Abbott Blog: Support our USA women at the World Cup in Japan during NCAA weekend
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
2017 World bronze medalist Becka Leathers is one of the stars on the 2018 U.S. Women's World Cup Team. Photo by Tony Rotundo.
While so much of the wrestling community in the USA is focused on the NCAA Div. I Championships which start in Cleveland today, there is another major wrestling competition worthy of attention over on the other side of the world.
The Women’s World Cup is being hosted in Takasaki, Japan on Saturday and Sunday, featuring the top eight women’s wrestling powers in the world battling in dual meets. Your United States women’s freestyle team is in action at this event, and is focused on bringing home the team title.
When you do the time zone math, Takasaki is 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time (which happens to be where Cleveland is located). Basically, if our USA women will be competing on Friday night and Saturday in the United States. With a live stream appearing on Trackwrestling, all four of the USA matches can be seen by our fans. The Olympic Channel also will show some of the USA matches, including the big dual meet against Japan in the pool competition.
On Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. in the Colorado Springs airport, as we started our trek to Cleveland, a majority of the U.S. women were at a different gate, also beginning their journey to Asia. They had just completed a successful training camp at the Olympic Training Center, and spirits were high among the athletes and coaches.
Last year, our U.S. women placed second in the World Championships behind Japan, which has been the dominant power in women’s wrestling for decades. Beating Japan on its home mats is going to be a difficult task. But the only previous time the USA has won the Women’s World Cup was in 2003, when it was also held in Japan. After going 5-0 in the preliminary rounds, the Team USA had Japan in the finals. It went down to the last match, where Toccara Montgomery beat multiple-World champion Kyoko Hamaguchi 5-3 at 72 kg, and Team USA won the dual 14-13.
What’s the old saying, “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all?” In spite of placing second at the 2017 World Championships, in a tie with Belarus, the USA lost the random draw for the second seed at World Cup to Belarus and was thrown back into the draw. And of course, Team USA was pulled into the same pool as World champion and host Japan, along with Sweden and Canada.
Our USA team doesn’t seem to matter who it faces. It knows it has to beat Japan to bring home the team title. And based upon their approach to the task at hand, our women believe they will do it.
“We are not going to Japan to be a part of the mix; we are going to Japan to come out of there with a World Cup title and be the best we can be. We have to focus on ourselves,” said National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner.
2016 Olympian Haley Augello believes that the USA is already the best team on the planet and believes the USA can “bring home a big gold World Cup” from Japan.
You are going to like this USA team. It is a nice mix of veteran talents and young stars on a rise.
It is led by three-time World champion and Olympian Adeline Gray, who missed the 2017 season recovering from injuries. Gray has already shown she is back in top form, beating 2017 World champion Yasmin Adar of Turkey in the finals of the Klippan Lady Open a few weeks ago.
Augello, two-time World silver medalist Ali Ragan, 2017 World bronze medalist Becka Leathers and two-time Yarygin Grand Prix champion Tamyra Stock bring additional proven talent. Add in past World Team members Victoria Anthony, Sarah Hildebrandt, Mallory Velte and Victoria Francis and this is a seasoned bunch.
Kayla Miracle, a three-time age-group World medalist who just finished her college career with four WCWA titles, has been outstanding on the Senior level this entire year. Like Gray, she won a gold at the Klippan Lady Open, which was a UWW Ranking Tournament with a loaded field. Also on the roster are Erin Golston, Jacarra Winchester, Forrest Molinari and Julia Salata, all who have paid their dues and are very skilled.
Our staff will be watching the USA women on the Trackwrestling feed and reporting on the action as we also cover the NCAA Championships. The World Cup is a special event, with all the excitement of a major dual meet tournament. We encourage you to also check out the U.S. team on your cell phones, tablets and computers, right alongside the men’s college action.
Here is when the U.S. matches are happening, U.S. Eastern Daylight time on Trackwrestling.
Friday 8:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Canada
Friday 10:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Sweden
Saturday 5:15 a.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Japan
Medal Match to be determined – Saturday night/early Sunday morning
There will be considerable coverage on TheMat.com and United World Wrestling’s websites. Also, our team is usually pretty active on social media, so you might also follow some of the stars as they provide their insight from Japan.
The Olympic Channel has picked up this event, and if you have this as part of your television package, you can see it on television, too. Katherine (Fulp-Allen) Shai will be doing the color commentary, giving some great insight from her many years on the national team. Here is the broadcast schedule on The Olympic Channel, with one additional showing on NBCSN.
Saturday 3/17
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 pm ET on The Olympic Channel: USA v Japan dual meet
Sunday 3/18
7:00-8:30 p ET on The Olympic Channel: Bronze Medal or USA match (depends on where USA ends up after day 1)
8:30-10:00 p.m. ET on The Olympic Channel: Gold Medal Dual Meet
Monday 3/19
11:30 pm-1:00 am ET on NBCSN: re-air of the USA dual from the final day
While so much of the wrestling community in the USA is focused on the NCAA Div. I Championships which start in Cleveland today, there is another major wrestling competition worthy of attention over on the other side of the world.
The Women’s World Cup is being hosted in Takasaki, Japan on Saturday and Sunday, featuring the top eight women’s wrestling powers in the world battling in dual meets. Your United States women’s freestyle team is in action at this event, and is focused on bringing home the team title.
When you do the time zone math, Takasaki is 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time (which happens to be where Cleveland is located). Basically, if our USA women will be competing on Friday night and Saturday in the United States. With a live stream appearing on Trackwrestling, all four of the USA matches can be seen by our fans. The Olympic Channel also will show some of the USA matches, including the big dual meet against Japan in the pool competition.
On Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. in the Colorado Springs airport, as we started our trek to Cleveland, a majority of the U.S. women were at a different gate, also beginning their journey to Asia. They had just completed a successful training camp at the Olympic Training Center, and spirits were high among the athletes and coaches.
Last year, our U.S. women placed second in the World Championships behind Japan, which has been the dominant power in women’s wrestling for decades. Beating Japan on its home mats is going to be a difficult task. But the only previous time the USA has won the Women’s World Cup was in 2003, when it was also held in Japan. After going 5-0 in the preliminary rounds, the Team USA had Japan in the finals. It went down to the last match, where Toccara Montgomery beat multiple-World champion Kyoko Hamaguchi 5-3 at 72 kg, and Team USA won the dual 14-13.
What’s the old saying, “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all?” In spite of placing second at the 2017 World Championships, in a tie with Belarus, the USA lost the random draw for the second seed at World Cup to Belarus and was thrown back into the draw. And of course, Team USA was pulled into the same pool as World champion and host Japan, along with Sweden and Canada.
Our USA team doesn’t seem to matter who it faces. It knows it has to beat Japan to bring home the team title. And based upon their approach to the task at hand, our women believe they will do it.
“We are not going to Japan to be a part of the mix; we are going to Japan to come out of there with a World Cup title and be the best we can be. We have to focus on ourselves,” said National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner.
2016 Olympian Haley Augello believes that the USA is already the best team on the planet and believes the USA can “bring home a big gold World Cup” from Japan.
You are going to like this USA team. It is a nice mix of veteran talents and young stars on a rise.
It is led by three-time World champion and Olympian Adeline Gray, who missed the 2017 season recovering from injuries. Gray has already shown she is back in top form, beating 2017 World champion Yasmin Adar of Turkey in the finals of the Klippan Lady Open a few weeks ago.
Augello, two-time World silver medalist Ali Ragan, 2017 World bronze medalist Becka Leathers and two-time Yarygin Grand Prix champion Tamyra Stock bring additional proven talent. Add in past World Team members Victoria Anthony, Sarah Hildebrandt, Mallory Velte and Victoria Francis and this is a seasoned bunch.
Kayla Miracle, a three-time age-group World medalist who just finished her college career with four WCWA titles, has been outstanding on the Senior level this entire year. Like Gray, she won a gold at the Klippan Lady Open, which was a UWW Ranking Tournament with a loaded field. Also on the roster are Erin Golston, Jacarra Winchester, Forrest Molinari and Julia Salata, all who have paid their dues and are very skilled.
Our staff will be watching the USA women on the Trackwrestling feed and reporting on the action as we also cover the NCAA Championships. The World Cup is a special event, with all the excitement of a major dual meet tournament. We encourage you to also check out the U.S. team on your cell phones, tablets and computers, right alongside the men’s college action.
Here is when the U.S. matches are happening, U.S. Eastern Daylight time on Trackwrestling.
Friday 8:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Canada
Friday 10:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Sweden
Saturday 5:15 a.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight time – USA vs. Japan
Medal Match to be determined – Saturday night/early Sunday morning
There will be considerable coverage on TheMat.com and United World Wrestling’s websites. Also, our team is usually pretty active on social media, so you might also follow some of the stars as they provide their insight from Japan.
The Olympic Channel has picked up this event, and if you have this as part of your television package, you can see it on television, too. Katherine (Fulp-Allen) Shai will be doing the color commentary, giving some great insight from her many years on the national team. Here is the broadcast schedule on The Olympic Channel, with one additional showing on NBCSN.
Saturday 3/17
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 pm ET on The Olympic Channel: USA v Japan dual meet
Sunday 3/18
7:00-8:30 p ET on The Olympic Channel: Bronze Medal or USA match (depends on where USA ends up after day 1)
8:30-10:00 p.m. ET on The Olympic Channel: Gold Medal Dual Meet
Monday 3/19
11:30 pm-1:00 am ET on NBCSN: re-air of the USA dual from the final day
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