Champions quotes from Day 1 of U.S. Senior Nationals
John Fuller\/USA Wrestling<\/p>\n
Women’s Freestyle: Stephanie Murata (Sunkist Kids), 51 kg\/112.25 lbs.
On not competing in the Olympic Games last year:
“I would have wished that 51 kg was in (the Olympic programme), simply because that’s the weight I am most comfortable at. That just wasn’t meant to be, so you have to make due with what is and my choice was to go up.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On wanting to win a World-level gold medal:
“I don’t think it really would make a difference to anyone but me. It’s just a goal that I really wanted to achieve.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Greco-Roman: Joe Warren, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC), 60 kg\/121 lbs.
On winning his first U.S. Nationals title:
“I’ve been third the last four years. It’s been a battle man. This feels so good. I tore my MCL in the first match today. So it’s been a struggle. If you keep believing in yourself, it’s going to happen.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On his future:
“I hope I’m the new face of USA Wrestling. I’ll stay around until I start losing. I would like to finish with a gold medal in four years and then hang up my shoes, personally. The sport’s been good to me.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Men’s Freestyle: Michael Lightner, Norman, Okla. (Sunkist Kids), 60 kg\/132 lbs.
On come from behind in the finals, winning the last two periods:
“I’ve been through some things the last couple of years, and that’s how I am in my matches. If I five up a period, then that’s fine. I feel like I can overcome adversity. If I’m down, I just stay positive and keep trying to take steps forward and move forward.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On his opponent, Nate Gallick:
“He came out and wrestled hard. He’s tough to score on. It could be to his advantage to give up the leg, because he’s tough there. It was a good match, I take nothing away from him. He’s tough and he’s young.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On overcoming numerous knee injuries to win a national title:
“It really makes it special. I want to thank my family and the OU guys who work out with me. It’s all worth it. I’ve been down, but I got back up and kept moving forward, doing the best I can.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Women’s Freestyle: Sally Roberts, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Gator WC), 59 kg\/130 lbs.
On competing in a non-Olympic weight:
“I was one of those people that fit right in the middle and didn’t fit in either place.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Was it hard for you to miss the Olympics?
“It wasn’t until after the fact, after I saw it on TV, after I really saw the magnitude of everything that I really decided that I’m going to be there in 2008 because I really deserve that.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Greco-Roman: Darryl Christian, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC), 74 kg\/163 lbs.
On the difference in his ability from one year ago:
“The main difference from a year ago is the maturity I’ve gained. I’ve put in over 40 matches this year and over 20-some foreign opponents.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On the team atmosphere at the U.S. Olympic Training Center:
“We need to win medals. It’s not about the number one guy in the country. It’s about we’ve got to win medals together.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Men’s Freestyle: Joe Williams, Ames, Iowa (Sunkist Kids), 74 kg\/163 lbs.
On pondering retirement after the 2004 Olympic Games:
“Any time you don’t reach or accomplish your goals, you’re always going to consider the possibility of doing something else.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On the new rules:
“With the new rules, a one-day tournament, that puts a lot of concentration on your training and making everything is in order. Wrestling is changing a great deal. I thought the rule changes fit well with my style. That was one of the considerations to keep going. It’s going to benefit the guy who’s out there hustling that’s wrestling.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Women’s Freestyle: Kristie Marano, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC), 67 kg\/147.5 lbs.
On continuing to compete:
“Actually, I just spent six months off the mat with a knee injury, so I was ready to come back.”\u009d<\/p>\n
On her daughter’s support:
“She just accepts it. She’s been around it since she’s been a baby. She understands it really well and she knows that when we go on vacation that she gets to see grandma and she gets to see me wrestle.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Greco-Roman: Justin Ruiz, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC), 96 kg\/211.5 lbs.
On what has changed with his wrestling in the past year:
“I think I’ve changed a lot. Just living out at the (Olympic) training center and being able to go to more international tournaments. That’s helped out quite a bit as far as getting that experience and just getting the matches that I needed to get.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Men’s Freestyle: Daniel Cormier, Stillwater, Okla. (Gator WC), 96 kg\/211.5 lbs.
On battling through stiffness in his leg throughout the finals:
“I was going to wrestle regardless. I wasn’t sure how well I was going to wrestle or if I was going to be as offensive as I like to be and wrestle the way I want to, but I knew I was going to wrestle.”\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Champions quotes from Day 1 of U.S. Senior NationalsJohn Fuller\/USA Wrestling Women’s Freestyle: Stephanie Murata (Sunkist Kids), 51 kg\/112.25 lbs.On not competing in the Olympic Games last year:“I would have wished that 51 kg was in (the Olympic programme), simply because that’s the weight I am most comfortable at. That just wasn’t meant to be, […]<\/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-1217","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-jD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","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=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}