John Fuller\/TheMat.com<\/p>\n
For the past couple of years, Sam Hazewinkel of the Gator WC has been thought of as a national title contender – in college. However, in Las Vegas, he won a different national title – in Greco-Roman at 55 kg\/121 lbs.<\/p>\n
Hazewinkel rolled through some of the top Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world on his way to the national title, including veteran Lindsey Durlacher, who is hungry after sitting behind Olympian Brandon Paulson.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com sat down with Hazewinkel and asked him about winning that national title, and how he made such a quick transition from college to Greco-Roman.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Is it weird to win a national title in Greco-Roman before you win one in college?
Hazewinkel: A little bit. I always figured I would win an NCAA title, but on the other hand, it’s not really a surprise because I have always been good in Greco.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Is there a difference in preparation from college to Greco-Roman, especially at the high level you compete at?
Hazewinkel: It’s a different style, so you have to train differently. I don’t do a whole lot differently. It’s nice that I can do my own scheduling. College is such a long and demanding season. With Greco, I can set my own pace.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: How have you been able to maintain such a high level of competition in Greco-Roman, even though you are training a completely different style for seven months out of the year?
Hazewinkel: That was my dad’s fault. He had us changing styles since I first started wrestling. I just thought everybody did that. I was surprised when I started wrestling freestyle and Greco-Roman at the international level and learned that everyone else only did one style.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: If you do win the World Team Trials and compete in the World Championships, would you take a break at the front end of next college season?
Hazewinkel: Yeah, I probably would. I’d be in there by the time we had our first dual meet. That first month where everybody has to get back in shape, I would definitely be resting my body up.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Talk about the weight difference and how that affects you. In college, it is 125 lbs., but in Greco-Roman, it is 121 lbs.
Hazewinkel: It’s not too bad. I can make 125 without any real problems. I walk around about 130-131. That four pounds does make a difference. Last year I didn’t have any problems making it. This year, it wasn’t too bad until about that last pound. It didn’t want to come out for a while. I am real fortunate that I don’t have to cut a lot of weight.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: What are your thoughts on the new international rules?
Hazewinkel: I like them. They fit my style real well. I don’t think they’ll stay that way real long. I think (FILA) will tweak them, like they always do. I wish the matches were a little longer. Conditioning is one of my advantages. I can’t complain because I like them better than the old rules.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Who are your workout partners for Greco-Roman competition?
Hazewinkel: Michael Lightner was my main workout partner in going from college to Greco. I like doing freestyle. I think it keeps you in shape a little better than Greco. He did Greco with me and Teyon Ware did a lot of Greco with me as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Fuller\/TheMat.com For the past couple of years, Sam Hazewinkel of the Gator WC has been thought of as a national title contender – in college. However, in Las Vegas, he won a different national title – in Greco-Roman at 55 kg\/121 lbs. Hazewinkel rolled through some of the top Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-hR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}