Three of Four NY Wrestlers win a spot on the 2011 Cadet and Junior US World Championship team. Alex Conti reports on their performance below.
Carlene Sluberski of Fredonia NY (USOEC/NYAC) @ 51KG (112.25 lbs)
Representing the New York Athletic Club and fresh off a University National Championship (Held in Akron) Carlene Sluberski won the Body Bar National Championship in Kissimmee, Florida. Through out the day, Carlene went 5-0 with 4 pins and one 6-0, 5-0 victory going unscored upon in the 5 matches. With this tournament victory Carlene has qualified for the Jr. World Championships which will be held in Bucharest, Romania in late July. Carlene just finished up her sophomore year at Northern Michigan University as part of the U S Olympic Educational Center program.
Jenna Burkert of Middle Island, NY (USOEC/NYAC) @ 59KG (130 lbs)
Also representing the New York Athletic Club Jenna Burkert wins the Body Bar National Championship in Kissimmee Florida and was voted as the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Throughout the day, Jenna went 5-0 with 3 pins and two decisions in her 5 matches. Jenna has also qualified for the Jr. World Championships which will be held in Bucharest, Romania in late July. Jenna is currently finishing up her senior year at Marquette Senior HS as part of the U S Olympic Educational program. Burkert was fifth in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
Tonya Kusse of Webster, NY (Lindenwood College) @ 63KG (138.75 lbs)
Tonya Kusse who also had a fantastic tournament at the University National Championship (Held in Akron) continued to impress by having another great tournament at the Jr. World Trials this weekend. She opened her tournament against the eventual champion, Alli Ragan of King College, and lost a very close match losing by decision 4-2, 0-4, 4-1 with a first period challenge at the buzzer that changed the outcome of the period from a 4-4 win for Tonya to a 4-2 loss. She then went on to win her next 3 matches by pin or technical fall placing her third overall. Because of the best two out of three in the finals there was no chance to wrestle for true second which I believe Tonya would have achieved.
Mary Westman of Cattaragus, NY (Catt-LittleValley HS) @ 72KG (158.5 lbs)
Mary Westman who also competed and won the Cadet World Trials on Saturday moved up an age division and competed Sunday as well. Mary did quite a nice job on Sunday up a weight division form where she would normally compete. She wanted to attempt to qualify for the Jr. World team knowing full well it would be very difficult to have any chance to defeat Jr. World Champion and Senior World representative Adeline Gray (67kg/147.5 lbs), she took a shot at the higher weight. Mary started out the day with a pin and then a tough 0-1, 3-0, 0-1 loss to the eventual runner-up. Mary rounded out her pool performance with a 2nd pin to take 2nd in the pool competition. In the cross over match for 3rd and 4th Mary had a great take-down to a quick bar arm and as she was running the bar, trying to get her opponent to her back, she got rolled and pinned. Still a fine performance for Mary. Mary’s win on Saturday qualified her for the Cadet World Championships to be held in Hungary, in late August.
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments