THE LAST WORD
April 18-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There were plenty of familiar faces winning championships, including Olympic and World champion Jordan Burroughs, World champion Elena Pirozhkova and Olympian Spenser Mango.
New year brings new storylines L
AS VEGAS - One of the best parts about the year after an Olympic Games is seeing all the new faces who burst onto the scene at the Senior level. That was definitely the case during the U.S. Open on
Byers in the semifinals.
But there were also plenty of wrestlers who are set to make a huge impact on the Senior level for the first time this season. The biggest surprise, in terms of seedings anyway, was Kellen Russell. He was unseeded, but everybody knows he is fully capable of excelling on the big stage after capturing a pair of NCAA titles for Michigan. To me, Russell’s victory in Las Vegas wasn’t a huge surprise because of how strong he was wrestling on his feet in college. It should be a great battle at Russell’s weight class of 66 kg/145.5 lbs. at June’s U.S. World Team Trials in Stillwater, Okla. Expect past World Team member Brent Metcalf to come back strong after finishing third at the U.S. Open. Also look for U.S. Open runner-up Jordan Oliver, who is very gifted in freestyle, to rebound while wrestling in front of his home crowd at Oklahoma State.
Another interesting story in Vegas was that of Greco-Roman heavyweight David Arendt, who recently returned to competition after serving his country for the U.S. Marines during tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. Arendt pinned Erik Nye in the finals after Nye had knocked off 10-time U.S. Open champ and past World champion Dremiel
One of the biggest surprises in freestyle occurred when Dom Bradley defeated past World bronze medalist and Olympian Tervel Dlagnev in the finals at heavyweight. Bradley is a talented prospect with an abundance of potential. He has been on three U.S. National Teams and was a Junior World champion, so he has shown promise in freestyle. Expect Dlagnev, who has had a superb season, to come back with a strong performance at the World Team Trials. In women’s freestyle, top young stars Alli Ragan and Brittney
Craig Sesker
Roberts continue to progress and impress as both captured U.S. Open championships. Both wrestlers are on the verge of being very good on the Senior level.
The freestyle field at 60 kg/132 lbs. was very strong with 2011
World Team member Reece Humphrey defeating 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Coleman Scott in the finals. The weight class also features top young stars in past Junior
World Team member Tyler Graff and Junior World silver medal- ist Logan Stieber. Graff looked very tough in sweeping Stieber 3-1, 3-0 in the third-place match in Las Vegas. The future also looks bright with 2012 Hodge Trophy winner
David Taylor turning in a strong performance. Taylor fell to Burroughs in the finals at 74 kg/163 lbs., but showed his ability by making Burroughs work for the win in the second period. Taylor is a talented, skilled, hard-working and driven wrestler who has a very bright future ahead on the freestyle level. Once he fills out and develops, he could eventually be a force at 84 kg/185 lbs.
42 USA Wrestler
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