Jake Deitchler became only the third high school wrestler to make the U.S. Olympic team with a shocking upset of Harry Lester — considered one of the best Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world at any weight.

By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

LAS VEGAS — Eighteen-year-old Jake Deitchler knew no one expected him to make the U.S. Olympic team. Only two other high school wrestlers had ever done so, and a person his age hadn’t been on the team since 1976.

Still, Deitchler wondered: What if?

The three-time state champion from Anoka High School finished his senior year in April so he could train full-time, sweated in the wrestling room every day and came to the U.S. Olympic Trials thinking he had a chance. On Saturday, Deitchler pulled off an enormous upset in the challenge round of the 145.5-pound Greco- Roman division, then swept his opponent in the finals to earn a spot on the Olympic team.

Deitchler beat Faruk Sahin 0-5, 7-4, 1-1 in their first match of the final round at Thomas and Mack Center.

Newark, NJ
By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

The Prudential Center in northern New Jersey is the brand-spanking new gleaming home of the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils.

On Tuesday, USA Wrestling made “The Rock” the backdrop for an announcement of a new fundraising initiative aimed at helping not only the athletes who will represent the United States at the 2008 Games in Beijing, but their families as well.

“Fuel the Dream” will help the families of the 2008 Olympians with travel, lodging and overall accommodations in Beijing, something costly to the athletes since the dawn of the Olympiad.

“One of the starters for this program was back when John Smith was on the team,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “Seagram’s sponsored a program that helped with those costs. It doesn’t exist today, so we saw this as an opportunity to really make a difference for the athletes beyond getting them the best coaches, training schedules and facilities.”

“I was on two Olympic teams and I was fortunate enough to win two gold medals there,” said current Oklahoma State head wrestling coach John Smith. “It was nice to have family there.”

Former Missouri wrestler Ben Askren, top, is competing at the Olympic Trials on June 13-15 in Las Vegas.

By DAVID THIESSEN

It would be wise not to doubt Ben Askren.

He is competing at the Olympic Trials in Las Vegas on June 13-15, and he has faced his share of doubters along the way.

The former Missouri wrestler faced doubts that he could win in college because he was not fast or strong enough. Askren adopted his ‘funky’ style, utilizing his unique ability as a scrambler to win NCAA national championships in 2006 and 2007.

Even then, the doubters did not go away.

While Askren’s style worked in college with folkstyle wrestling, which places more emphasis on scrambling, it did not fit as well on the international level with freestyle wrestling. In freestyle, wrestlers stay on their feet most of the time.

Once again, Askren quieted the doubters, climbing the United States Senior Freestyle rankings at 74 kilograms/163 pounds to the top. He also represented the United States at the World Championships in February.

Of course, the doubters returned before the ASICS U.S. National Championships, which were held on April 23-25. Askren was seeded third at 163 pounds.

‘Wrestlers At The Trials’ - excerpt from Gene Mills

Amongst the 90 wrestlers and coaches whose never-been-published stories are captured in the recent book about the 1960 thru 1988 Olympic wrestling Trials is former Syracuse standout Gene Mills. From “Wrestlers At The Trials”, here is a short excerpt from the stories that Gene tells about his experience at the 1980 Trials and his feeling about the US boycott of those Olympics.

“I went to the wrestle-offs in Brockport still thinking we were going to compete in the Olympics. I wanted to pin my way through the Olympic Games and knew I needed to drop down to 114.5 to meet my goal. That was a tough pull for me but I made it. It was only after I won the wrestle-offs that I finally realized we wouldn’t be wrestling in the Games.

“I was so mad. I wasn’t pulling all that weight to have a good time. I was devastated, furious, angry, you name it. I would have liked to have been locked in a room with the president and make him pay. I had worked my ass off, earned the right to go and I wanted him to feel my pain.

By Travis Johnson Email
Collegian Staff Writer

A gray-haired man in his 60s sits on a bench in the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex beneath championship plaques. He watches intently as his grandson, an elementary school wrestler, rolls around the mat with a kid twice his age, but not much taller.

Earl Harris’ eyes shift from the mat when someone beside him wants to talk wrestling. He was Pennsylvania state champion in 1958 and he could talk wrestling for hours. He also knows a thing or two about his grandson’s coach — Penn State wrestling standout and 2008 Olympic hopeful, Brad Pataky.

If Pataky and Harris weren’t generations apart, they would likely be the bitterest of enemies on the mat. Harris’ and Pataky’s high schools, Philipsburg-Osceola and Clearfield, are longstanding rivals who’ve often matched each other, champ for champ, title for title. But Harris says he always rooted for Pataky, even against his alma mater. There was something special about Pataky, the elder champion says.

“Pataky?” Harris grunts, as his white eyebrows perk up. “I always say, the best wrestlers can take a punch and, damn, he was a barn burner. Man, he was tough.”

By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

The clouds hanging over the State Capital building in Harrisburg, Pa., on Wednesday morning shrouded the city skyline and blanketed it with a damp chill.

There’s also been a damp chill shrouding college wrestling, not specifically in Pennsylvania, but nationwide. But the 34 college wrestling programs in Pennsylvania have not been devoid of being cut, as witnessed by Slippery Rock cutting its historic program two years ago.

Initially, Slippery Rock was to drop eight sports as a cost-cutting move, five men’s sports and three women’s sports, but after a Title IX complaint was filed, the school was forced to keep the three women’s sports while the men’s sports were left with nothing – including wrestling.

Joined by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R) and former Iowa wrestling Coach Dan Gable, the National Wrestling Coaches Association met with the Pennsylvania General Assembly to discuss options for legislation to solidify the athletic opportunities that currently exist in the state.

Hastert, Gable, NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer and a host of representatives met in the Majority Caucus Room in a meeting headed up by Rep. Todd Eachus (D), Chairman of the House Policy Committee.

Lee U-Wen
u-wen@mediacorp.com.sg

WITH 3-on-3 basketball and even beach wrestling potentially on the programme, the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010, for athletes aged 14 to 18, is shaping up to be more than just a mini-version of the Summer Olympics.

The menu of 26 sports will be part of an attempt to better “interest and appeal” to youth, said Singapore’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board member Ng Ser Miang. The Republic is hoping to host the historic event.

Take wrestling, for instance. In addition to conventional indoor events, the plan is to have an outdoor beach-wrestling version, too. As for basketball, different formats may be tried — such as having teams of three, as opposed to five, battle it out and playing on a half-court only. And sailing will likely see a new youth class of boats used that will suit the abilities of the young athletes.

Mr Ng revealed the IOC’s plans to Today on the sidelines of a press conference held at the Singapore Sports School yesterday to rally support for the Singapore bid, which was submitted to the IOC in August.

Posted at the Wrestling Talk forum…

Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestling star Kurt Angle was charged Friday with driving under the influence.

Moon Township police said they received a call from a motorist at 1:49 p.m. complaining that someone driving a white Cadillac nearly struck his vehicle in a restaurant parking lot.

The motorist, who gave police the vehicle’s license plate number, also said the Cadillac was driving erratically on Beaver Grade Road and almost hit a traffic sign. Police tracked the Cadillac to Angle’s residence, which they did not identify.

Angle, 38, who has admitted an addiction to painkillers, told police he had been at the restaurant and driven home. He failed a sobriety test but refused a blood test. He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance and careless driving. He was released to appear in court at a later date.

Angle, a Mount Lebanon native, is the current Total Nonstop Action Wrestling world champion. He could not be reached for comment.

A standout athlete at Mount Lebanon High School, Angle was a two-time NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. He also won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Mark Palmer, Staff Writer at RevWrestling

Take a look at the wrestling resumes of most Olympic gold medal-winning wrestlers from the US, and just about all of them had considerable international experience, built on a foundation from being state champs back in high school, and NCAA champions in college.

Shelby Wilson is a notable exception to that rule.

Wilson, who, along with Terry McCann and Doug Blubaugh, won the gold medal for the US in freestyle at the 1960 Olympics, never wrestled in international competition before going to Rome. In fact, he never won an Oklahoma state title while at Ponca City High School… nor did he claim a national collegiate crown as an Oklahoma State Cowboy.

Which makes Shelby Wilson winning the Olympic gold medal all the more special.

An introduction to the mat

Shelby Wilson grew up on a farm outside Ponca City, a community of 25,000 in northern Oklahoma, just south of the Kansas border. He was the oldest of four children, with a sister and two brothers, both becoming Oklahoma high school state champs.

Shelby Wilson

BY KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star

For most of the last four years, the Nebraska 197s have painted a small corner of Colorado Springs, Colo., their own shade of Husker red.

Two members of that club — Brad Vering and Justin Ruiz — will try to do the same thing about 10,000 miles to the east in Baku, Azerbaijan, when the World Wrestling Championships are held Sept. 17-23.

That, both said, is partially because they have another fellow Husker — B.J. Padden — training with them at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

Those three — all former NCAA qualifiers at 197 pounds (Vering was the 1999 champion) — are major players in the upper weight classes on the national team.

“Justin and I are real good friends, have been for a long time,” Vering said in a telephone interview last week. “Now, with B.J. out here, we all are close and we push each other to do better. I think it’s paying off for all of us.”