Nine Americans punched their tickets to the Rio Summer Games. Nine more won the right to qualify for the games. The 2016 USA Wrestling Team was finalized at a veritable carnival of conflict in Iowa City, Iowa.
Carver-Hawkeye Arena played host to a weekend of too many story lines of which to keep track. National champions were crowned in six weight classes in three divisions, Men’s Freestyle, Women’s Freestyle, and Greco-Roman. Nine of those champs will be representing the Stars and Stripes in Rio de Janiero in August. Nine others have not yet qualified for the games, and are Olympic Trials Champions but not yet Olympians. They will need to secure their spots at the Games in one of two upcoming overseas tournaments.
It was a tumultuous weekend for hundreds of wrestlers as the culmination of four years of training and passion came to a crashing halt for all but a select few. The sum of a nation’s wrestling talent pool reduced to a single victor per weight division.
Upping the stakes for the Olympian aspirants is the reduction of weight classes in the men’s styles. For reasoning too complicated and obtuse to unravel succinctly, where once there were 10 weight classes, now there are a scant 6, making the Olympic roster slots all the more precious. United World Wrestling (UWW, the sport’s international governing body), have also not provided a satisfactory explanation for why the weights are distributed the way the are (probably because no logical explanation exists). But in any event, here they are (in kgs/lbs):
Men’s Freestyle
57/125.6
65/143.3
74/163.1
86/189.6
97/213.8
125/275.6
Greco-Roman
59/130.1
66/145.5
75/165.3
85/187.4
98/216.1
130/286.6
Women’s Freestyle
48/105.8
53/116.9
58/127.9
63/138.9
69/152.1
75/165.3
I will do my best to recap the championship finals and other noteworthy events, with a caveat that the sheer volume of drama within the arena last weekend defies summary.
Men’s Freestyle
57 kg (Qualified)
Daniel Dennis defeats Tony Ramos 2-1, 10-0
3rd place Tyler Graff
Get ready to hear about the made for NBC human interest story of Dan Dennis, who went from living out of his truck to living out his dream of being an Olympian. Dennis realized his lifelong ambition by wrestling a flawless tournament, punishing opponents with rib crunching gut wrenches. Dennis is a long shot to medal, but regardless of the outcome, his journey to Rio is already legendary.
Heightening the melodrama is the fact that Dennis won by beating his former college teammate, Tony Ramos, shockingly dealing the 2014 NCAA champion his first lost ever in Carver-Hawkeye, his collegiate home gym. Ramos subsequently lit up the wrestling message boards by stating that he felt “betrayed” by his Iowa coaches for encouraging Dennis to come out of retirement and train for the Olympics as both a competitor and teammate of Ramos’ at the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. Ramos further stated that he is leaving the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and will be continuing his career elsewhere.
4X NCAA All American Tyler Graff fell short of his ultimate goal, but had an otherwise excellent tournament finishing 3rd, besting all his opponents not named Dan Dennis by technical fall.
And in one of the small, oft overlooked bonuses of the tournament, Nico Megaludis, 2016 NCAA champion at 125 pounds, and Nahshon Garrett, 2016 NCAA champion at 133 pounds, wrestled in a consolation match. Garrett won, and though neither finished on the podium, it was a match up college fan could only dream about during the NCAA season. But at the trials, when you have 30 All American honors and 6 NCAA championships in one bracket, it is a pedestrian affair.
65 kg (Not Qualified)
Frank Molinaro defeats Aaron Pico 2-4, 4-3, 4-4
3rd place Zain Retherford
In the most busted of all the brackets, the heavy favorites all crashed and burned one by one. Brent Metcalf, the number one seed and 4 time world team member, was unceremoniously bounced from the tournament after suffering two straight losses against zero wins. The number two seed, Jordan Oliver, lost his first match of the day and didn’t bother to try wrestling back for third. James Green, a world bronze medalists and three seed, was also dispatched twice without notching a victory.
Out of the swirling cauldron of carnage and into the finals stepped Aaron Pico, the 19 year old phenom, and Frank Molinaro, a dark horse nine seed. “Gorilla Hulk” Molinaro scraped past Pico by the skin of his teeth in a back and forth three match set.
Battle tested veterans Reece Humphrey, Logan Stieber, Jimmy Kennedy and Kellen Russell also failed to place, with the bronze medal being claimed by Penn State redshirt Sophomore and 2016 NCAA 149 pound champion, Zain Retherford. A laudable accomplishment given the 39 All American honors and 14 NCAA championships Retherford had to contend with in this super stacked bracket.
Molinaro will now have to qualify the weight at either of the 2 upcoming last chance tournaments in Mongolia and Turkey. A tall but not impossible task.
74 kg (Qualified)
Jordan Burroughs defeats Andrew Howe 9-3, 10-0
3rd place Alex Dieringer
Adding to a devastating arsenal of leg attacks from the standing position, Jordan Burroughs demonstrated his improved leg lace technique, laying waste to his finals opponent, Andrew Howe, in two straight matches. As a result, coaches are furiously adding leg lace defense to their practice schedules in Russian lands.
Burroughs was a literal prohibitive favorite to repeat as an Olympian. His commanding presence sent two Hodge Trophy winners, David Taylor and Kyle Dake, up the weight ladder to 86 kilograms, 23 pounds heavier than 74 kilos. The New Jerseyan Burroughs is favored to defend his Olympic gold.
Alex Dieringer, the most recent Hodge Trophy winner, also put forth a commendable performance amidst a tough field. 19 year old Mark Hall also acquitted himself well, doing his fellow millennials proud by winning two matches against senior level opponents.
86 (Not Qualified)
J’Den Cox defeats Kyle Dake 8-1, 3-5, 5-3
3rd place David Taylor
The aforementioned Dake and Taylor both reached the podium in their new weight class at the expense number one seed and former world silver medalist, Jake Herbert. Herbert is most likely done with serious competition, however he is one of the most accomplished American upper weights since Cael Sanderson and will prove an invaluable ambassador to the sport for years to come. He also once rocked one of the most impressive mullets in world history.
Ultimately, it was 21 year old college junior, J’Den Cox, that was crowned the Olympic Team Trials Champion. A very game Kyle Dake put on a heroic performance, nearly getting the better of Cox in the final seconds of the third match. Cox does not have much international experience, mainly due to still being enrolled at the University of Missouri, but the international field at 86 kg is not as deep as 65 kg, and Cox has a very good chance of qualifying himself for Rio.
97 kg (Qualified)
Kyle Snyder defeats Jake Varner 4-4, 4-0, 6-1
3rd place Dustin Kilgore
Although Jake “The Steak” Varner did finally win a match against his youthful nemesis in the first of three championship matches, it was Kyle “The Spectacular” Snyder-man who stormed back to take the final 2 matches in convincing fashion. Snyder will be a gold medal contender in Brazil.
There will be a bevy of worthy opponents waiting for Kyle when he arrives in the Southern Hemisphere, but Snyder has proven he can beat the best of them when he is wrestling smart, mistake free matches.
125 kg (Qualified)
Tervel Dlagnev defeats Zach Rey 3-1, 5-3
3rd place Dom Bradley
Tervel Dlagnev and Zach Rey are familiar opponents, having also clashed in the 2014 and 2015 world team trial finals. Both gargantuan heavyweights are psychical specimens, their elephantine thighs so stout, if they wore corduroy they’d start fires.
Dlagnev won this battle against Rey, (as well as the last two), but his biggest obstacle to obtaining an Olympic gold medal may not be foreign competitors but his own back. Dlagnev admitted in a post victory interview that as recently as two days before the trials, he was unsure if he would be healthy enough to compete. Health concerns and back surgery also kept Dlagnev from competing in the 2015 World Championships. However, if Tervel is ready to go in Rio (and we all dearly hope he is), he is a threat to medal, having scored two bronze medals in previous World Championships.
Greco-Roman
59 kg (Not Qualified)
Jesse Thielke defeats Ildar Hafizov 10-0, 9-3
3rd place Ryan Mango
Jesse Thielke “Smooth” won a weight that had been owned by Spenser Mango, USA’s representative at the last two Olympic Games. After losing to Thielke in the semi finals, Spenser left his wrestling shoes in the center of the mat, symbolizing his farewell to competition. It is the traditional way to retire from wrestling and it provided the fans at the trials with quite the dusty eyed moment. The Iowa City crowd honored Mango with a tremendous standing ovation as they witnessed a historic changing of the guards.
Thielke will now need to qualify the weight in a very crowded international division.
66 kg (Not Qualified)
RaVaughan Perkins defeats Patrick Smith 0-2, 2-2, 9-2
3rd place Alejandro Sancho
Perkins prevailed after 3 taught matches and now must qualify the weight in one of the final qualifying tournaments after being denied a spot in Rio at the Pan Am qualifier.
59 and 66 kg, like their freestyle counterparts, 57 and 65 kg, are absolute monster weight classes. As recently as 1996, there were 5 weight classes below 74 kg. Now there are 2, and, as you can imagine, competitions at these weights have become quite crowded. RaVaughn will have to be at his best to make it to Rio.
75 kg (Qualified)
Andy Bisek defeats Geordan Speiller 6-2, 4-0
3rd place Cheney Haight
Andy Bisek is the owner of the only two American world medals in Greco-Roman wrestling since 2009. Bisek is also the USA’s best chance at earning a medal in Greco at the 2016 Olympics. Andy Bisek is also the owner of by far the best mustache on the USA wrestling team.
Geordan Speiller put up a spirited fight, but Bisek’s world class gut wrenches were too much, and The Cowboy, as he is known internationally, will be heading to Brazil to lasso an Olympic gold.
85 kg (Qualified)
Ben Provisor defeats Jacob Clark 3-0, Fall (for Provisor)
3rd place Hayden Zillmer
Ben Provisor knocked off number 1 seed Jordan Holm in the semi finals and “stole” the Olympic spot earned by Holm in the Pan Am qualifier. This will be Provisor’s second Olympic games representing the Red, White and Blue.
Hayden Zillmer continues to roll after finishing his collegiate career at North Dakota State. He is the only wrestler to finish in the top three at the event who qualified for trials via the “last chance” tournament held a few weeks ago.
98 kg (Not Qualified)
Josef Rau defeats Caylor Williams Fall (for Williams), 5-2, ,6-5
3rd place G’Angelo Hancock
I wish I knew more about these guys besides that Josef Rau sounds like a character from the Street Fighter video games. Probably the best pure wrestler from Street Fighter was Zangief. You might say it’s really Sagat or M. Bison, but that’s cheating, those guys have super powers and can shoot lasers out of their hands. Zangief is just a really, really big dude from Russia with elite wrestling skills like being able to pick people up, jump in there air, spin them around like a top and pile drive them into oblivion.
And don’t even start with E. Honda. Beating someone up with the thousand hand slap doesn’t mean you have any skills. It just means you’re good at button mashing. Come on, learn to Hadoukon already.
130 kg (Qualified)
Robby Smith defeats Adam Coon 4-1, 7-2
3rd place Toby Erickson
Robby “The Beard” Smith is a fan favorite, both for his stylish sock game and his crowd friendly repertoire of throws. Robby qualified this weight by finishing 5th at the 2015 World Champions in Vegas. Smith fell one win short of a medal but did so in the most entertaining Greco match I’ve ever seen. In Iowa City, Smith knocked off Michigan Wolverine junior, Adam “Incredibly Large Human” Coon (This nickname is accurate. I rode the subway with Coon last month. True story).
If you’re not rooting for Robby Smith in the 2016 Olympics, then I’m sorry but you need to take a good look in the mirror, mister. Really, take a look and think about your decision.
Women’s Freestyle
48 kg (Not Qualified)
Haley Augello defeats Victoria Anthony 6-4, 6-11, 8-2
3rd place Clarissa Chun
This will be Augello’s first world team membership and first Olympics, should she be able to qualify the spot. To win that opportunity, Halley made it past former Olympic medalist Clarissa Chun, and former World Team member Victory Anthony. The finals went the three match distance in a high scoring, high flying and highly entertaining affair. Seriously, if you’re skeptical about women’s wrestling, watch some 48 kg matches at the elite international level. They are tons of fun.
53 kg (Not Qualified)
Helen Maroulis defeats Whitney Conder 10-0, 11-0
3rd place Katherine Fulp-Allen
Helen “The Greek Goddess of War or Fighting, or, I don’t know, take your pick. Cereal? Hearth? Hearth is one of them, right? Any one of them will suffice, so… anyway…” Maroulis didn’t participate in the Pan Am qualifier as she was still in the process of dropping down from the 55 kg weight class. Maroulis is a World Champion at 55 kg, but the powers that be at the IOC and UWW decided, in their infinite wisdom, not to include that weight class in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Maroulis was no match for Whitney Conder’s on fleek sock game (which I believe featured the Seattle skyline?), however, Conder was no match for Maroulis’ wrestling ability, losing 2 straight matches by a total of 21-0. The Marylander Maroulis is a gold medal contender down at 53. She should have no problem qualifying this weight overseas.
58 kg (Not Qualified)
Kelsey Campbell defeats Alli Ragan 2-1, 2-1
3rd place Randi Beltz
Below is a video from 2015 World Team Trials as I can’t find a video of their Olympic Trials final matches on Youtube.
Campbell and Ragan have met in the two previous world team trials finals at this weight, with Ragan emerging victorious in both instances. But Campbell, the 2012 USA rep in London, was not yet ready to relinquish her Olympic reigns. Campbell preserved over a devastated Ragan, dashing the upstart’s dreams in the process. Ragan will use the defeat to fuel her subsequent assaults at the crown while Campbell will still need to qualify the weight for Rio, though she should be up for the task.
63 Elena Pirozhkova defeats Erin Clodgo 3-1, Fall (for Pirozhkova)
3rd place Mallory Velte
Though the weight was qualified in the Pan Ams by Clodgo, wily veteran and 4X world medalist Elena Pirozhkova showed up to Iowa City ready to rumble and ran away with the title. She will head to Rio looking to add to her collection of shiny metal discs attached to ribbons.
69 Tamyra Mensah defeats Brittney Roberts 8-1, 8-1
3rd place Randi Miller
This is Mensah’s first USA world level championship though the weight still needs to be qualified.
And also, both wrestlers wore Asics shoes, and um, both wore double knee pads. So that’s something.
My sincere apologies for having nothing else of value to contribute to this championship recap.
75 Adeline Gray defeats Victoria Francis 10-0, 10-0
3rd place Jackie Surber
Adeline “Jean” Gray’s was planet destroying force in her finals matches. With the power of the mythical Phoenix she reduced Victoria Francis to proverbial ashes. The three time world champion Gray barely broke a sweat while earning her first trip to the Olympics. She will be a heavy favorite to win gold.
If you hired a consultancy to create the perfect prototypical spokesperson and competitor to represent US Women’s Wrestling, I imagine it would look a lot like Adeline Gray. She is a delight.
How the USA Can Qualify the Remaining Weights
Here is a very good and nice wikipedia page on the subject if you want to skip the next two paragraphs.
There are but four more opportunities for wrestlers to qualify for Rio. One, is this European Continental Qualifier this weekend, for which no USA wrestler is eligible (duh). Another, is to be one of eight wild cards selected by a committee. But those wild cards are reserved for countries that have sent less than sixteen individual athletes to the last two Olympics. There is a list of countries that are eligible for these spots but (also duh) America is not on it.
Finally, there are two ‘last chance’ tournaments being held within the next month. The first last chance (or, you know, second to last chance) will be in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia over March 22-24, where the top two wrestlers in that tournament will qualify for Rio. The last, last chance tournament will be in Istanbul, Turkey over May 6-8, where the top three wrestlers will qualify. All nine USA trials winners without qualified weights will have their passports stamped for at least Mongolia, and if necessary, Turkey.
MMA News
Sorry for burying the lede, but as you could probably tell from the length of the article already, I got pretty jazzed up by the trials last weekend. However, the results of the trials did cause some ripples in the MMA community, notably a few wrestlers announcing they are retiring from the sport of wrestling to transition to careers in mixed martial arts.
Future middleweight fighter, Ed Ruth,and heavyweight, Tyrell Fortune, both failed to make the Olympic team, and as such, will begin full time MMA training. Both have already signed to compete for Bellator, so these decisions came as no surprise to most wrestling fans.
Ed Ruth likely has the most potential of the two, as he was definitely the more accomplished wrestler in college. Ruth had a nearly flawless career at Penn State, winning three straight NCAA championships after finishing 3rd as a freshman. Many saw Ruth as the future of the 86 kg weight class in freestyle, and indeed, Ruth won the world team trials the same year he won his final NCAA title in 2014.
If Ruth has a weakness, though, it’s his occasional lack of focus. Ruth has taken some questionable losses during his career, and after showing signs of brilliance on the international level, never seemed to fully commit to freestyle. But when he was on, Ruth was unstoppable. Otherworldly strength and quickness that burst from nowhere, Ruth could mercilessly pick apart hammers with ease. This highlight video shows Ruth at his most ruthless (ho ho ho), on both the college and international level.
Fortune is another tremendous talent that does not have quite the collegiate pedigree as Ruth. A blue chip recruit, Fortune went the junior college route before landing at Grand Canyon University, a for profit institution that, for a brief moment, looked like it was going to make a genuine effort to become a DI wrestling contender before abruptly shuttering the entire wrestling program with nary an explanation provided.
Having witnessed Fortune wrestle up close and personal, I can attest to his terrifying size, strength, and speed. I’d expect him to be a force at heavyweight in the very near future.
The other big Bellator signee at the trials is Aaron Pico, however, as he is still a teenager, speculation remains as to when he will make his move to MMA. The scuttlebutt has long been that Pico would compete in freestyle up to the Rio games, and then start his professional MMA career. The latest unconfirmed rumor I heard is that Pico will wrestle in the UWW Junior World Championships (assuming he wins the USA Junior Team Trial). After that is anybody’s guess. Pico will still be squarely in his prime to make a run at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. On the other hand, he may prefer the more lucrative world of Mixed Martial Arts. My advice to both wrestling and MMA fans is to hedge your bets by being a fan of both sports and follow this immensely talented individual no matter what he does.
Additionally, in news I just learned from my twitter feed while I was typing this, Deron Winn, another prospective middleweight, will also be transitioning from the mats to the cage. Winn wrestled at junior college in St Louis and an the nearby Division II school of Lindenwood. Winn has a compact but powerful frame that should be fun to watch.
What’s Next
The European Qualifying Tournament in Serbia is this weekend, which will remove two quality contenders from talent pool looking to earn spots at the other two open qualifying tournaments. The first, in Turkey, begins in less than two weeks from now. The final opportunity in Mongolia concludes within a month’s time.
After the Olympic qualifications are locked in, there are a few international tournaments that some countries (notably Russia) use to help decide their final Olympic rosters. There are also a smattering of Junior (ages 18-20) and Cadet (ages 15-17) level competitions to keep fans satiated until the big quadrennial event in August. Wrestling fans will be waiting with baited breath.