Fargo 2010 – Day 13

From Coach John Schmitdke:

The New Jersey state chairman walked up to Archie Randall, women’s head wrestling coach at Oklahoma City College (national power) during the introductions of the finalists for the women’s freestyle competition.  As the girls in each weight class ran up the steps to the raised mat to shake hands with their opponents, the announcer called out their names, states, and weights.

“Alena Somera from Hawai’i – finalist at 98 pounds.”

(The announcer never did seem able to say “Allene”.)

“Quinn Nagatani from Hawai’i – finalist at 102 pounds.”

“Megan Yamaguchi from Hawai’i – finalist at 109 pounds.”

“Mindy Chow from Hawai’i – finalist at 124 pounds.”

“And her younger sister, Chrissy Chow from Hawai’i – finalist at 124 pounds.”

(The announcer got the birth order wrong.)

“Archie,” the New Jersey guy said in his wise guy, East-coast accent, “You’d betta start recruitin’ in Hawai’i, Archie.”

“I know.  I know.” Coach Randall said.  “I’m there in December.  It’s the place to be.”

“You’d betta, Archie.  You’d betta.”

Here’s why: Seven out of eight All Americans.  Three National Champs – Megan, Mindy, and Chrissy.  Two Second Place finishers – Allie and Quinn.  One Bronze medalist – Nikki Taniguchi.  One Fourth Place – Bree Repoza.  And there’s more where those ladies came from.  When Hawai’i ladies compete against mainland girls, their superior athleticism, technique, and commitment are apparent.  More ladies from Hawaii need to make the trip to Fargo to prove to mainland coaches what we already know.

Mindy and Chrissy were declared co-champions without having to wrestle each other.  USAW crowns both siblings if they reach the finals rather than force a family feud.  It has happened several times on the boys’ side.  This was the first time on the girls’ side.  We think that not wrestling in the finals cost one of them the Outstanding Wrestler award; between the two of them they beat 4 Asics All Americans to reach the finals.  Beat them in a dominating fashion.  Not enough of the coaches got to see them wrestle (mostly the chow sisters pinned their opponents so the coaches would have had to be fast in any case) so not enough of the coaches voted for them to be OW.

The celebration of the girls’ successes may have started hours before the competition.  Last night, at close to midnight, the sky over Newman Outdoor Field erupted for almost 15 minutes with spectacular aerial pyrotechnics immediately following a rain-delayed RedHawks’ game (the RedHawks play baseball in the Northern League and the fireworks were courtesy of the Auto Owners).

After the morning celebration at the Fargo Dorm following the competition, we hurried back to the dorms, finished packing, cleaned the rooms and halls, loaded onto the bus, and 4 hours later piled out at the La Quinta Inn on Nicollette Avenue in Bloomington, Minnesota.  After checking in, we reboarded the bus for the short ride to Mall of America where we spent 3 hours wandering, shopping, eating, gawking, and playing followed by 90 minutes of waiting around for the hotel shuttle to get us all back to our rooms.

Tomorrow we eat here, get shuttled to the airport by noon, board Delta 2477 at 2:20 p.m., and fly to Honolulu via LAX where we change to Delta 1149, arriving home at 8:58 p.m.

We come home from the largest wrestling tournament in the world with 9 All Americans!