Quotes from Pan American Games U.S. Women's Freestyle Team

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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
08/05/2003


48 kg/105.5 lbs. - Patricia Miranda - 1st  "I try not to project how a match is going to look, but (the front headlock) is something I didn't want to give up."    "Terry told me at the halfway point that when she grabs at my hands and arms to give her a yank and go to the leg. When I did that, I had an opening for the cradle and took it."    "I feel like the luckiest person alive."    55 kg/121 lbs. - Tina George - 1st  "I was remembering how I felt in Guatemala when I lost to her. I was remembering how it feels to go home with a loss, and it is a feeling I don't like."    "So many people in my Army unit have supported me and I wanted to give everything I had for them."    "I realized at the halfway point that I didn't want to give that match away. I didn't come out with the intensity that I usually like to show. Sometimes your best isn't good enough, but I felt like mine was."    63 kg/138.75 lbs. - Sara McMann - 1st  "(USA Wrestling National Women's Coach) Terry Steiner has helped me on my defense so much. Everybody has improved since Terry has come in. We all take advantage of what he knows. We did a lot to make him proud."    "I have wrestled her a few times before and beaten her every time. She has nothing to lose. I scouted her before as well. She has a hi-crotch and a fireman's, but that's it. I knew if I could stop those that I would be fine."    "This is unbelievable. We had talked about winning all the golds before we came in, but that's all it was - talk. Now, it's real."    72 kg/158.5 lbs. - Toccara Montgomery - 1st  "(Sweeping the golds) feels good. We had all talked about it, but for it to happen was a picture-perfect situation."    "I was confident. We had wrestled five times this year before this match, and in two of them she had at least a two or three-point lead. When I'm down, I don't get nervous."    "There was a lot of good competition here. More so for the other girls, since I only had two matches, but it's a good warm-up for the World Championships."    Pan American Games Women's Freestyle Head Coach Tricia Saunders  "Our girls are really honed. I am not surprised we did this, but it was a challenge as well. Three of these women lost to their opponents at the Pan Am Championships, but they came back and really dominated."    "They have always had the talent, but its about putting it together on the same day, and that's what they did here."