Contact | Subscribe | Advertise | Links | Youth | H.S. | College | Club | News/General
February 2, 2003
Winnipeg, Manitoba - University of Minnesota-Morris freshman Sharon Jacobson made her mark for the second time this season in a major international wrestling event. In October, Jacobson placed fifth in the highly regarded Sunkist International Open. This past weekend, Jacobson recorded a fourth place finish at the 59 kilo/129 pound weight class in the FILA-Manitoba Open.
The FILA-Manitoba Open featured the national teams of Canada, Sweden, France and Austria, members of the U.S. Olympic Training Center, as well as some of the best collegiate wrestlers from Canada and the United States.
According to UMM head coach Doug Reese, the tournament was as tough as they come. "Each weight class was loaded," said Reese. "The tournament was filled with world champions and world medalists. In fact we wrestled eight world medalists in this tournament." The event was so tough that former UMM wrestlers and Olympic Training Center resident athletes Katie Downing and Marcie Van Dusin failed to make it out of their pool, both dropping matches to former world medalists.
Jacobson lost her first round match to Helen Hennick of Canada by fall then came back to pin J. Chaeffy of the University of Regina in 1:58. In her third match, Jacobson pinned Laura Ostrander of the University of Saskatchewan in 1:50, then defeated Amy Dyck of Canada by fall in just 24 seconds.
In the semifinals, Jacobson lost by fall to junior world silver medalist Breanna Graham of Canada, then dropped the bronze medal to Helen Hennick by fall in the consolation finals.
Sharon Jacobson of the University of Minnesota-Morris tightens up her grip to get the fall versus Amy Dyck of Canada to advance to the semifinals of the FILA-Manitoba Open. (photo by Doug Reese)
Tabithia Ramsey lost her opening match to junior world medalist Lindsay Rushton of Brock University 14-3 in the 105 pound/48 kilos weight class. In the second round, Ramsey gave fought well against Kyla Bremner of Austria. Ramsey held a 5-4 in the second period before losing by fall at 4:35. In the final pool match, Ramsey defeated teammate and junior world placefinisher Liz Short by fall in 3:50.
Liz Short dropped a 5-1 decision to Kyla Bremner of Austria and lost by fall to Lindsay Rushton in 2:03.
At 112 pounds/51 kilos, Patricia Crenshaw lost to Teresa Piotrowski of the University of Guelph by fall in 3:09. In the second round, Crenshaw lost a tight 5-4 match to Juliette Willocq of France. Crenshaw ended up placing 5th in the tournament.
At 121 pounds/55 kilos, Keli Hinton lost her opening round match to world medalist Jen Ryz of Canada by fall, then dropped a 11-0 technical superiority to Birgit Stern of Austria. In her final match, Hinton defeated teammate Katie Ross by fall in 29 seconds.
Katie Ross also dropped pool matches to Birgit Stern of Austria by fall, and to Jen Ryz of Canada by decision.
Ranae Faaborg wrestled in the 63 kilo/138 pound weight class. Faaborg lost matches to world medalist Lotta Andersson of Sweden by fall in 2:23, and to Amy Webber of the University of Regina by fall in 3:19.
Megan Goldsmith lost her first match to six-time world champion Christine Nordhagen of Canada by technical superiority 11-0, then lost by fall to World Cup champion and junior world silver medalist Katie Downing of the Sunkist Kids in 2:30.
"As tough as this tournament was," said Reese, "it helped up quite abit. We didn't win a lot of matches, but we were able to grow quite abit by wrestling against this level of competition. Technically we found a number of areas we need to work on before we take to the mat again," said Reese.