From Media Reports

Kristie Marano was disappointed that she failed to win a gold medal at the recent FILA World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. But the 28-year-old native of Albany, N.Y., also found herself in rare air among the United States’ all-time wrestlers when she earned her ninth medal — in nine World Championships — with a silver medal at 158.5 pounds.

“Nine medals; that just speaks for itself,” said U.S. women’s freestyle National coach Terry Steiner. “To be in this fire nine times and win nine medals is pretty amazing. The level of wrestling is improving, no doubt about it, and for her to continue to succeed at this level is very impressive.”

The nine World medals also tied Bruce Baumgartner, who won a total of 13 World and Olympic medals between 1983 and 1996, for the most medals won at a World tournament.

“I didn’t know that,” said Marano (NYAC), who now owns two gold medals, five silver medals and two bronze medals after she lost to Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria, 3-0, 3-0. “He was pretty good, so it’s definitely a good accomplishment. It’s a an honor to accomplish something like that. It’s not the medal I wanted, but it’s still a medal and that’s good.”

Zlateva, who also won the 2006 Worlds, swept both periods in the gold medal match when she successfully defended Marano’s arm throw in the first period, then caught the American off balance for a three-point move 29 seconds into the second period. This will provide plenty of motivation for Marano, who try to make her first Olympic team in 2008 after she failed to make weight at 138.75 pounds in the women’s first Olympics in 2004.

“I just didn’t wrestle very well,” Marano said. “I didn’t wrestle very well a month ago and got pinned by her. I just didn’t get anything going. There is definitely room for improvement and I’m going to keep working hard for next year.”

Marano’s effort was coupled with bronze medal-efforts by Sara McMann (Sunkist Kids) at 138.75 pounds and Katie Downing (Sunkist Kids) at 147.5 pounds on the final day of competition of the week-long event in the Heydar Aliyev Sport and Exhibition Complex.

“I thought we competed better today — no doubt about it,” Steiner said. “We definitely came back with some fight, and didn’t make everything a tactical, technical match. It doesn’t have to be like that because then we think too much. You have to let your work take over and let your reactions take over. We turned it into more battles and just wrestled.

“We had some good wins and won some medals. And we had some losses where we made some mistakes. We can correct those mistakes and we need to keep working. We need to wrestle our style, which is using our conditioning and getting into people’s faces.”

The United States also qualified three (121, 138.75 and 158.5) of the four Olympic weights after Stephanie Murata (Sunkist Kids) finished fifth at 105.5 pounds. The only other Olympic weight that needs to qualify is a 121 pounds where Marcie Van Dusen finished tenth after she lost in the quarterfinals. A top-eight finish was necessary to qualify the weight for the Beijing Games in 2008.

The following is a weight-by-weight breakdown of the United States women’s freestyle team at the 2007 Worlds:

48K/105.5 pounds

Murata, who was competing in her sixth World Championship, opened up the women’s tournament with a 1-0, 6-0 victory over Moldavia’s Natalie Budu, but then took it on the chin when she lost 1-0, 1-0 to Japan’s three-time World champion Chiharu Icho, who scored takedowns in each period against Murata.

But with Icho reaching the finals, it allowed Murata a chance to continue her quest to top her personal World best of fourth place (in 1998 and 1999). She responded with three consecutive consolation victories, including a pin against Zhuldyz Turtbayeva of Kazahkstan with three seconds left in the first period.

Murata’s final victory over Azerbaijan-native Mariya Stadnik, 2-1, 1-1 — when Murata clinched the bout with 23 seconds left in the second period when she countered Stadnik’s ankle pick for a takedown — put the 37-year-old American into the bronze medal match.

Unfortunately, Murata came up short when she lost to China’s Xiamei Li, 0-1,1-0, 2-0, who won the second period on a coin flip and clinched the match with a pair of single-leg sweeps in the final period.

51K/112.25 pounds

Steiner had hoped that Patricia Miranda, the three-time World/Olympic medalist who qualified for this weight at the U.S. Trials, would be able to compete despite suffering an undisclosed injury before the Worlds. Unfortunately, that did not happen and Steiner turned to Jenny Wong (Sunkist Kids), a 2003 World bronze medalist at 105.5 pounds.

Wong’s second Worlds experience did not last long as the native of St. Paul, Minn., lost in the first round to 2005 Junior World champion Oleksandra Kohut of the Ukraine, 1-0, 3-2. Wong tallied a crotch lift in the first 11 seconds of the second period to lead 2-0 before Kohut rallied with two exposure points and a takedown with 38 seconds left.

55K/121 pounds

Van Dusen, competing in her first World tournament, got off to a great start when the 24-year-old native of Lake Arrowhead, Calif., won her first two matches against Sabrina Esposito of Italy, 5-0, 4-1, and Marcia Andrade of Venezuela, 0-1, 2-1, 2-0 as she rallied with a two-point exposure lift in the second period and two takedowns in the final period against Andrade.

But that would be Van Dusen’s final positive moment as she lost to two-time World medalist Tetyana Lazareva of Ukraine, 7-0, 2-0, in the quarterfinals. Van Dusen was eliminated from medal contention when Lazareva lost in the semifinals to Sweden’s Ida-Theres Karlsson.

59K/130 pounds

Leigh Jaynes’ only other World competition came in the 2006 Beach and Sombo championships where she won a bronze medal. The 26-year-old native of Mt. Holly, N.J., did not enjoy the same success in her first freestyle Worlds as Jaynes (U.S. Army) lost in her only match against Japan’s four-time World champion Ayako Shoda, 1-1, 1-0. Jaynes actually scored the first point on a takedown a minute into the match. The Japanese wrestler then clinched the first period on a takedown with six seconds left, then captured the second period on a takedown with 19 seconds left.

Unfortunately for Jaynes, Shoda lost in the quarterfinals to France’s eventual World champ Audrey Prieto which eliminated Jaynes from the tournament.

63K/138.75 pounds

The draw of the tournament did not do McMann any favors when the 26-year-old native of Tacoma Park, Md., was paired with Japan’s four-time World champion and 2004 Olympic champ Kaori Icho, who has handed McMann losses in the 2002, 2003 and 2005 Worlds and 2004 Olympics.

This meeting was no different as Icho won 2-1, 1-0. Overall, Icho scored three of her points by countering McMann takedown attempts. The final counter came with 52 seconds gone in the second period.

Fortunately for McMann, Icho went on to win her fourth World title, which sent the American to the consolation bracket where she pinned her first two opponents — Rojas Y Urbira of Venezuela, 3-0, 1:26, and Haiyan Xu of China, 2-4, :12.

That put McMann into the bronze medal match where she defeated Golliot L LeGrand of France), 2-1, 4-1. McMann put an exclamation mark on her third career bronze medal when she lifted the French women for a three-point move with 21 seconds gone in the second period.

67K/147.5 pounds

Downing, a bronze medalist in 2005, came to Azerbaijan hoping to not only improve on that effort but her 2006 disappointment when the 27-year-old native of Indianapolis, Ind., lost her only match of the tournament.

In 2007, Downing did not allow a point in her first two matches: a first-round victory over Maria Mueller of Germany, 1-0, 2-0, and a quarterfinal blanking of Hanna Beliaeyva of Belarus, 1-0, 1-0.

Unfortunately for Downing, her shot at a gold medal ended when she lost to China’s defending World champ Ruixue Jing, 2-0, 2-0. Downing gave up a total of four takedowns in this loss.

Downing came back to defeat Japan’s Yoshiko Inoue, 1-0, 1-1, 1-0, in the bronze medal match. The match was decided when the American caught the Japanese wrestler in a front headlock with 21 seconds left.

72K/158.5 pounds

Marano, who lost in the second round of the 2006 Worlds, made sure that would not happen in 2007 as she won her first three bouts; two by fall.

The first came with 47 seconds left in the third period on a hip toss against against Spain’s Miader Unda, who won the second period, 6-1.

Marano’s defense also led to her best effort of the tournament: a 49-second fall against Russia’s Guzel Manurova when the American countered a double by the Russian and put her on her back for the semifinal victory.

(The majority of notes and quotes from this story were provided by theMat.com.)