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TOLIN TAKES GOLD

CASPER-Sarah Tolin wins the gold medal at the Rocky Mountain Regional Wrestling Championships held April 1, 2000 at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Tolin, a senior at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper, Wyoming, competed in the Senior Women's Division Freestyle Wrestling Tournament at 56 kg. (123.25 pounds) weight class. Tolin also won the Gorriaran Trophy for the most pins in the least amount of time in the Senior Women's Division, with 2 pins in 2 minutes 23 seconds. This is the second time Tolin has earned both a gold medal and the Gorriaran Trophy at the Rocky Mountain Regionals. In 1998, at the age of 16, Tolin won the gold medal and Gorriaran Trophy at the 46 kg. (101.25 pounds) weight class, and was also named the tournament's outstanding wrestler. The Senior Women's Division is now for athletes 20 years and older; however, athletes between the ages of 17 and 19 may participate with a medical certificate.

Tolin defeated Nadia Al-Maliky, a high school wrestler from Kansas City, Missouri, with a pin in 1:43. Tolin also defeated Deanna Dingwall, a college wrestler from Western States College in Gunnison, Colorado, with a pin in :40.

Tolin, age 18, was the only female wrestler from Wyoming in the senior women's competition. She returned the previous weekend from the Girl's High School National Championships at Lake Orion, Michigan, as a High School All-American, the first female wrestler from Wyoming to earn All-American wrestling honors. Tolin is also ranked #6 by USA Wrestling in the FILA Junior Women's Division. The FILA Junior Women's age-group category includes female wrestlers between the ages of 17 and 20 who have excelled on the national and world levels. Tolin was the first female to receive the prestigious Wyoming Governor's Award for Excellence in Freestyle Wrestling. She received it in the 15-16 Girl's Division.

Tolin will wrestle later this month in the Senior Women's National Freestyle Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. The world's top females in the Senior Women's Division are expected to wrestle in the 2004 Olympics at Athens, Greece.

SARAH TOLIN EARNS ALL AMERICAN STATUS

CASPER- Sarah Tolin medals and earns All American recognition at the Girl's National High School Wrestling Championships in Lake Orion, Michigan, near Detroit, held March 24-27.

Tolin, a senior at Kelly Walsh High School, a little disappointed in her ninth place finish, had 4 wins and 2 losses at the 123 pound weight division in the third annual Girl's National High School Wrestling Championships sponsored by the United States Girl's Wrestling Association. Tolin was ranked 7th in the nation at 121 pounds, going into the tournament. Although Tolin had come down with tracheitis and an upper respiratory infection at the beginning of last week, she still practiced every day last week with her high school coach, Steve Howery, who also accompanied her and her family to Michigan. Tolin left early Friday morning, still hoping for a top three finish. Sporting a heavy cough, Tolin competed all day Saturday and Sunday through the consolation finals.

Tolin, the first girl to be allowed to wrestle against boys in Wyoming by the Wyoming High School Activities Association since it adopted its non-mixed gender participation rule, is also the first girl in Wyoming to receive All American status as a wrestler. Tolin, the lone Wyoming wrestler at the national wrestling championships, also captured 26th place for Wyoming in team point competition, single handedly placing ahead of 10 other states at the tournament. Michigan won the tournament on team points, while California and Texas also earned top team recognition.

The national wrestling tournament placed 12 finishers in the high school division. Using a blocked weight system, the wrestlers did not know what weight class they would wrestle in until all wrestlers had weighed in. The total was divided by 14, which put about 20 wrestlers in each class.

On her way to All American recognition, Tolin defeated Jessica Degrave of Wisconsin by a fall in 1:13. Degrave medaled just ahead of Tolin in 8th place at the national tournament. Tolin defeated Richelle Buskirk of Michigan, 7-0, and defeated Jacquie Clement of Deleware, the #4 seed of the tournament, 9-1. Tolin earned a victory over Christine Reed, the #3 seed of the tournament, by forfeit. Reed was ranked 2nd at 121 pounds coming into the tournament.

After losing to Samantha Collett of Ohio, 11-0, on the championship side of the bracket, Tolin was hoping to get a rematch against Collett on the consolation side. Collett was ranked just ahead of Tolin at 6th place coming into the tournament, but finished in 4th place. However, Tolin did not get the opportunity for the rematch, as Tolin lost a controversial close match to a Michigan wrestler, officiated by a Michigan referee, on a Michigan mat.

Tolin lost to Rose Wechter of Michigan near the end of the first overtime period, 6-4. The Michigan wrestler was ranked 8th nationally at 124 pounds coming into the tournament. Tolin thought she had won in regulation time, as she put Wechter on her back at the end of the third period with just six seconds remaining. Although Tolin did not get the pin, she and her coaches thought at least a two point near fall was earned by Tolin to give her the victory. However, the official did not score the near fall and declared it to be a 4-4 tie which sent the match into a two minute overtime period. It was one of those matches, that just didn't go Tolin's way at any time, although she dominated her opponent. The match ended in a scoreless first period. The official scored a near fall for the Michigan wrestler and awarded her two points, but before the end of the second period, changed it to three points for Wechter after conferring with another Michigan referee. Tolin thought a reversal at the end of the second period was earned, but Tolin received only one point for an escape as the official ruled time had run out. The Michigan official also did not score a one point penalty for Tolin, as Wechter had put an illegal full nelson on Tolin, as she tried to unsuccessfully turn Tolin during the match.

Although the referee is not allowed to use video playback in a match, after a later review of the video tape of the match by the referee and other tournament officials, they conceded that Tolin probably should have won the match by decision in regulation time, but were unwilling to change the match results. Instead of wrestling on for third place, Tolin had to settle on wrestling on for ninth place in the consolation finals.

Tolin's 123 pound weight class was won by Alaina Berube of Michigan, a 1998 national champion, and seeded #2 in the tournament. The hometown favorite defeated the #1 seed and 1999 national champion, Suzanne Kivi of Nevada, in the finals.

Tolin Nationally Ranked in Women's Freestyle Wrestling

CASPER, WY - Sarah Tolin of Casper is currently ranked 6th in the nation at 110 pounds in the 2000 FILA Junior Women's Rankings for Freestyle wrestling recently announced by USA Wrestling and prepared under the direction of Mike Duroe, National Freestyle Developmental Coach. The FILA Junior Women's age-group category includes female wrestlers between the ages of 17 and 20 who have excelled on the national and world levels. FILA is the international governing body for Olympic style wrestling and USA Wrestling is the national governing body for the sport. It is anticipated that women's Freestyle wrestling will be added in 2004 to the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, according to Duroe.

Tolin is a Senior at Kelly Walsh High School and was the first girl to receive the prestigious Wyoming Governor's Award for Recognition of Athletic Excellence in Freestyle Wrestling presented by the Wyoming Amateur Wrestling Association and signed by Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer. Tolin is a two time Wyoming Girl's Freestyle State Champion. Tolin will wrestle in the Rocky Mountain Regionals Freestyle Tournament in Laramie on April 1st in the Senior Women's Division. In 1998 at the Rocky Mountain Regionals, Tolin won the gold medal at 46 kg, received the trophy for the most pins in the least amount of time, and was named the Tournament's Outstanding Wrestler in the Senior Women's Division.

Tolin is also ranked 7th in the nation in high school/collegiate style wrestling by the United States Girl's Wrestling Association ( at 121 pounds) and the Female High School Wrestling Association (at 119 pounds). Tolin's photograph appeared in the recent February edition of Wrestling USA Magazine with the nation's best women high school wrestlers. Tolin will compete for a national title at the third annual Girl's National High School Wrestling Championships sanctioned by the USGWA in Lake Orion, Michigan, near Detroit, on March 24-26.

In her six years of wrestling, Tolin has practiced with and wrestled against mostly boys. As an eighth grader, she was the first girl to wrestle at Centennial Junior High School in Casper. Tolin won her first junior high match by a pin against a boy. In her Junior year, Tolin was the first girl in Wyoming to be allowed by the Wyoming High School Activities Association to wrestle against the boys in high school wrestling competition. In one of her last matches of her regular season this year as a Senior at Kelly Walsh High School, Tolin wrestled her first girl in Wyoming High School competition, a sophomore from Riverton who was one weight class and about ten pounds heavier than Tolin. The more experienced Tolin dominated the match and won by a technical fall with a score of 19-2.

Tolin is a multi-sport athlete, receiving varsity letters in Wrestling, Cross Country, and Track & Field. Before she was allowed to wrestle in high school, Tolin played girl's basketball during her freshman and sophomore years as a point guard with an accurate three point shot. In elementary school and junior high, she also enjoyed playing volleyball. At this time, Tolin is unsure of her college plans and is hoping to be offered scholarships to wrestle in college. There are now colleges in the United States and Canada that have a women's varsity wrestling team and some of the women who have competed against Tolin on the national level are now wrestling on men's varsity college teams.

Tolin's two younger brothers, Josh and David, also wrestle and both are still involved with the Kelly Walsh High School Wrestling program and active in USA Wrestling. Her older sister, Cece, was the varsity wrestling manager for Kelly Walsh before going to college and remains active in the sport as a licensed wrestling official. Her parents, Don and Vickie, are involved with wrestling as coaches, mat and pairing officials, sports advocates, and are also the Commissioners for wrestling for the Cowboy State Games.

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Time has arrived for women

By Gary Abbott
USA Wrestling

September 12, 1999, was a great day for women's athletics in the United States. Led by experienced athletes, with every team member contributing to the effort, the USA won a women's world team title. The sport? Women's Freestyle Wrestling.

Perhaps you didn't hear about this great achievement. Certainly, the outstanding efforts of the U.S. women's wrestling team did not capture the attention and acclaim that other champion U.S. women's teams, such as the World Cup soccer or Olympic hockey team, received. However, the wrestling team's achievement should be considered on equal footing with other U.S. champion squads. It took 11 years of hard work and effort for the U.S. to claim this prestigious title.

The U.S. has the best women's wrestling team in the world, yet entering the 1999-00 season, not a single NCAA school has a varsity women's wrestling team. In fact, the NCAA does not classify women's freestyle wrestling as an emerging sport. What's the deal?

A quick history is in order. Although some people have not yet heard, women's wrestling is growing rapidly across the United States and around the world. FILA, the international wrestling federation, hosted its first Women's World Wrestling Championships in 1987. The U.S. fielded its first team in 1989, and has participated every year since. For three years before their 1999 victory, the U.S. women's wrestling team placed third in the world, taking the final step to the top this year. The word in the international sports community is that women's wrestling will be added to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Participant pool

USA Wrestling has hosted women's wrestling competitions on a number of age levels for many years. There are also World Championships for women wrestlers on the Cadet (15-17 years) and Junior (18-20 years) levels each season.

The number of girls participating in wrestling at the U.S. high-school level has been growing rapidly during the 1990s. In 1990, there were 112 girls competing in wrestling on the high-school level. The number has grown every year of the decade, reaching a record of 2,361 female high-school wrestlers in the 1998-99 season.

What makes this even more remarkable is that most of these girls are training and competing against boys, as there are few all-female high-school wrestling teams. Two states, Hawaii and Texas, sponsor state-sanctioned high-school wrestling tournaments for girls. Michigan has a "nonsanctioned" state tournament that features more than 100 competitors each year. Pennsylvania coaches started a "nonsanctioned" state meet last year. There also is a high-school national girls' championships held each year with more than 300 competitors.

There are more girls participating in high-school wrestling than in high-school sports such as fencing, crew, rifle, canoeing, equestrian and judo. A number of these sports have established college programs, and others have received the NCAA's emerging-sport status. One of these sports, women's rowing, is a favorite new program added by athletics departments across the nation, even in areas with few local participants and little tradition.

Last year, the USA Wrestling staff developed a proposal to create women's freestyle wrestling programs on the college level, which was sent to several Division I conferences. In short, the proposal is to hold women's freestyle wrestling in the spring, with 10 weight divisions, just like the men. By holding the competition at a different time than the men, colleges that already have men's wrestling could utilize existing resources -- such as facilities, staff and equipment -- for the women's teams, offering a cost savings and program efficiency. Others could choose to develop a separate women's program from the men's team, if desired. This also is the busy time for the USA Wrestling's women's season, which could offer built-in competition opportunities.

The reason for approaching conferences with the plan is to bring in a number of teams at one time, while also providing a competition structure. In order to design the best possible program, USA Wrestling continues to seek input from college athletics leaders who will be the people who must make it work. This is a great opportunity that can become a success with planning and creativity.

USA Wrestling is not promoting women's wrestling as a method to help save men's wrestling on the college level. In fact, the organization is still educating its men's coaches as to why this is an important project. USA Wrestling has both a legal and moral responsibility to its women wrestlers.

Like NCAA institutions, which have Title IX obligations, USA Wrestling is bound by the Amateur Sports Act, which requires equal opportunity for women athletes. USA Wrestling provides the same level of financial stipend support to its women's team as its men's freestyle and Greco-Roman teams, even though women's wrestling is not yet an Olympic sport.

USA Wrestling also recognizes that this is the right thing to do, and its time has come. Women wrestlers train hard and are committed to success, just like their male counterparts. The same positive values that wrestling provides to men also are available to women athletes. With the growth of opportunity for women athletes on the college level, it seems reasonable that women wrestlers should be given consideration by NCAA institutions.

This topic will not just go away. Young women wrestlers are being developed at the high-school and club level all over the nation. These women are now becoming college students and will be attending your universities. Some of these athletes will want to join your existing men's team, just like they did in high school. Others may request a team of their own, like they are doing in Canada and at some NAIA schools. This interest in college women's wrestling will only increase each year, as more women wrestlers enter college.

A positive step that the NCAA could take right now is to add freestyle wrestling as an emerging sport for women and begin serious discussions on plans to develop the sport.

Who knows? If NCAA colleges get started with women's wrestling programs soon, perhaps some of their athletes will bring home Olympic medals in the next century.