Class of 2006
Wrestling
Katherine Fulp-Allen was born in Redwood City in 1988 and attended HMBHS from 2002-2006. She loved being part of a close-knit community and felt that being a student athlete allowed her to connect with it in a very special way. Katherine was a member of both the Wrestling and Cross Country teams. In addition, she excelled academically spending four years on the Principal’s Honor Roll and earning the California CCS Scholar-Athlete Award, the HMBHS Female Scholar-Athlete Award, the HMBHS Cougar Booster Scholarship and the Cabrillo Unified Teachers Association Scholarship.
She was as dedicated on the wrestling mat and cross country course as she was in the classroom and gathered many awards and titles over the course of her high school career. She credits several important people in her life in helping her achieve her goals. First, she is grateful to Kevin Ostenberg, the head coach of the cross- country team. “He helped foster fun and hard work and gave me such an awesome perspective of how I enjoy being coached,” she said. Her wrestling coaches, John Rhodes and her father Lee Allen were “extremely supportive and fundamental in (her) growth as a young wrestler.” She feels that their leadership led her to pursue an athletic career. Lastly, her mother Joan Fulp was instrumental not only in Katherine’s success, but in supporting the small girls wrestling team from HMB. Without her support and sacrifice, the team would not have been able to travel to and compete in many competitions.
Katherine’s most memorable moment from cross-country came from the 2004 Mt Sac Invitational. It is a notoriously tough course and that year HMB entered a combined division that included the division above them. HMBHS won the entire competition, spurring them to set their sights on the California State Finals. They went on State and placed third, the highest a Half Moon Bay girls cross-country team had ever placed! Katherine left HMBHS having collected the following cross-country awards: four-time Team PAL League Champions from 2002 to 2005 (Scoring Team Member); CCS Division 4 Team Champions; 2002 and 2005 (Scoring Team Member); Mt. Sac Invitational Champions 2004 (Scoring Team Member); California State Championships Division 4; Third Place Team Champions, 2004 and 2005 (Scoring Team Member) and the Dick Calvin Cross-Country Award for 2004 and 2005.
When not training outdoors, she spent countless hours in the gym perfecting her wrestling skills. Again, the special nature of her experience at HMB formed the foundation of her career as a professional athlete. She was very close with her teammates, and their shared experience of being from a small town where their accomplishments were celebrated and recognized, created a very special bond. Katherine chose to wrestle in girls-only tournaments during her high school career. She chose this path as a way for her to test herself against her own gender and to support the growth of female wrestling in California. She achieved local and national honors in this sport. Her HMB record of 99 wins, 8 losses still stands! Her record, including USA Wrestling Tournaments, is 150 wins, 26 losses. At the California State Championships she was named Champion in 2004 and 2006 and received 2nd place honors in 2003 and 2005. She was the CIF Northern Regional Champion in 2006. She was a four-time title-holder in Freestyle Nationals and Champion at the Asics Napa Valley Girls Classic in 2006. Lastly, she was National Runner-up and Third Place USGWA Girls High School Nationals in 2004 and 2006.
Katherine continued her studies and wrestling at Menlo College from 2006 to 2010. She was two time College National Champion and two time National Athlete of the Year. She excelled there garnering more regional, national and international titles including Junior Pan American Champion 2007, University World Champion 2008 and U.S. Olympic Trials Participant 2008. She also graduated Magna Cum Laude and Alpha Chi with a Bachelors of Science in Business Finance.
As a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, she has continued to pursue her wrestling career, while working to improve the sport for all women by serving as a Board member for “Wrestle Like A Girl.” She is also the head coach for the School-Girl Pan American Championships and serves on the USA Wrestling Women’s Sport and Audit Committees. Twice she has been an Olympic Alternate, placing 3rd at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials. She was the 2016 Dave Shultz International Tournament Champion and Outstanding Wrestler and five time National Team Member and multi-international medal winner. She is currently ranked 3rd in the U.S. with past world-rankings including 5th, 6th and 7th.
Upon her graduation from HMBHS, Katherine received the Cougars Head Award (given to athletes with 8 varsity seasons) and she was named the HMB Review Athlete of the Year for 2006. It is safe to say that the support, training and knowledge that she gained at HMBHS and the encouragement she received from the people close to her, and from the community at large, provided a firm foundation for her to leave HMB and continue to pursue her dreams.