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By Tim Mimick/The Gazette
2/11/2000
Tina George speaks softly, laughs loudly and wrestles like a perturbed bear.
She looks like a world-class athlete, with thick thighs, strong arms and a graceful stride. She grew up with track and gymnastics. In a bold move, she switched to women's wrestling.
Her Olympic dream isn't set on the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, where women won't be allowed to wrestle. By the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, that oversight likely will be corrected.
She'll have plenty of practice by then. She works out at the Olympic Training Center at least four times a week, getting pointers from coaches and the male wrestlers she's grown accustomed to fighting.
Two other days she cross-trains, lifting weights and swimming.
"I usually wrestle with the guys," she said. "I think it helps me more than anything else. I think it's a drag, actually, when other girls come here."
They'll be here this week, as part of the Dave Schultz Memorial International Wrestling Tournament on Friday and Saturday at the Olympic Training Center.
George, 21, should be one of the favorites in the women's division. She is ranked first in the United States at 123 pounds and took sixth last year at the World Championships.
"She's real fast," U.S. freestyle developmental coach Mike Duroe said. "She's got good balance. Those are God-given talents. Plus, she's receptive to new ideas. She takes criticism well."
Good thing, since she faced plenty of criticism when she first decided to wrestle. The women's side of the sport is growing, but George didn't know it until five years ago, when she was in high school in Cleveland and saw a girl from another school wrestling.
"She was wrestling a boy. She was beating him up, too," George said with a laugh. "That was the interesting part."
After competing her senior year in high school, George entered the University of Minnesota-Morris, which had a women's wrestling program. She met Tricia Saunders, a four-time world champion who encouraged and taught her.
"I had everything but technique," George said.
The lessons were learned quickly. She was the 1997 Northeast Regional champion and placed seventh at the national meet. She was voted the outstanding wrestler in the 1998 university women's national tournament.
Now she's enrolled at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and studying chemistry. Classes have to wait this weekend during the tournament, when she'll have plenty of work cut out for her even though some of the better foreign women's teams declined invitations.
"Tina and everyone else knows, though, that they have to compete no matter who is here," Duroe said. "Tina hasn't competed yet against some of the (U.S.) women who are going to be here. I hope she gets a competitive weight class."
So does George. She doesn't want to waste time getting to her goal.
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Woman wrestler has Olympics on her mind
By Tim Mimick/The Gazette
2/13/2000
With a flip of her past-the-shoulders-length, bleached-blond hair, Malissa Sherwood pondered the question: Are you excited about women's wrestling possibly becoming an Olympic sport in 2004?
"I'm so there. So there," she said.
Sherwood, 24, is from Rocklin, Calif, near Sacramento. She emits some of that cliche surfer talk, but she's no loser. In fact, she claimed the award Saturday night as the best women's wrestler in the second annual Dave Schultz Memorial International Wrestling Tournament.
"I'm so proud to represent Dave," she said. "I wouldn't rather be on any other team but Dave's team. I think it's an honor to wrestle for the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club."
Schultz, a 1984 Olympic champion for the United States, was shot and killed in 1996. His parents and widow attended the finals Saturday night at the Olympic Sports Center. His widow, Nancy, handed out awards.
Sherwood smiled wildly with Nancy Schultz for a photo during the awards ceremony.
Sherwood didn't goof around while whipping through the 123-pound division, finishing the feat with a quick 11-0 disposal of Grace Magnusson in the final.
The title alone would have pleased Sherwood. She hasn't won that many championships and she was wrestling up from her usual 112-pound class. She wanted to test the 123-pounders, including top-ranked Tina George.
Their second-round battle erupted in the opening 12 seconds when Sherwood countered a shoulder move by George for a quick three points. Sherwood won 10-0.
"I thought it was going to be my toughest match," Sherwood said.
She knows tough. Coming from a broken home, she worked to put herself through Sierra Junior College. She just graduated. That's not enough. She's making sure her 17-year-old brother has it better. He'll go to college because of her.
It's that kind of determination that made her go out for football as a sophomore at Tracy (Calif.) High School. After the season, some of the boys from the football team were wrestling. Just having fun.
"I liked what the boys were doing," she said. "I tried it. I started wrestling. I was respected by the boys. I made a lot of boys cry."
TAKEDOWNS: Rulon Gardner was the only defending champion to win another title. He took the Greco-Roman heavyweight division by injury default over Dremiel Byers of Fort Carson. This was the first year for the women's division. ... Tina George was pinned in 56 seconds by Carrie Birge during the women's 123-pound third-place match.
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Sherwood wins; Dave Schultz tournament
2/14/2000
46 kg/101.25 lbs. - 1st - Clarissa Chun, Marshall, Mo. (Viking
WC) dec. Julie Gonzalez, Vallejo, Calif. (Peninsula Grapplers),
6-2; 3rd place - Samantha Bocian, Gunnison, Colo. (Western State
WC)
51 kg/112.25 lbs. - 1st -Stephanie Murata, Boca Raton, Fla.
(Sunkist Kids) won by tech. fall over Casey Baranoski, Marshall,
Mo. (Viking WC), 10-0; 3rd - Patricia Miranda, Saratoga, Calif.
(Dave Schultz WC) won by tech. fall over Shelley Tomita,
Marshall, Mo. (Viking WC), 10-0; 5th - Amy Alvero, Marshall, Mo.
(Viking WC)
56 kg/123.25 lbs. - 1st -Malissa Sherwood, Rocklin, Calif. (Dave
Schultz WC) won by tech. fall over Grace Magnusson, Marshall,
Mo. (Viking WC), 11-0; 3rd - Carrie Birge, Marshall, Mo. (Viking
WC) pinned Tina George-Wilson, Colorado Springs, Colo.
(Minnesota Storm), 0:56; 5th - Julieta Kliford, San Francisco,
Calif. (Peninsula Grapplers); 6th - Leigh Jaynes, Marshall, Mo.
(Viking WC)
62 kg/136.5 lbs. - 1st -Sara McMann, Lock Haven, Pa. (Sunkist
Kids) won by tech. fall over Cathilee Albert, Boudler, Colo.
(Colorado WC), 11-0; 3rd - Toccara Montgomery, Marshall, Mo.
(Viking WC) won by tech. fall over Tina Arnds, Marshall, Mo.
(Viking WC), 13-0; 5th - Tonya Evinger, Bates City, Mo.
(Wrestling Central); 6th - Renee Nakata, Marshall, Mo. (Viking
WC)
68 kg/149.75 lbs. - 1st - Melanie Macari, Marshall, Mo. (Viking
WC) pinned Chandell Knox, Minneapolis, Minn. (Minnesota Storm),
0:45; 3rd - Tonya Yaunish (Canada) pinned Ronica Froese,
Marshall, Mo. (Viking WC), 1:56
75 kg/165.25 lbs. - 1st -Iris Smith, Colorado Springs, Colo.
(Cookies & Cream) pinned Dominique Smalley, Colorado Springs,
Colo. (Dave Schultz WC), 2:56; 3rd - Donell Bradley, Marshall,
Mo. (Viking WC)
Team Standings: 1. Missouri Valley College, 45 pts.; 2. Dave
Schultz Wrestling Club, 27 pts.; 3. Sunkist Kids, 20 pts.; 4.
Cookies & Cream, 17 pts.; 5. Peninsula Grapplers, 15 pts.; 6.
Tie - Minnesota Storm and Colorado WC, 9 pts.
Outstanding Wrestler - Malissa Sherwood, United States
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