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Caprock, PD girls meet on the mat


By STEVE BELVIN
Globe-News Sports Writer Thursday, January 20, 2000

Get ready for Caprock-Palo Duro II.

Tonight at 6:30 the two girls wrestling powers will go at it again a week after Palo Duro came away with a 30-29 win at the Caprock gym.

The loss knocked Caprock from being the state's top ranked team in girls wrestling. More importantly it gave Palo Duro the district duel championship, earning the Lady Dons a berth in the duel state tournament Jan. 28-29 in Dallas.

Coaches on both sides said the match will be just as good as the first.

"It will be a war said Palo Duro head coach Steve Nelson. "They were No. 1 and we were No. 3. Now were's No. 1 and they're No. 2.. I told my girls, `the Caprock girls are coming to get you.' The key factor is which girls really want it the most."

`'Coach Nelson prepared his girls well for the match," said Caprock assistant coach Ronnie Johnson. "It was a highly intense match. He just had them prepared well. We've got five girls that do well. They always pin their opponents. We've got some underclassmen that have to step up. A lot depends on them. I teased our girls and asked them if they like humble pie. That's what it was. We thought we couldn't be beat and they came in here and showed us we could be."

The match was about as close as it could get. Each team won five matches. But the deciding factor came in the 102-pound division when Palo Duro's Jennifer Fuller kept from being pinned.

Caprock got a forfeit and Stephanie Olivas (110-pound division), Jennifer Johnson (119) and Minnie Garcia (128) got pin wins.

For Palo Duro, Kruncy Inthirath (95), Vivana Rios (138), Janice Gooden (148), Casey Brittan (185) and Dyana McIntyre (HWT) all got pin wins.

The Caprock forfeit came in the 165-pound division when Tori Adams, ranked No. 1 in the nation, got the easy six points.

Adams, which has a 22-1 record this season, sometimes has a hard time getting matches said Johnson. In order to get matches Adams will compete in anywhere from the 148-pound division to the 165-pound class.

"Torrie Adams can beat almost any girl around," said Nelson. "That where my coaching stragety comes in. I have to try to keep my good girls away from her."

Johnson said this week's practice sessions has been lots more upbeat than last week.

"We didn't have very much intensity last week," he said. `'This week practice has been good. We'll be ready. If they beat us tonight it's just because they've got better girls."

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Caprock girls turn tables on Palo Duro

 

Friday, January 21, 2000

The Caprock Lady Longhorns reversed the outcome with Palo Duro Thursday night, repaying the Lady Dons from an earlier loss with a 30-24 win in dual action.

Last week the Lady Longhorns won the district title and earned a trip to the dual state meet by defeating the Lady Dons 30-29.

This match was every bit as close as the first one. One key weight division was the 138-pound division where Caprock's Camilla Gonzales defeated PD's Viviana Rios 10-8. Rios was leading 8-7 with 13 seconds left when Gonzales got three points for a near pin. If Rios could have held on for the win, the match would have ended in a 27-27 tie.

"We lost a couple of key matches in the 110- and 138-pound divisions," said Palo Duro coach Steve Nelson. "We won the official district dual last week so we get to go to state. It was a hard loss to take though. The state rankings will probably change. We'll go back down to No. 3 and Caprock will probably got back to No. 1. (Arlington) Sam Houston will probably stay at No. 2.

"This is a first-year program and I'm happy. I'm happy for Caprock also. They took their lumps last year in their first year. They are very deserving of the victory."

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Female wrestlers ready for spotlight

By VINCE D'ADAMO
Register Sports Writer
NAPA 1/21/2000


Seven Napa Valley female wrestlers will try to help their sport take one
step closer toward establishing a
legacy in Saturday's Brute Napa Valley Girls Classic at Vintage High School.

The event, which begins at 9 a.m. with the finals starting at roughly 3
p.m., has shaped up as the largest
girls wrestling tournament in the Western United States. Last season marked
the first all-girls wrestling
tournament in Northern California.

Roughly 150 wrestlers from approximately 60 schools will participate. The
tournament will also consist of
two other Monticello Empire League schools besides Napa and Vintage. Hogan
and Bethel will join the event.

Locally, the tournament will feature five Vintage wrestlers and one each
from Napa and Justin-Siena.
Participating schools include members from the South Bay/Pennisula,
Sacramento area, Oregon and Nevada.

Former Vintage wrestler Megan Andrews, now wrestling at Oklahoma State
University, provided the local highlight in last year's event by taking first place in the 136-pound class. Andrews vouched for an all-girls tournament last year.

Vintage's current representatives are Emilee Murphree (135), Christie
Rafanan (119), Carina Valle-Santana (130), Danni Presley (112) and Maika Watanabe (103). Napa is represented by Ani Melvin (136). Justin's Samantha Smith (112) will participate as well.

The weight classes will range from 103 to 152. Ordinarily the lighter weight
classes lend itself to fewer pins. There may be a few exceptions on Saturday.

"At this point, there's not enough girls to run varsity and JV events,"
Vintage head coach and tournament director Carl Murphree said. "I think some of the matches will be people that probably would be a varsity wrestler against a JV wrestler. There will be some mismatches early on, but I'd say by finals time there should be some of the top girls in the country."

The tournament goes beyond the weight class distinction.

"What we're working for is to make it a sport separate from the guys because
that's what it needs to be,"Murphree said. "Girls wrestling guys is never a good mix competitively and otherwise. This is the biggest tournament west of the Mississippi (River) that is all girls and gives them an outlet to show their skills outside of the dominance of men's strength."

Various high schools in Midwestern states currently have all-girls wrestling
teams. It is not yet known when that goal can realistically get accomplished in this area. However,
Murphree is optimistic it can be achieved in the foreseeable future.

"Very optimistic," Murphree said. "When 2004 rolls around and people see it
in the Olympics, that will give us some legitimacy with the general public. If we can bring in athletes that are more exceptional than the average athlete, it will bring them into the sport and fill our numbers."

The local wrestlers hope to be a part of that establishment.

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One of the boys


01/19/2000
By MIKE EASTERLING
Times Sports Staff


MADISON - Nicole Cholek calmly talks about her life Tuesday night, about how she hates it when people think she's not feminine just because she likes to wrestle.

She appears at ease, but inside emotions are raging. In a little over an hour, Cholek, a junior believed to be one of only two girls wrestling in Alabama high schools, will take the mat for the first time as a student at Bob Jones.


She's afraid, and while it's not evident in her voice, she's not afraid to admit it.
"I'm scared,'' she says as the match nears. "My stomach is in knots and I have a lot of butterflies. If I ate anything right now, I would probably vomit."

Cholek is no stranger to wrestling, even though her career up to now has been limited to high school matches in Germany. She arrived at Bob Jones last spring as a sophomore, but until the Alabama High School Athletic Association recently gave its approval, Cholek was relegated to team manager.

When Dan Washburn, executive director for the AHSAA, cleared the path for a girl to wrestle for Walker, the green light was also given to Cholek. She practiced a few times last week to prepare for Tuesday's match.

"They were saying it was against state law,'' Cholek says of not being allowed to compete. "I was just about to write a letter to Dan Washburn, then the girl from Walker was allowed to compete. They said it was something about Title IX."

Title IX is a federal mandate that ensures girls get equal opportunities with boys. According to Bob Jones wrestling coach Fred O'Dell, a gymnastics team offsets a wrestling team if offered, but because the Patriots don't have a gymnastics team, Cholek must be afforded the chance to wrestle.

O'Dell is also a little antsy on this evening. Cholek had come to him last year wanting to wrestle, and showed up again this season. He made her manager because "she wanted to be around it.'' Now, he says, everything has changed.

"There is some apprehension,'' O'Dell says. "Most of the guys have been OK with it. I'm a little nervous in that I don't want her to get hurt. For her to want it so bad, to get to this point and get hurt, I'm worried about that."

As the match draws closer, Cholek grows more edgy. She dresses alone in the girls locker room outside the gym from her male teammates, then makes her weight for the 145-pound match.

"Everyone has been saying, 'Nicole, you're a girl, it's OK if you lose,' '' Cholek says. "I'm not looking at it like that."

From Germany

Cholek was born in Germany, where she attended high school in Ramstein.

While there, a girlfriend who ran cross country with Cholek suggested they both go out for the wrestling team. Because girls wrestling was not uncommon, Cholek decided to give it a try.

She moved here last spring with her mother, Monique, who is from Holland, and her stepfather, John Mull, who is from Georgia. Though girls wrestle in other states, she found it wasn't allowed in Alabama.

She wasn't surprised.

"Europe is more open minded than here,'' she said.

With her parents' approval, she approached O'Dell about wrestling for Bob Jones. He was prepared to agree, but then discovered girls were not permitted to wrestle.

Eventually, Title IX found its way to wrestling and the barrier was removed.

"They support me,'' Cholek said of her parents.

Her teammates seem to embrace her.

"I don't have any brothers or sisters,'' Cholek said. "I feel like they're my brothers."

Wrestler Mark O'Dell, son of the coach, doesn't have a problem with it.

"I think there's nothing wrong with it,'' he said. "If she can come in here and go through the pain, the jumping, the body slamming - if she can go through it - I have no objection to it.

"There are days when I can tell people are giving it to her a little bit, but she's like, "Who cares? It's none of their business,' ''.

His father has mixed emotions.

"From a coaching standpoint, I have no problem with it as long as she can do what I put everybody through,'' he said. ''From a parents' standpoint, I wouldn't want my daughter doing it. But as long as her parents don't mind, I don't."

Tough opener

As a small crowd gathers for Tuesday's match, a few spectators whisper under their breath about the girl from Bob Jones. They question her abilities, her intentions. Why would a girl want to wrestle?

Cholek has heard it all before.

"People think I'm, like, butch or something,'' she says. "Or that I just want to get out here and roll around with the boys. It's nothing like that.

"And I am feminine. I brush my hair in class, check my makeup. I drag my boyfriend all over the mall."

In Cholek's first match in Germany, she was pinned in 30 seconds. She wrestled the same boy again in a sectional meet, this time losing on points but surviving without being pinned.

Talking about that seems to give her confidence, but she's a realist. In the 145-pound division, she says she'll be overmatched when it comes to upper-body strength.

She draws a tough opponent in Athens' Andrew Campbell, who finished third at state last year at 135 pounds. He later says he was "nervous" wrestling a girl.

Once the match starts, he quickly takes control, and less than a minute into it the action is stopped so Cholek can adjust her headgear and clear her nose. Then, Cholek battles gamely before being pinned with 39 seconds left in the first period.

She walks off the mat, her face red and her eyes rimmed with water. A few teammates walk up and offer words of encouragement.

"Everything happened so fast, I'm not sure what I've got to work on," she says. "I'll try harder."