Vering, a two-time Olympian, turned in a silver-medal performance at the 2007 World Championships. Larry Slater photo. Continued from page 18
Damion Hahn, a ton of big names. I won the tournament, then wrestled Greco and won that tournament also. I was thinking I could choose which World Championships I could go to, which was pretty sweet. Matt was coaching the tournament and said, go talk to (Steve) Fraser and tell him you are going to the Worlds in Greco. He said ‘I will be training Greco all summer and you will be training Greco all summer.’ And that was it,” said Vering. Vering was also very good as a college wrestler, a three-time All-American and the 2000 NCAA champion at 197 pounds dur- ing his junior year. His memories of his NCAA championship year remain vivid, which ended with a win over conference rival Zach Thompson of Iowa State in the finals.
“It was transformative for me. I moved up to 197 from 184. There was this guy from Iowa State who was pretty darn good at 184. I was not running from Cael, no way. Justin Ruiz went on a Mormon mission. We had a hole at 197, and our 174- pounder and I were cutting a ton of weight. Going up to 197, I was at a weight class where I could enjoy wrestling. I was able to lift weights, get strong and stay healthy all year. I was able to focus on technique and focus on what I loved to do in the sport.
After that season, I was a huge advocate to get on the weights, get powerful and focus on technique and loving what you are doing,” he said. After college, he made the move to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to focus full-time on Greco-Roman, a place with quality coaching and training partners in the classic style.
“It was awesome. In 2001, I was Matt’s training partner at the
World Championships where he won a silver medal. Rulon Gardner and Brandon Paulson were on that team. It was one of the best performances the USA had at a World Championships in Greco. At that time, I knew I could compete with the best in the world because I could compete with Matt. At that point, I felt I just had to get on the team and get my chance,” said Vering. The next season in 2002, Vering made his first World Team and placed fifth in the World. He repeated that in 2003, making the team and taking fifth at the Worlds again. He was learning daily from the coaches at the OTC, especially National Resident Coach Momir Petkovic, an Olympic champion from the former Yugoslavia, who Vering compares favorably with Nebraska assistant Mark Cody, another major influence on his career.
Continued on page 20 19 USA Wrestler
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