Wildcats Roar at Olympic Wrestling Trials

Courtesy of the USOEC

The United States Olympic Education Center’s (USOEC) impact at last week’s (April 20-23) U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials in Iowa City, Iowa was profound. Team USA will definitely travel to this summer’s 2012 London Games with a Wildcat spirit. 

In the men’s Greco-Roman competition, all but one of the seven first-place finishers were former USOEC wrestlers and four of those six are NMU graduates.  Additionally, current or former USOEC wrestlers had three second-place and five third-place finishes, meaning only six of the total 21 places went to athletes that did not have USOEC/NMU ties.

In women’s freestyle wrestling, USOEC/NMU athletes captured all three silver medals, as well as two bronze medals.

Here’s a look at the NMU-USOEC influence at the Trials:

Men’s Greco
55kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  = Spencer Mango (former USOEC wrestler) –2010 NMU graduate, bachelor’s in physical education/coaching – 2008 Olympian
2nd Place/Silver – Max Nowry (current USOEC)
3rd Place/Bronze – Paul Tellgren (current USOEC)
7 out of 11 wrestlers who earned the right to compete at the Trials in this weight class were current or former NMU student-athletes

60kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  = Ellis Coleman (former USOEC)
2nd Place/Silver – Joe Betterman (former USOEC)
3rd Place/Bronze = Jeremiah Davis (former USOEC)
5 out of 12 wrestlers were current or former NMU student-athletes

66kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  = Justin (Harry) Lester (former USOEC) –2007  NMU graduate, bachelor’s in history
3rd Place/Bronze – Kendrick Sanders (current)
5 out of 10 wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

74kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  –  Ben Provisor (former USOEC)
8 out of 11 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

84kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  – Chas (Charles) Betts (former USOEC) –2010  NMU graduate, bachelor’s in electronic imaging
6 out of 11 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

96kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  –  R.C. Johnson (former USOEC) –2004  NMU graduate, bachelor’s in computer science
2nd Place/Silver –  Peter Gounaridis (former USOEC)
3rd Place/Bronze – Robbie Smith (former USOEC)
5 out of 9 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

120kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  – Dremiel Beyers (no NMU affiliation) – 2008 Olympian
3rd Place/Bronze – Toby Erickson (current USOEC)
2 out of 8 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

WOMEN’S FREESTYLE- 3 weight classes at London Olympic Games
48kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  – Clarissa Chun (no NMU affiliation)
2nd Place/Silver – Alyssa Lampe (former USOEC)
3rd Place/Bronze – Whitney Conder (former USOEC)
4 out of 13 wrestlers who earned the right to compete at the Trials in this weight class were current or former NMU student-athletes

55kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  – Kelsey Campbell (no affiliation)
2nd Place/Silver – Helen Maroulis (former USOEC)
5 out of 11 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

63kg
1st Place/Gold – Olympic Team  – Bena Pirozhkova (no affiliation)
2nd Place/Silver – Adeline Gray (former USOEC)
3rd Place/Bronze – Erin Clodgo (former USOEC)
4 out of 17 competing wrestlers were current or former NMU-USOEC student-athletes

Posted by Jerry Taylor