By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

With her brunette-colored hair bleached white, Ali Bernard proved that blondes have more fun by winning a U.S. Nationals championship. In her mind, it might has well have been gray.

            “I’m getting old, I guess. I’m 22. It’s time to kick it up,” she said after beating Katie Downing in the 158.5-pound championship in Las Vegas, April 24.

            But if Bernard, a native of New Ulm, Minn., thinks she is old, what did that make the rest of the field at her weight which featured a pair of World champions in 29-year-old Kristie Marano (2000 and 2003) and 28-year-old Iris Smith (2005) as well as 28-year-old Downing, who earned a 2005 World bronze medal at 147.5 pounds.

            “I think I started with the older generation and was one of the younger girls coming up,” recalled Bernard, who is a two-time Junior World champion (2003 and 2005) and also won the 2004 U.S. Nationals championship. Now a college senior at Regina in Canada, where she has won several Canadian college championships, Bernard did not think much about where she rated among such a deep field of wrestlers

            “I had no clue,” said Bernard. “I had a hectic week last week, getting through my finals and everything. I just tried to come in and do my best.”

            Bernard wasn’t the only younger wrestler to excel at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where Randi Miller, 24, defeated Sara McMann, a 27-year-old three-time World/Olympic medalist, for the 138.75-pound U.S. Nationals championship.

            And just like that, both Bernard and Miller went from being the hunter at the Nationals to becoming the hunted at the Olympic Team Trials, June 13-15, also in Las Vegas.

            Or do they?

            “I’m always going to be the hunter,” declared Miller, who lost to McMann — a 2004 Olympic silver medalist and World bronze medalist in 2003 and 2005 — in the 2007 nationals.

            That’s fine with U.S. National coach Terry Steiner.

            “That’s what we’ve been striving for for a long time is depth,” said Steiner, who started heading up the women’s program in 2002. “The secret to successful programs is having people push from behind and not being satisfied with the No. 2 or 3 spots. Finally, we have capable people and not just the No. 1 wrestler.

            “That may not sit well with our veterans, but that’s going to drive them too. It’s all about, ‘May the best person win.’ ”

            Sally Roberts, the 2003 World bronze medalist, agrees even though she was forced to settle for third in this year’s nationals at 121 pounds after losing in the first round as a No. 2 seed to 21-year-old Shyla Iokia, who attends the United States Olympic Education Center at the University of Northern Michigan.

            “That’s what we want,” said the 27-year-old Roberts, who sat out the past two years because of injuries. “Even-tually, we want the wrestling system so deep it doesn’t matter who we send to the World Championships. We’re still going to win it.”

            So is previous experience overrated?

            “Experience is important but you still have to get on the mat and wrestle,” Steiner said. “Experience isn’t going to win that match for you and it’s going to put a bull’s eye on your back.

            “If you expect to go out there and have your hand raised, you are going to be sorry. These people coming from underneath have been working hard, too, and I don’t think they consider themselves underdogs.”

            Steiner pointed out that many of these “younger” wrestlers have made their names known in international competition.

            “It’s not like they are coming from nowhere. Ali Bernard has won two Junior World titles and she’s been knocking on the door for awhile. Randi Miller has shown that she can go with anyone in the world.

            “Maybe the national scene doesn’t know them or recognize their names because they haven’t been World Team members before.”

            Getting international experience at a young age is nothing new for many of the current veteran wrestlers. Marano won her first World medal (silver) in 1996 at the age of 17. Now she and other veterans must adjust with the times to fight off the new upstarts.

            “They have to tweak the little things,” Steiner said. “You can’t go out there business as usual or the same result will happen. You have to make the adjustments that you need to make on an individual basis. Sara is one of them. Kristie Marano is one of them. Iris Smith is one of them. Katie Downing is one of them. Sally Roberts is one of them. Stephanie Murata is one of them.

            “We have a lot of veteran wrestlers who want to make this a good memory.”

            And there are younger women who believe it’s time to start creating their own.