Two Vikings medal at WCWA Nationals

It wasn't too long ago that the Missouri Valley College and University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) stood atop the U.S. college women's wrestling scene nearly unchallenged.

Newcomer Oklahoma City served notice last year that it was going to be force, placing second behind the Lady Patriots at the Women's College Nationals in its home gym by a mere point. The Stars completed the journey to the title Saturday in the Burns Athletic Center at Marshall, putting eight entries into the finals -- winning three of them -- during the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association National Championships.

Oklahoma City racked up 117 points to finish well ahead of Cumberlands at 86 and Canadian power Simon Fraser (B.C.) at 73 points. The Lady Vikings -- who joined Cumberlands as an early participant in women's wrestling in 2000, a year after the launching of the now-defunct Minnesota-Morris program -- had only two medalists and finished sixth with 24 points.

Valley had won the meet the first two years of its existence, in 2004 and '05, but the Patriots were three-time defending champions heading into this event. This was the first time the Lady Vikings didn't claim a gold medal.

Fourth-ranked Valley senior Jenny Germany of Chula Visa, Calif., won her first three matches at 59 kilograms -- including a 1-0, 1-0 upset of No. 2 Firen Gassman of OCU -- to reach the finals. There third-rated Tani Ader of Jamestown (N.D.), a first-year program, won a hard-fought 1-2, 2-1, 2-0 decision.

The other Lady Viking to medal also reached the finals, although top-ranked junior Amy Havens of Paradise, Calif., only had to win one match in the five-entry 95 kilogram division to do so. Havens was knocked off in the title bout by No. 2 Lakie Henderson of Cumberlands, 5-1, 2-1.

Nine of Valley's other 11 grapplers were eliminated within three contests, with only freshman Stephanie Putnam (55 kilograms) getting a first-round win. Freshman Brittany Bertolani (55) and senior Karen Howe (63) recovered from early losses to pick up back-to-back wins in the consolation bracket, although neither reached a medal round.

Also posting backside wins for the Lady Vikings were freshman Jenny Torres (48), junior Samantha Richardson (63) and sophomore Zinna Anyanwuh (67).

Valley came into the meet with only Germany, Howe, Anyanwuh and Havens ranked in the top six, so the outcome was not entirely unexpected.

The WCWA was formed last year to provide some semblance of stability to a sport which had difficulty getting teams to attend its feature events. Only two programs with WCWA-ranked wrestlers, the Northern Michigan U.S. Olympic Education Center and the University of Regina (Sask.), were not involved in this year's national meet.

The Lady Vikings will head to Colorado Springs on Feb. 13 for the Dave Schultz International Open.