U.S. wrestlers Frayer, White, Tobin, Kunimoto win gold medals at Clansman International in Canada, N

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
11/12/2002


Four U.S. wrestlers claimed gold medals at the Clansman International Wrestling Championships in Burnaby Mountain, B.C., Canada, Nov. 9. Competition was held in men's and women's freestyle wrestling.    U.S. champions in the men's division were Jared Frayer (Norman, Okla./Sunkist Kids) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., Kirk White (Boise, Idaho/Dave Schultz WC) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Ryan Tobin (Marina del Ray. Calif./Dave Schultz WC) at 96 kg/211.25 lbs. The U.S. champion in the women's division was Katie Kunimoto (Colorado Springs, Colo./USOTC) at 51 kg/112.25 lbs.    Frayer scored an 11-0 technical fall victory over Chris Harada of Simon Fraser Univ. of Canada in the gold-medal finals. Frayer was a NCAA All-American at the Univ. of Oklahoma.    White stopped Zoltan Hunyady of Guelph WC in Canada, 5-0 in the championship match. White is a past NCAA champion from Boise State.    Tobin stopped American David Rechul of the New York AC in the finals, 7-4. Tobin was a college star at Nebraska, while Rechul wrestled for Harvard.    Kunimoto edged Mexico'a Magdelena Arellano in the championship match, 8-7. Kunimoto is a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete, and competed for Pacific Univ. last season. She holds a No. 2 Team USA ranking at her weight class.    Also claiming a silver medal for the United States was 2000 Olympic silver medalist Sammie Henson (State College, Pa./Sunkist Kids) at 60 kg/132 lbs. Henson was defeated in the finals by Hideo Yamamoto of Japan, 4-3 in the finals. Henson, a two-time NCAA champion from Clemson, was competing up one weight class from his normal 55 kg. Yamamoto was named Outstanding Wrestler after defeating Henson.    Other U.S. women athletes to place in the top six of their weight divisions were Kristin Fujioka of Pacific Univ., who was fourth at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., Sally Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./USOTC), who was fourth at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. and Jennifer Miyahara of Pacific Univ., who was sixth at 59 kg/130 lbs.