wrestling

Wednesday roundup: International trip for Army wrestlers, Stann part of bad UFC trend, Big East playoff update

By Kevin Lilley on June 13, 2012 Army, Football, Mixed martial arts, Navy, UFC, Uncategorized, Wrestling

Three quick hits for a Wednesday morning, from Belgrade to Brian Stann to Big East football: 1. Pre-Olympic trip. Three Olympics-bound soldiers are among the seven elite U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers headed to Europe later this week for the Gedza International tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, according to TheMat.com. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers (120 kilograms), Sgt. Spenser Mango (55 kg) and Spc. Justin Lester (66 kg), all members of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, will make the trip; Mango and Lester will wrestle Friday, with Byers hitting the mat Saturday. At stake: A chance to fine-tune their mat game as…

Army Olympian update: Secretary stops by, Lester takes top honor, WCAP web update

By Kevin Lilley on May 7, 2012 Army, Uncategorized, Wrestling

Some quick Olympic updates while you attempt to schedule a therapy session after watching the latest Tim Kennedy video: 1. Hosting the secretary. It’s the setup to the oldest joke in the book: Some wrestlers, a racewalker, a bobsledder and the secretary of the Army walk into a cafeteria … No, seriously — Army Secretary John McHugh made the trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., to chat with soldier-Olympians and Paralympic athletes over lunch May 2, giving him a close-up look at competitors who’ll represent his service on the world stage this summer. Tim Hipps of the Army’s Installation Management Command…

Spc. Spenser Mango (blue) claimed an Olympic bid with a win over Max Nowry on Saturday in Iowa City in the 55-kilogram Greco-Roman final. (Getty Images photo by Matthew Stockman)

Wrestling roundup: Meet your new military Olympians

By Kevin Lilley on April 23, 2012 Army, Uncategorized, Wrestling

For two soldiers, it’s a return to the grandest stage in athletics. For another, it’s his first chance at his sport’s highest honor. For a fourth, all of that was just out of reach. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers and Sgt. Spenser Mango did what was expected of them over the weekend in Iowa City at the Team USA Olympic wrestling trials, winning their weight classes with 2-0 sweeps of their respective best-of-three championship finals. Byers had a bye to the 120-kilogram final and was without his highest-profile competition after Rulon Gardner decided not to weigh in, stalling his comeback…

Olympic wrestling update: Soldiers Byers, Mango earn spots for Team USA

By Kevin Lilley on March 27, 2012 Uncategorized, Wrestling

Wrestling’s rarely looked at as a team sport, especially at the elite level — one on one, no substitutions, no help beyond shouts from the sidelines. But Olympic qualifying for Team USA wrestling may be the ultimate team sport — still one on one, still no substitutions, but if a wrestler earns a qualifying bid in his weight class, it doesn’t go directly to that individual: Slap “USA” into the Olympic bracket for now, and whoever wins the U.S. qualifier in Iowa City next month gets the golden ticket. Need somebody to fight for their country, not just themselves? Find…

Byers as the bad guy? Soldier could stop Rulon Gardner's feel-good story

By Kevin Lilley on March 20, 2012 Uncategorized, Wrestling

Wednesday night, NBC’s “Rock Center” will air a feature piece on Rulon Gardner, the 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist whose post-gold medal escapades have come straight out of the “News of the Weird” archives: A 2002 bout with frostbite that cost him a toe, a 2004 motorcycle wreck, a mixed-martial-arts bout in Japan against a 1992 Olympic judo gold medalist (Gardner won), a 2007 plane crash, and an appearance on the NBC weight-loss reality show “The Biggest Loser.” In its online teaser, NBC reports that as of February, Gardner needed to lose 45 pounds to make weight at the…

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