Tualatin High School wrestler Samantha Lang hopes to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. Tualatin coach Matt Hamilton (left) says Lang’s background in water polo and judo have prepared her to become a great wrestler.Women's wrestling: a 'gold' opportunity Tualatin's Samantha Lang is shooting for her Olympic dream By CLIFF PFENNING Issue date: Fri, Feb 13, 2004 The Tribune
Samantha Lang is in the second half of her senior year at Tualatin High School and has no idea what she's going to do about college. But college can wait. She is more concerned about the U.S. Olympic Trials in women's wrestling, May 21 in Indianapolis. She is more nervous about the Pacific-9 Conference district meet, which starts today in McMinnville. Lang says just about every match makes her a little nervous. "I worry about wrestling up to my potential, especially now," she says. "I really want to be a district champion. I've been waiting for this chance since my freshman year. "College? I'll worry about that after the Olympics." In the last 10 years, Lang has wrestled her way into Olympic team contention by steadily defeating male and female competition. She has won three straight national titles in the fledgling U.S. Girls Wrestling Association. She is ranked second in the nation in women's wrestling. Lang, who turns 18 on Feb. 20, is 22-2 and seeded third at 160 pounds heading into the Pac-9 district meet. If she finishes in the top three, she will be the second girl ever to qualify for the Class 4A state tournament. Her wrestling coach, Bobo Umemoto, thinks she could finish in the top eight from among 27 entrants if she gets to state. "She's been wrestling with guys all her life, and she's doing extremely well this year," says Umemoto, who coaches the USA Cobra girls team. "I think it would be absolutely great if she were to win a medal at state." And that would just be the start of what could be a spectacular year. "If she can just get to the Olympics, she'll win the gold," Umemoto says. "The best wrestlers at her weight are here in the U.S. If she gets to the Olympics, she'll be a gold medal winner before she even gets to college."
A natural
Lang fell into wrestling in elementary school after picking up a flier for a local camp. She blossomed quickly, winning every match for two years, she says, mostly against boys. In the Tualatin High wrestling room her ability and work ethic have earned her plenty of respect. "She knows pretty much everything about wrestling," says junior Bret Voorhies, one of her most frequent sparring partners. "I've learned a lot of things from her." Tualatin coach Matt Hamilton says Lang's background playing water polo and competing in judo helps her wrestle. Lang's two losses this season were by decision, not by pins. "She's got a good shot, and she has great balance," Hamilton says. "Having that judo background gives her a lot of insight on how to throw people. A lot of guys just want to muscle her, but that's not a really good tactic." Voorhies says Lang uses wrestling strategy and the gender issue to her distinct -advantage during matches, which last for three, two-minute rounds. "A lot of guys get tired in the first round because they think they have to pin her," Voorhies says. "That's when she moves in. She's very smart." Voorhies, a defensive end on the Tualatin football team, says when he beats Lang in practice, it's a big deal. "One time I beat her and I was really pumped up," he says. "Then she let out that she wasn't feeling so well. I remember thinking, 'Why did you have to tell me that?' "
Bound for Athens?
Lang might be ranked second in the United States at 158.5 pounds, but there's not much difference between her and top-ranked Toccara Montgomery of Cumberland College in Cleveland. Lang rates her chances of beating Montgomery in the U.S. Trials at 50-50. Montgomery is in Forest Grove this weekend for a college tournament at Pacific University. She has a slight edge in the series of nearly a dozen matches against Lang. The U.S. women's team is coached by Terry Steiner, who was an assistant coach at Oregon State from 1994-96. This is the first time there will be a women's wrestling competition in the Olympic Games. Lang says she's trying not to get too far ahead in the season. She doesn't want to overlook the district meet. But her mother, Julie Lang, who works in accounting during the day, says she's thought many a night about going to Athens, Greece, for this year's Olympics. And that gives her goose bumps. "It took me awhile to become a wrestling fan, but now I like it," says Julie Lang, who has become an organizing force within girls wrestling. "And the Olympics, that's so cool, it's unimaginable." Samantha Lang says she's just hoping the pressures of the year don't get the best of her. She can look forward to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, as well. "It's just a matter of me stepping up at the right time," she says. "And waiting for that is a little nerve-racking."
Cliff Pfenning
Samantha Lang took her bid for a spot on the U.S. women's wrestling team at this year's World Championships and Pan American Games to the finals, but it ended against a familiar opponent.Toccara Montgomery of Cleveland defeated Lang, who will be a senior at Tualatin High School, 8-7 in overtime and 8-5 in regulation to win the 158.5-pound weight class at the USA Wrestling World Team Trials in Indianapolis last weekend.
Montgomery, who is 4-2 against Lang this year in what has become one of the best rivalries in women's wrestling, was on the 2002 U.S. World Team.
"She's one of the toughest opponents I've had," Montgomery said of Lang, who was ranked No. 1 by Mat.com. "She's always pushing me and always on me, which will only make both of us better."
Glenn Nieradka, a 1990 graduate of Tigard High School, was the runner-up to Jim Gruenwald in the 132-pound class of the Greco-Roman competition. Nieradka, who lives in Colorado Springs, is a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army. Gruenwald beat Nieradka 4-0 and 3-1.
Doug Binder: 503-221-8166 Doug Binder
Samantha Lang wrestles, one of a handful of girls in a predominantly boys sport.
But the senior-to-be does more than take part: She is a rising star in women's wrestling at the national level. Lang, runner-up at 1581/2 at the 2003 U.S. National tournament in May, will try this weekend for the first time to earn a spot on the U.S. team at the USA Wrestling World Team Trials in Indianapolis. The tournament will start Friday and end Sunday.
Word of Lang's skills is getting around. Although there still are a few boys who refuse to compete against her, they are few and far between. "I don't get too many comments now because I've been around for a while," said Lang, 17. Competing for Tualatin and wrestling against boys, Lang finished the high school season 10-4 with three pins, the fastest in 37 seconds. She was fifth at the Pacific-9 Conference district tournament at 160 pounds.
"She's for real," said Lang's USA Cobra club coach, Bobo Umemoto. "She's strong. I've wrestled with her, and her strength is unbelievable. But she's also agile, and that's a tough combination."
Lang is one of several wrestlers with Oregon ties at the tournament. Among the others are Matt Lindland, an Olympic silver medalist from Gladstone High School and Clackamas Community College; Darryl Christian, formerly of the University of Oregon and Grants Pass High School; and Oscar Wood, who went to Oregon State and Barlow High School of Gresham.
For Lang, this tournament is another step toward competing at the international level. For the first time, women's wrestling will make its Olympic debut in 2004 in Athens.
"I didn't even think about things like the Olympics when I first started wrestling" about 10 years ago, Lang said. "I just fell in love with the sport. I went to tournaments and I started winning, but I never thought of myself as, wow, really good.
"Now, I'm thinking maybe I can go someplace with this. I'm excited."
Maybe pretty far. Lang is ranked No. 1 in her weight class by USA Wrestling and TheMat.com. At the Indianapolis tournament, she probably will face Toccara Montgomery of Cleveland in what is shaping up as a premier rivalry.
Montgomery is ranked No. 2 and beat Lang most recently at the U.S. Nationals. They've met four times since January, and each has won two matches.
Lang works out three hours a day at least four days a week. She also runs every day. "I like training with guys because they're stronger and quicker," Lang said. "It's tougher to wrestle against them, and that's good training."
Lang said she knows she will be competing at the highest level and that she's ready to make the most of her chance. "If I win here and get on the world team, that'll be the biggest accomplishment for me. Everything else is just a warmup." Molly Blue: 503-221-8161; mollyblue@news.oregonian.com Molly Blue
Lang, a junior-to-be at Tualatin High School, won the 165-pounds-and-over title at the Junior Women's Freestyle Championships in Fargo, N.D., last week.She pinned her first two opponents and beat Ashley Gaspar of Hawaii by technical fall, 10-0 at 1:09, in the championship match. She also won the 165 title last year.
This past season, Lang wrestled for Tualatin's varsity team, competing at 160 and 171 pounds.
Summary: Sophomore Sammi Lang has goals beyond becoming the first girl wrestler from the Pac-9 to qualify for state.Sammi Lang can empathize, somewhat, with some of the boys she has beaten on the high school wrestling mat.
She got pinned by a girl once herself, and she didn't like it.She was an eighth grader competing in the high school girls division at the national championships in Michigan.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I just got pinned by a girl,' " said Lang, a Tualatin High School sophomore. "I started to cry, but in like two seconds I stopped. Why am I crying?"
More often than not, it is Lang pushing someone else's shoulders to the mat.
Lang, who started wrestling in the third grade, is serious about the sport.
She is dedicated, with goals that include the U.S. Olympic team. Women's wrestling will be an Olympic sport for the first time in 2004.
She has the respect of her Tualatin teammates, who have long gotten over the fact that they have a girl for a teammate.
"It's not like she's weak," said Tualatin senior Matt Mellinger, the Timberwolves' starter at 160 pounds. "She's a wrestler and a good wrestler."
Lang intends to wrestle at the Pacific-9 Conference district meet at 160 pounds, like Mellinger, but has been wrestling at 171 lately to help give the team its best lineup.
Over the next couple of years, Lang would like to get down to 152 and vie for a berth in the Class 4A tournament. She would be the first female to qualify from the perennially strong Pac-9.
"I think she could qualify for the state tournament, even in one of the toughest leagues," Tualatin coach Matt Hamilton said.
Lang, 15, already is on the map nationally in women's wrestling.
Last year, she won the national high school championship at 165-and-over, the female equivalent of heavyweight.
Lang weighed 167 at that tournament and competed against women as large as 230 pounds. She beat a 198-pounder for the title.
"I was the smallest in the bracket, but it also meant I was the fastest," Lang said. "If I could push them over, they couldn't move."
She went to a women's meet in Vancouver last month and entered three brackets -- a high school elite bracket and two for high school novices.
She won all three, pinning every opponent she faced without giving up a single point.
But, she says, wrestling women feels a little weird.
"It's like wrestling two different species," Lang said. "Guys have testosterone. They're faster and stronger, and when I go against them I'm usually on the low end of faster and stronger."
But wrestling boys, as she has done since she started as a third-grader, seems perfectly natural to her.
Not surprisingly, it doesn't always seem natural to the boys.
"To be honest, it really is a no-win situation for the guy," Hamilton said. "I won't make light of that. But she has earned the right to be there."
Lang has seen firsthand the entire spectrum of sportsmanship from male competitors. Some shake her hand afterward; others, particularly after they lose, run off the mat in tears.
"I think it's funny when boys cry," Lang said. "It's not the end of the world. It just means that I'm a better wrestler. The boys on my team don't make a big deal about the people that I beat. But when they cry, it's like a week-long joke."
Lang prefers to dress for school in skirts, and she is the only athlete in Tualatin's wrestling room wearing nail polish.
She uses the girls' locker room to dress for practice and home meets, and Hamilton bought a second digital scale so that she could make weigh-ins without having to wait for the all the boys to go first.
Beyond that, she is just one of the wrestlers.
"There's nothing flashy about Sammi," Hamilton said. "She doesn't complain. She works as hard or harder than anybody we have out there."
There is a reason for the hard work.
Lang has always felt a burning inside to be something special.
"I've always wanted to be someone great," she said. "And when I found wrestling, I saw that, hey, I'm pretty good at this. I want to go to the Olympics. I want to be great. That drives me."
Lang's competitive nature has led her to other sports as well. She has trained in judo for three years. She played soccer for eight years. And she is a member of Tualatin's water polo team in the fall, and track in the spring.
As a 12-year-old, Lang went to the USA Collegiate Nationals meet and competed in the 11-12 age bracket against boys. She won, becoming the first girl to do so.
"I was kind of a bully," she said. "I don't know what it is, but I have this strange fascination with beating up on the boys. Maybe it's a women's power thing. It's one thing to win against girls, but if you can beat the boys, that's even better."
Lang has a record this season of 8-10, but most of her losses have come wrestling at 171, where she consistently faces wrestlers who tower over her, at 5-foot-4.
She compensates for her lack of leverage and upper body strength with good body position and technique.
"There are just biological differences, especially in weight classes like 160 and 171, when you've got young men who are seniors with some serious strength, and a sophomore girl," Hamilton said.
A girl in wrestling has a bristling effect on some.
Last week, Woodburn's 171-pounder forfeited rather than compete against her.
Hamilton said some coaches act supportive of girls but privately don't agree with it.
"Behind the scenes, a lot of them don't like it," Hamilton said. "They think boys should wrestle boys, and girls should wrestle girls."
At Tualatin, though, the novelty has worn off. She is an accepted part of the team.
"When I first met her I wasn't sure what to think," Mellinger said. "But she's proven herself. I know when we wrestle other teams, they see her as a girl. But the guys on our team respect what she can do now."
You can reach Doug Binder at 503-221-8166 or by e-mail at dougbinder@news.oregonian.com
