Posted on 02/06/2006 6:26:31 AM PST by MikefromOhio
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Michaela Hutchison became the first girl in the nation to win a state high school wrestling title while competing against boys.
Hutchison won the final of the 103-pound weight class during Alaska's big school wrestling championships. The Skyview High sophomore entered the state tournament ranked No. 1 in her weight class.
Amid chants of "C'mon, Michaela" and "Girl power," Hutchison earned a 1-0 victory Saturday over Colony High School's Aaron Boss.
She scored an escape with 16 seconds left to beat Boss for the second time in two weeks. Family and friends mobbed Hutchison as she walked away from the mat with a bloody nose, while the crowd rose in a standing ovation.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Alaska isn't the wrestling hotbed like Iowa, Ohio or Pennsylvania is, but this is still quite an accomplishment.
Also, at the 103 class, girls can sometimes be stronger than the boys. Some girls are small enough that they won't have to cut weight to make it under the restriction.
Finally, the story goes on to say that she has 2 older brothers who have ALSO won state championships. It's just in her blood.
Sorry to post and run, but I gotta get to class. Talk to you all when I get back.
Of course she most likely would have kicked my ass. (dang eskimo chicks)
My sister was an attractive blonde head cheerleader for our high school and dated the starting quarterback. One time, while he was at our house, they got into an armwrestling contest and she beat him.
He dumped her a week later.
He couldn't handle the embarrassment. What he didn't understand is that she arm-wrestled three brothers about once a week for her entire life.
I dunno. I've found that when I wrestle boys, they generally let me win for some reason.
I see another Betty Friedan in the making!!!!
[I dunno. I've found that when I wrestle boys, they generally let me win for some reason.]
The was the kind of comment I was going to make. :-)
I wrestled 103 in high school. Won half my matches by default (in our small district there weren't many HS kids that small). The one match I remember more than any was one I lost - to a kind from the School for the Blind. He was so fast! He seemed to be able to anticipate my next move over and over.
Took me many years to get over it, till I realized there was no shame in losing to a good wrestler, blind or not.
Can't imagine why they'd do that...
Correction; should read "to a kid".
I had a girl challenge me to a wrestling match when I was about 14 and she kept letting ME win.
I finally (after about three rounds) figured out why! (I was a bit slow on the uptake...)
BTW, at the Easterns (college) wrestling tournament last year, Princeton had a female wrestler. She got pinned in the first two rounds and was eliminated. Perhaps it keeps Princeton's wrestling program innoculated against a Title IX shutdown.
When girls grow up with 2 older brothers, they get strong quick. My 15 month old daughter can get determined and take down her brothers if they take her toy. :)
My neighbor in highschool was in the 98 pound class (I think that was it) He still had to cut weight, but he was also really small. He felt he should get some sort of award for his accomplishments. He claims to have seen more ceilings of more highschool gyms than any other guy in the country.
Quite a few boys are actually at 103 lbs during their freshman, sophomore and junior years.
In fact, my old high school in Ohio had a guy who was at 103 his entire time in high school (he was 98 lbs his freshman year when he came in 3rd at states) and he won 2 state titles.
It happens.
But as I said, Alaska's wrestling pool probably isn't as deep as Ohio's.
At 14, us guys are sometimes a bit oblivious to the intentions of the female of the species, both when good, and when bad...
LOL. We like it when you're on top. Sometimes.
So we've got the national press celebrating the "victory" of a girl who triumphed in a traditionally male role. Great. But I wonder where the press has been when males beat women at roles that are traditionally female? I wonder how valuable our society considers THAT role reversal.
I always pin her with the Saturday night ride.
She has some good top moves, but her best work is done on bottom.
BTW I'm undefeated.
I think you're pushing the concept of "traditional male role" a bit beyond its natural boundaries.
This is a sport, not a job/role in the real world.
This is a sport, not a job/role in the real world.
It is a sport traditionally dominated -- almost to exclusion -- by males.
I understand that part of the equation. It's a sport (read: game) traditionally dominated by the male of the species. So that makes it a "traditional male role"? Usually when we talk about "traditional male roles", we're talking of things of some actual importance. Not games.
Just my opinion, though.
"But I wonder where the press has been when males beat women at roles that are traditionally female? I wonder how valuable our society considers THAT role reversal."
IronJack, I am a world class contender in laundry folding. If my husband can somehow top me, that would be just fine! :-)
LOL
Uh ... yeah. By definition.
Usually when we talk about "traditional male roles", we're talking of things of some actual importance. Not games.
Who's "we"? A role isn't confined to "things of some actual importance," at least not in any definition I've ever seen.
Something tells me we'll not see eye to eye on this regardless of how many posts go back and forth. I'm OK with that. I'll use mine, you use yours, and we'll both grumble that the other just doesn't get it.
ummm ok thanks
I always hated those damned nose tampons....
I think it's newsworthy.
I don't consider ESPN the "national press" either.
she'd hurt me LOL
well guess what?
She DOMINATED the guys in Alaska.
You can't take that away from her and I commend her for it.
And you wouldn't mind one bit. LOL
yeah....
I don't understand why some on this thread feel to need to denigrate what she did.
It's quite an accomplishment no matter what.
If this is truly about equality, shouldn't both role shifts receive equal plaudits and equal attention?
Nothing to denigrate about her wrestling prowess.
But I'm NOT a fan of letting girls play on men's teams, at all. Not football, soccer, or anything. To me it's the equivalent of letting guys play on the women's volleyball or softball teams. Shouldn't happen, IMO.
Of course, guys would look kinda funny in those field hockey skirts. ;o)
Did you read the story?
the Media isn't taking any delight in anything here. At least I dont' see it, but maybe my tinfoil isn't on tight enough.
LOL
it happens.
Hey we had a girl on my wrestling team my junior year and she wrestled at the 103 weight class as well.
We didn't have another guy ready to go for 103 so she fit in nicely.
As it turned out, she was a lot stronger than quite a few of the boys she ended up wrestling that year. Then one day she was taken down by some a-hole who then picked her up and threw her down. She was knocked out (literally) and couldn't wrestle the rest of the year. BTW the guy was losing 10-2 at that point.
My guess is that this situation with this girl is something similiar. Either there wasn't a guy to be there or she kicked the guy's butt in a wrestle off. That's the way it should be I think.
I understand that dominatrix's can make serious money in some parts
LOL
"that poor boy is never gonna live that down. "
It was lose-lose for him. He loses, he got beaten by a girl. He wins, he beat up a girl.
No it was lose-lose-lose. He either gets beat, or beats up a girl, and still doesn't even have any good free groping opportunities. (Why is it that the girls who would be fun to wrestle with, never wrestle?)
or he gets to call himself a State champion......
What do you recommend for girls who vastly outperform their female peers as this winner probably did. Shouldn't they have a chance to compete on their own level?
Nope. Not unless the guys can compete in women's tennis or be prom queens.
Just because someone is good at something, does not entitle them to things reserved for the opposite sex, IMO. Michelle Wie does not belong on the Mens golf tour. And guys should not be allowed to play women's field hockey just cause they want to and the school doesn't have a men's team.
I am kind of torn about that as well. On the one hand it is a great sport and I am glad to see people competing in it. Wrestling at the college level has been killed by Title IX and more women competing might help keep it alive.
On the other hand, if there is not enough interest to field their own teams, women wrestling on the guys teams seems to have the potential to create all kinds of problems at the high school level, especially is a society as litigation crazy as ours. Plus, some of the guys that lose are going to take such a kidding they are going quit (that is what happened in the one case I know about first hand) and that does nobody any good.
All that having been said, great accomplishment by her.
"Not unless the guys can compete in women's tennis or be prom queens."
I don't think the comparison is apt. Everything is not equal. You can always be a poor male player on the men's team if you are a poor player.
It is generally accepted that men are stronger than women hence it would be unfair for men to compete on women's teams. There are of course the Special Olympics and like competitions for the genuinely impaired.
Sports are about excelling. People, including girls, should have the opportunity to compete at the highest level. No lowering or changing of standards.
I still don't understand your objection.
Great accomplishment, as I said earlier in the thread. Don't blame her or her parents for encouraging her, either.
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