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Riddel earns wrestling title intelligently
By AL PIKE 3/99
Foster's Daily Democrat Staff Sports Writer
DOVER — In the aftermath of her national wrestling championship, Kali Riddel has done little to celebrate, preferring instead to relax and nurse the beginnings of a cold.
She deserves the break after a productive two days of work, winning four matches over the weekend in the 122-pound weight class, including two Sunday, to capture the United States High School Girls Wrestling Association National Championship in Lake Orion, Mich.
Riddel, a junior at Spaulding High who finished second in the competition last year, went 4-0 after receiving a first-round bye. She surrendered just two points in the entire tournament, which included a second-period pin in the semifinals and a 4-1 victory in the final against Jill Remiticado of Hawaii, in which Riddel rallied from a 1-0 deficit. She won two matches Saturday by a combined score of 15-1.
"Overall I think I did good," Riddel said. "I have to clean up on my technique a little and make it a little sharper. But I’m getting there. I’m learning a lot every time I wrestle.
"It wasn’t like a cakewalk. There are some good girls out there."
After Remiticado executed an escape to take the lead in the final, the Sanbornville resident scored two points in the second period on a takedown, then tallied two more in the third on a reversal to win the title out of 22 wrestlers in her division.
"I think wrestling smart, that’s a big key," Riddel said. "And don’t get psyched out. Take one thing at a time. Focus on the match you’re in, and don’t think too far ahead."
As a team, New Hampshire, which brought five competitors to the big meet, finished 11th out of 42 states, with the other four wrestlers placing from fourth to ninth. Overall, there were 310 wrestlers competing in the national event.
Riddel left Michigan early Monday morning, arriving home late that afternoon, with championship spoils in tow. She said wrestling boys helped her prepare for the nationals.
"It’s a big difference," said Riddel, who will now concentrate on the less restrictive freestyle technique at Marshwood under the auspices of Hawk head coach Matt Rix two or three times a week. "You can always tell girls who wrestle guys and girls who wrestle girls. The girls that wrestle girls aren’t as aggressive, they’re more laid back. (Wrestling boys) helps a lot. Naturally, guys are a lot stronger than girls. That’s a big difference right there. That gives you an advantage."
Spaulding High teammates Matt Budelman and Tod Thone spent extra time after school helping her get ready. Red Raider head coach Joel Thone was also very supportive.
"I don’t know what I’d do without them," said Riddel, who also spent a couple of hours a night practicing in Manchester. "They’re good guys."
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High school wrestling notebook
Girls' success amazes Coppell coach
02/17/2000
By John Marshall / The Dallas Morning News
COPPELL - When Mitch Beims first arrived at Coppell in August, he put out a sign-up sheet for any student interested in wrestling. Among those to register were about a dozen girls. Beims thought it interesting, but figured none of the girls would last because wrestling is such a grueling sport.
Now, thanks to freshman Jennifer Barrett and junior Emmalea Smith, Beims is headed to the state tournament Feb. 25-26 in Austin.
"I'm kind of dumbfounded in a way," Beims said. "This is not something I expected. I didn't know I would have any girls at all, much less have any qualify for state. It's truly amazing."
The state-tournament berths of Barrett and Smith cap a season in which Coppell students took to wrestling with an enthusiastic headlock.
Beims estimated he had more than 100 students out for wrestling at the start of the season. He lost some in the first few weeks of practice but gained several walk-ons later in the season. Beims finished with more than 80 wrestlers on his roster.
Among the most enthusiastic, much to Beims' surprise, were the girls.
Beims had coached one girl at his previous job in Kansas, but she wrestled against the boys. Beims admits he knew little about girls wrestling before arriving in Texas and was unaware of the boys-vs.-girls controversy in the state a few years ago. But he has been impressed with how hard the girls on his team have worked.
"They have really taken to the sport," Beims said. "It was kind of hard for me to comprehend at first, but the girls are all pretty tough. They were so excited about wrestling that they didn't want the season to be over."
It isn't for Barrett and Smith.
Neither had previous wrestling experience, but the 110-pound Barrett and 138-pound Smith each took second at Saturday's Region II tournament at The Colony. Barrett heads the into girls state tournament - which will be Feb. 26 only - with a 12-5 record. Smith is 13-3.
"At first, it was just something new to try and a way to stay active, but it's pretty exciting to get a chance to go to state," said Smith, who had played basketball and volleyball. "The boys have been giving us a hard time, because they say there wasn't much competition in the girls bracket.
"But hey, we're the ones going to state and they're not.
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For Saunders, success is within grasp. Glenn Cratty/Allsport |
Spotlight: Tricia Saunders, Wrestling
Tuesday April 27, 1999 10:06 AM
Born: February 21, 1966, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Residence: Phoenix, Ariz.
Upcoming Event: 1999 U.S. National Wrestling Championships, Las Vegas, Nevada, April 30-May 1
Worth Watching Because: Saunders, the grand dame of women's wrestling, has made an impressive return to her sport after a one-year absence following the birth of her second child. Fully recovered from knee surgery, the 101.25-pound Saunders won the 1998 World Championships in Poznan, Poland last October by defeating three-time world champion Miyu Yamamoto of Japan. The win marked Saunders' third world championship--she also won titles in 1992 and 1996. She now has her sights set on the national championships, an event she has won a record eight times.
Saunders grew up in a wrestling family -- her grandfather, father and older brother all wrestled --so it was only a matter of time before she found her way to the mat. Saunders entered her first tournament at the age of nine, and, competing only against boys, won seven of nine matches. In 1976, in the 50-pound class, Saunders became the first female to win a Michigan state title and the first female regional national champion. Due to her sex, Saunders attracted a crowd of onlookers every time she wrestled, and also met some resistance. After being barred from the 1975 Amateur Athetic Union Eastern National Age Group tournament -- in which she was the only female qualifer -- her parents sued the event's organizers. A federal judge ruled in Saunders' favor but the decision came too late for her to compete in the tournament. At age 12, having established a 181-23 match record against boys, Saunders retired, temporarily.
Ten years later, after receiving her degree from the University of Wisconsin, Saunders made her return to the mat. She began competing internationally -- this time against other women -- and rocketed back to the top of her sport. She became U.S. national champion in 1990 and two years later won the first of three world championship titles. In 1997, she was named the first recipient of the USA Wrestling Woman of the Year award. Saunders is looking forward to competing in the Olympics some day. It's possible that the 2004 Games will feature women's wrestling as a medal event.
Greatest Success: Saunders is the only female U.S. wrestler to win a gold medal at the World Championships (1992, 1996, 1998) and holds the record for most U.S. women's national titles (8).
Quote/Unquote: "I had a bunch of gold medals at home, I knew girls could wrestle".
Cool Fact: Tricia is married to Townsend Saunders, the 1996 Olympic freestyle wrestling silver medalist. They have two children, a daughter, Tassia and a son, Townsend.
