a North American women’s college ranking which included both the U.S. programs and the Canadian colleges.
In 2004, the U.S. women’s college teams decided to hold a national tournament of their own. Missouri Valley College, one of early powerhouses among women’s college teams, agreed to host the Women’s College Nationals on their campus in Marshall, Mo. on March 20. The women competed at the existing international freestyle weight classes, using the international freestyle rules.
Cumberland College had been No. 1 in the U.S. women’s college team rankings that season, led by Coach Kip Flanik, one of the pioneer coaches for women’s wrestling in the USA. The team was led by athletes who were already successful on the U.S. Senior level, including 2013 World silver medalist Toccara Montgomery and Senior National All-Americans Alaina Berube and Othella Lucas.
That year, Missouri Valley College hired Carl Murphree as a full-time women’s coach, after successfully coaching girls wrestling programs in California. Murphree followed in the footsteps of Mike Maccholz, who founded the Mo Val women’s team and coached both the men and women for a number of years. When Murphree came to Missouri Valley, Maccholz went back to focusing fully on the men’s team. It made sense for that first national event to be held on their campus.
“We had a good facility and good support at the school. I think we have the best facility in the current WCWA to host a national tournament. At Missouri Valley College, from the president on down, our women’s wrestling team was important,” said Murphree.
Missouri Valley has some of their own wrestlers ranked on the Senior level, including captain Mollie Keith, and talented transfers Brooke Bogren and Stephany Lee. With a large roster, Missouri Valley had a good mix of experienced wrestlers and strong recruits up and down the lineup.
“At the time, women’s college wrestling was very strong at the top. It has nowhere near the depth that we now have in the WCWA. But the top athletes were as competitive as anybody who is competing today,” said Murphree.
The timing of the tournament was shortly after spring break, and Coach Flanik did not have his Cumberlands team train through the time off from school. When they went to Missouri Valley for the nationals, his lineup was much different than it would have been during other parts of the year. Most of the key wrestlers were up at least one weight class, and a few went up even two weights.
“It was not a great tournament for us. It was a mistake for me to move the girls around like we did. It was after spring break. I didn’t want to bring them back early. Whatever weights they were at when they returned, that’s where they wrestled,” said Flanik.
Flanik’s team wrestled an international schedule, not only competing in many USA Wrestling events, but also going up to Canada for some quality competition. As this was the first U.S. women’s college tournament, it did not hold the prestige that the event has today.
“It was just the beginning of what became the WCWA (Women’s College Wrestling Association). I didn’t see the vision at that time. For us, the tournament was about getting matches for our girls. I was more focused on making National Teams and World Teams at the time,” said Flanik.
That said, the battle for the team title between Missouri Valley and Cumberland College was competitive and it ended up being a very close battle.
At the Women’s College Nationals, Missouri Valley crowned four champions: Debbi Sakai at 112 pounds, Brooke Bogren at 130 pounds, Mollie Keith at 138 pounds, and Kelly Branham at 158 pounds. The Vikings also had two runners up in Brandy Golt at 147 pounds and Stephany Lee at 176 pounds.
“I wrestled Iris Mucha of Cumberlands in the finals. She originally from Alaska. I did pretty well. I don’t remember the details, but it was a good match for me,” said Bogren, who needed overtime to edge Mucha for the title, 3-2.
Bogren did remember which of her teammates also won gold medals, and recalls that winning as a team was something Missouri Valley took pride in.
“It was a fun tournament. It was exciting because of the fact it was the first. It was hard to think about that when you were competing. There was an excitement to having a national tournament which there never was one before. You realized that this was progress and it made you look forward to the future of women’s college wrestling,” said Bogren.
Murphree, who continues to coach Missouri Valley’s women’s team 14 years later and is the current president of the WCWA, still appreciates that first national college champion team.
“I have lots of good memories of people who turned out to be successful, both in USA Wrestling and in life. We adjusted our lineup to beat Cumberland College that year,” said Murphree.
Cumberland placed five women in the finals, with two champions and three runners-up. Capturing individual titles were Alaina Berube at 147 pounds and Toccara Montgomery at 176 pounds. Berube usually competed at 130 pounds, while Montgomery was regularly at 158 pounds.
The finals at 176 featured two wrestlers usually who wrestled at 158 pounds, as Montgomery defeated Missouri Valley’s Stephany Lee, 5-2. Later in their careers, Montgomery made an Olympic team, while Lee went on to compete for Team USA at the World Championships. Flanik, who also coached Montgomery when she was in high school in Ohio, was working with the best athlete among the women college wrestlers.
“I don’t want to diminish the achievements of the other girls. Toccara came in so far ahead of the other wrestlers. She was shunned by those in boys wrestling in high school in Ohio. Because of that, she trained with the guys, but we often went up to Canada on weekends to wrestle. She could get up to 20 matches in a weekend there. By the time she got to college, she had hundreds of matches. At the time, there was no Fargo, no freestyle tournaments for younger girls. Toccara was unbelievable as an athlete. I coached in a good part of Ohio, and Toccara would practice with the guys and do very well,” said Flanik.
Wrestling up in weight, Berube pinned Brandy Golt of Missouri Valley in 4:20 to win the title. Like Montgomery, she had a long career on the Senior level with USA Wrestling, including a berth on a Senior World Team. Berube also went on to serve as head women’s coach for the University of the Cumberlands.
“Alaina was a great talent, and one of the easiest girls to coach. She came to college not knowing much freestyle, but she had an extensive folkstyle background. She picked up freestyle so easily. One of the reasons she blossomed in freestyle was that she had a great offense. She came to college with strong basics, a double leg, a single leg, and a good front-headlock series. She had learned to wrestle. Her high school coach didn’t hold her back at all,” said Flanik.
Sara Fulp-Allen, who wrestled at Menlo College which was coached by her father, the legendary Lee Allen, was the first lightweight champion in women’s college history. She won the title at 105 pounds, scoring a 10-0 technical fall over Kristen Fujioka of Pacific in the championship round.
“I remember it was a small tournament. I remember the gym. I remember the hotel and I remember cutting weight. Those are all wrestling memories, right? Those first years, so many of our competitions were on the Open circuit. We’d go to Canada, we’d go to Phoenix for the Sunkist Tournament every year. Until my junior and senior years, we weren’t truly on a college circuit. Especially in 2004, there was a lot of Olympic preparation and going to a lot of tournaments with the Senior girls and not just the college girls,” she said.
Now, it is 14 years later, and there are expected to be as many as 30 teams at the WCWA Women’s College Nationals in Oklahoma City, which starts today. As one of the pioneers, Bogren marvels at the sport’s growth since that first college nationals.
“It is amazing, for me personally, to think you have a vast choice of colleges now. They are spread out enough so you can even be close to home where you go to college. It is mind-blowing for a person who competed when there were five college programs and who remembers when there were just one or two. We are on the cusp of being an emerging sport on a number of levels. You can compete in Div. II, the NAIA, even in junior college. The diversity of women’s college wrestling is amazing now,” said Bogren.
2004 WOMEN’S COLLEGE NATIONALS
At Marshall, Mo., March 20
Championship Finals
105 – Sara Fulp-Allen (Menlo) tech. fall Kristen Fujioka (Pacific), 10-0
112 – Debbi Sakai (Missouri Valley) dec Kapua Torres (Pacific), 16-5
121 – Desiree Lockhart (Pacific) tech. fall Alexis Gonzalez (Pacific), 10-0
130 – Brooke Bogren (Missouri Valley) dec. Iris Mucha (Cumberland College), 3-2, ot
138 – Mollie Keith (Missouri Valley) dec. Suekoila Shelly (Cumberland College), 3-2, ot
147 – Alaina Berube (Cumberland College) pin Brandy Golt (Missouri Valley), 4:20
158 – Kelly Branham (Missouri Valley) pin Othella Lucas (Cumberland College), 4:20
176 – Toccara Montgomery (Cumberland College) dec. Stephany Lee (Missouri Valley), 5-2
Top Three Teams
1. Missouri Valley College, 97
2. Cumberland College, 87
3. Pacific University, 55
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