OTC wrestler Lampe breaks slump with victory at Schultz

Alyssa Lampe had been losing more than she was winning. She was short on confidence. She wasn’t sure about the future of her wrestling career. And she needed a turnaround.

The Olympic Training Center resident sparked hope for the future Thursday by prevailing in the Dave Schultz Memorial International at the OTC, with wins against 2008 Olympic gold medalist Carol Huynh of Canada in the 105.5-pound semifinals and Jessica Medina of the OTC in the finals. The triumph puts her in the Pan American Championships next month at the OTC, and she’s qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in April in Iowa City.

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Other winners were Canadian Gen Haley at 112.25 pounds, Canadian Tonya Verbeek at 121, Canadian Jazzie Barker at 130, OTC resident Elena Pirozhkova at 138.75, Canadian Stacie Anaka at 147.5 and Stephany Lee of the OTC at 158.5. The 16-nation competition features men’s freestyle divisions Friday and concludes Saturday with Greco-Roman.

A 2010 world team member, Lampe, 23, pinned Desiree Ramos and Coralee Dixon, then she scored a 2-0, 1-1 victory over Huynh and a 6-0, 4-0 pounding of Medina. For the first time in a long time, she showed a sound offensive technique, strong penetration skills and an aggressive mentality, all of which were lacking last season, when she won the Guelph Open in Ontario but was runner-up at the world team trials and fourth at the U.S. Open.

Lampe said the keys were “just staying confident and believing in myself, believing in my shots, believing I could take anybody down. I got some turns, which I never usually get, so that was a plus.” OTC coach Terry Steiner said, “When she got on top, she made it count. She worked as hard on top as she was on her feet. Alyssa has a lot of offense, but she has to use it. When she gets out there and stands and doesn’t show it, it’s no good.”

Steiner cautioned that Lampe’s weight class isn’t qualified for the 2012 London Games, forcing Clarissa Chun of the OTC to go to a Pan American event in March in Kissimmee, Fla. Plus, her weight is stacked beyond Medina and Chun, a 2008 Olympian who didn’t wrestle at the Schultz, with Victoria Anthony, who upset Huynh for bronze, and Whitney Conder of the OTC, the runner-up to Haley who will drop a class for the Olympic trials.

Still, “you wrestle these competitions to improve, and when you beat an Olympic champ, it gives you something mentally,” Steiner added. “It makes (Huynh) more humanlike. … Sometimes, it’s hard to find your way out of that hole, and I think (Lampe) had been in that hole a while. You never know what it’s going to be that brings you out. It can be one moment, and hopefully, this is the moment that brings her up to where she’s capable of.”

Lampe will partake in a women’s national team training camp in March in Beijing, where she’ll be joined by Chun, who toppled Lampe in the first round of the last Olympic trials, in 2008. Defeating Huynh after about a handful of losses to her makes her think she could do the same against Chun because “there’s nobody that’s going to be as tough,” she said.

“If you haven’t beaten someone before, there’s that roadblock,” Lampe said. “I definitely overcame a roadblock, and it’s probably going to help me with my other matches. … I’d rather have a crappy two years and then a great run-up until the trials, rather than have it the other way around. I think I’m sitting in a good position right now.”

Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com. Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazettehockey. Google+: Brian Gomez.