U.S. makes history with World Greco-Roman Championship
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by InterMat
Baku, Azerbaijan -- As time wound down in the finals of the 120kg weight class at the 2007 World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, the U.S. team crouched and hoped.
Their hopes rested on the outcome of a match between two nations – the neighbor south of Miami and a wrestling power.
Mijail Lopez of Cuba topped Russian Khasan Baroev 1-1, 1-1 to claim a World Championship, but it was Baroev not winning that sent a group of wrestlers from all corners of the United States into a celebration.
September 19 will be a historic day in the history of wrestling in the United States as seven wrestlers and a score of training parters and coaches hoisted the World Championship trophy skyward for the first time.
“This has been a dream come true for me and our staff and our Greco family,” said Greco-Roman national team coach Steve Fraser. “This is something we’ve been working at for over 10 years and it feels good, it feels good.”
But if not for the work done on Wednesday by heavyweight Dremiel Byers, the reality of a championship wouldn’t have been possible. Byers rebounded from a semifinal loss to Baroev to best Frenchman Yannick Szczepaniak in the bronze medal match to give the U.S. two additional placement points and put the pressure on Baroev to beat Lopez.
This was further complicated by a change in team scoring roughly one hour before the event. According to the Fila-wrestling.com web site, The U.S. stood in fourth place, behind Georgia, Iran and South Korean with 23 points. Russia had 20 as of 3 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., the Russian score was changed to 21 to reflect a scoring change as a result of an Olympic qualifying match at 66kg, giving the Russians an extra point.
This became a real hurdle, because if Baroev and Byers both won in their medal matches, the final score would have been tied at 31 and by virtue of most world champions, Russia would have won the team championship.
“I didn’t know until Lopez won the final match, I didn’t think we’d win it,” said Fraser. “The Russian beat Lopez last year in the finals, right up until the last very second, I didn’t know we were going to win it or not.”
After Lopez stepped off the mat, overjoyed by his performance, a boisterous group of U.S. wrestlers hung over the barricade outside the mat area and cheered and hugged the gargantuan Cuban.
But Fraser and staff don’t point to that singular moment as a reason for their success in Baku.
“We got a group of guys that took hold of their own team,” said Fraser. “They took hold of their squad; they decided they wanted to do this. They wanted to win this thing. I think that was a big factor. The veterans, a couple of younger guys, we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. A lot of blood, sweat and tears through the years, a lot of adversity we’ve overcome.”
U.S. World Teamer T.C. Dantzler was beaming despite falling short of a medal.
“I’m proud to be on this team, it’s one of the highlights of my life,” he said. “I’m on the best USA team ever … ever!”
Factually, he’s right despite the U.S. not claiming an individual title.
“This is better than individual stuff, especially for the U.S.,” said 66kg bronze medalist Harry Lester. “We’re not typically known as Greco country. For most people in the U.S., it’s always focused on freestyle, but you know, we work hard and this shows we’ve been working hard.
The week started out with Lindsey Durlacher earning a fifth-place finish at 55kg. First-time World Team member Joe Betterman failed to place at 60kg, but Lester added to the total with his bronze.
The second day of competition saw T.C. Dantzler beat the 2006 World Champion in the opening round at 74kg, only to see his tournament end in the next round. Brad Vering (pictured right) earned a silver medal at 84kg and Justin Ruiz ended up 13th despite making the repechage at 96kg.
The stage was then set for Byers. After the Georgian and Iranian heavyweights were eliminated, the focus came on Byers, who was the only American wrestling in the medal rounds on Wednesday night after both U.S. freestyle weights were dealt opening round losses.
The big man came through, scoring the only two non-defensive points of the match on pushouts in the second and third periods.
“I’m real happy,” said Byers, who won the 2002 World Championship but was overshadowed by two-time Olympic medalist Rulon Gardner in 2000 and 2004.
“Everybody worked hard, we have a great team. They liked doing it. Everyone pulled their own load. Other people are going to police each other and push even harder,” said Byers. “It feels great to know we got here and got it done, I’m real happy about that. Last year was sad and I’m glad to shake it off. We’ve got something special.”
Fraser and Lester point to Byers’ leadership as a fundamental key to this team’s overall success.
“(Byers) has a sense of calm about him through our training,” said Fraser. “He’s a very funny guy, a very pleasant guy, kind of a natural leader. He played a big role, everyone played an equal share.”
“In Rio (Pan Am Games), I pretty much had a mental breakdown and he was there for me,” said Lester. “It’s there for me on this trip. He’s been the guy, but everyone’s been there for me on this team, but he’s stuck out the most. He’s the backbone of the team. He knows how to get it done. He carried us to a World Championship.”
Lester, who is one of the most active wrestlers on his feet in Greco-Roman in the world, was grinning ear to ear with his trademark smile before the official announcement was even made.
“We’re finally putting everything together. It feels good, it feels awesome, especially to see Dremiel get that medal,” said Lester. “I feel better about his medal than I feel about mine.”
Fraser, who took over as head Greco-Roman coach in 1995, has on three previous occasions placed U.S. teams in the top five at the World Championships, and last year’s third-place finish tied the previous best by any U.S. team under Fraser.
“We had the vision in our mind and they wrestled well enough to do it,” said Fraser.
Dantzler didn’t place, but knows what made everything come together.
“It’s a great staff because the coaches understand us,” he said. “They let us do what we fell like we need to do. When we feel like we need more, they know when to pull the reigns and know when to snap the whip.”
Some credit can be attributed to the rise of the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan and the arrival of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program in Colorado Springs – now working closer with the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
“The Northern Michigan group is always what I called my secret weapon,” said Fraser. “That was our missing link for many years, the link between high school and the senior division. We were losing all our kids to the collegiate ranks. Now we have at least one option for our Greco superstars and that’s our full-time Greco program.”
“Ivan Ivanov and Jim Gruenwald up at Northern have a great program to help tie those age groups and development together.”
As pictures were taken with the trophy glistening from the arena lights, Fraser let out a long sigh of relief and joy.
“I know it’s an A, followed by a lot of H’s,” said Fraser.
And a lot of W’s as well.
