Cumberland College retains No. 1 spot in TheMat.com U.S. Women’s Poll

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
02/17/2004


The February 16, 2004 TheMat.com U.S. Women's College Wrestling Rankings for teams and individuals have been released.     Cumberland College, a NAIA school in Kentucky, remained as the top U.S. women's college team, receiving all three first-place votes.The team, coached by Kip Flanik, placed second in the Women's International Duals held at Pacific Univ. last weekend.    Missouri Valley College, a NAIA team coached by Carl Murphree, placed second in the poll. Missouri Valley was third in the Women's International Duals last weekend, and had a pair of runners-up at the Dave Schultz Memorial International the previous weekend.    At the International Duals, Cumberland College defeated Missouri Valley, 19-13. Missouri Valley upset Canadian power Simon Fraser  by tiebreaker, 16-16, while Simon Fraser defeated Cumberland, 21-11.    Retaining its No. 3 position was Pacific University, an NCAA Div. III team in Oregon, coached by Scott Miller. Pacific placed fourth at the Women's International Duals, dropping bouts to both Cumberland and Missouri Valley.    The No. 4 spot in the polls is NAIA school Menlo College in California, coached by Lee Allen. Holding strong at No. 5 is the Univ. of Minnesota-Morris, an NCAA Div. II school coached by Doug Reese.    Rounding out the Top 10 are No. 6 MacMurray College,No. 7  Lassen College, No. 8 Univ. of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine WC, No. 9 Cal-State Bakersfield and No. 10 Princeton Univ.    The poll can be found at:  http://www.themat.com/rankings/default.asp?CategoryID=108&RankingID=659    The team ranking poll is elected by a panel of three U.S. women's college coaches. Eligible for ranking are college varsity and club women's wrestling programs.    There was only one new No. 1 ranked individuals in TheMat.com rankings this week, freshman Kapua Torres of Pacific at 112.25 pounds. Torres defeated the other two top ranked athletes in the division during bouts at the Women's International Duals.    Cumberland College still has the most No. 1 ranked athletes with four top-ranked individuals.    Retaining their No. 1 individual rankings for Cumberland College are Suekoiyla Shelly at 55 kg/121 lbs. and Alaina Berube at 59 kg/130 lbs. Shelly Ruberg at 63 kg/138.5 lbs.  and Toccara Montgomery at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.    The other top-ranked wrestlers in the nation are Mary Kelly of MacMurray College at 48 kg/105.5 lbs.,  Kelly Branham at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. and Megan Goldsmith of UM-Morris at 80 kg/176 lbs.    The February 2, 2004 TheMat.com U.S. Women's College Individual rankings can be found at:  http://www.themat.com/rankings/default.asp?CategoryID=108&RankingID=660    The individual rankings are selected by TheMat.com. Athletes who are considered for ranking are eligible full-time college students, and are members of their college women's varsity or club program, or a member of their college men's wrestling team.