Deitchler was defeated by 2003 World silver medalist Armen Vardanyan of Ukraine in a close, three-period battle. Vardanyan edged Deitchler, 1-1, 1-3, 1-1.

There were no takedowns in any of the periods. In all three periods, when the referee pulled the ball out of the bag to determine who would be on top, the ball came up blue, giving the advantage to Vardanyan each time.

In the first period, Vardanyan won 1-1 by scoring the final point by defending on the bottom last. In the second period, Deitchler blocked a throw attempt by Vardanyan and scored a two-point reversal with exposure, going on to win that period, 3-1. The deciding period finished the same as the first, with Vardanyan defending in the final 30-second par terre period for a 1-1 tie, and winning by scoring last.

In the final standings, Deitchler placed 12th, missing out on placing in the top 10 in the division.

Deitchler lost his first round match in the morning session to 2006 World silver medalist Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan, but was drawn back into the repechage when Begaliev earned a spot in the gold-medal finals.

Deitcher is the 18-year-old phenom who surprised the world by making the U.S. Olympic Team. He is the first wrestler in 32 years to make an Olympic team coming out of high school.

Earlier in the morning session, T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) was defeated in his opening match at 74 kg/163 lbs. and was eliminated when his opponent, Peter Basci of Hungary, did not reach the finals.

OLYMPIC GAMES
Greco-Roman wrestling
Wednesday, August 13

U.S. results
66 kg/145.5 lbs. – Jake Deitchler (Ramsey, Minn./Minnesota Storm)
Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan dec Jake Deitchler (USA), 6-0, 3-3
Armen Vardanyan of Ukraine dec. Jake Deitchler (USA), 1-1, 1-3, 1-1

74 kg/163 lbs. – T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC)
Peter Basci (Hungary) dec. T.C. Dantzler (USA), 5-1, 2-2, 3-0

Steve Fraser knows what it takes to excel on wrestling’s biggest stage.

He became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

He coached the U.S. to its first-ever Greco-Roman World team title at the 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

So when Fraser tells you he thinks all six members of his team can contend for top honors at the 2008 Olympic Games you take him seriously.

“I truly believe each one of these guys can win a medal, if not a gold medal,” Fraser said. “Up and down our lineup, we have the potential to have a great tournament. We have a great mix of veterans and young guys. I really like this team.”

Fraser was one of nine members of the U.S. Greco-Roman contingent to appear at a U.S. Olympic Committee press conference on Monday afternoon at the Olympics Main Press Center. Joining Fraser were Olympians Spenser Mango, Jake Deitchler, T.C. Dantzler, Brad Vering, Adam Wheeler and Dremiel Byers. Olympic coaches Jay Antonelli and Rich Estrella also took part.

The U.S. Greco-Roman team will compete in the Olympics on Aug. 12-14 at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium.

Mango, a past World University champion and Junior World bronze medalist, is wrestling in his first Olympics and on his first World-level team on the Senior level. He competes at 55 kg/121 lbs. Mango competes for the U.S. Olympic Education Center program at Northern Michigan University.

“I feel like I have the best workout partners in the country, plus I have two great coaches in Ivan Ivanov and Jim Gruenwald,” Mango said. “We’re in there working hard every day. Going to Northern Michigan turned me from being a guy who didn’t really know much to making the Olympic Team four years later.”

The 18-year-old Deitchler was the biggest story of the Olympic Trials in June. He became the youngest U.S. Olympian in wrestling in 32 years. He beat two-time World bronze medalist Harry Lester en route to making the Olympic squad at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. He will be a freshman at the University of Minnesota in the fall.

“I just have to use the same approach I had before the Trials,” Deitchler said. “I need to wrestle hard and outwork my opponents. My confidence is really high after winning the Trials.”

Dantzler, who is 37, made his first Olympic Team after making the last five U.S. World Teams at 74 kg/163 lbs. Among the wrestlers Dantzler has beaten this year is 2007 World champion Yavor Yanakiev of Bulgaria.

“The dream isn’t over yet,” Dantzler said. “Once I get that gold medal, then the dream will be complete.”

Like Dantzler, Vering is another wrestler on top of his game. Vering, who turns 31 later this month, won a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships. Vering is competing in his second straight Olympics at 84 kg/185 lbs. He lost his first match in Athens and did not place.

“The thing that’s the most different isn’t that it’s China, it’s not being in Greece. It’s this team,” Vering said. “When we went to Athens we had a veteran team. Every time we step out on the mat we’re a team. Wrestling is an individual sport and people can get selfish. But this group is a team. Sometimes that mat can be a real lonely place. With these guys, you don’t feel like you’re going out there alone.”

Wheeler was another surprise at the Olympic Trials. He knocked off World bronze medalist Justin Ruiz to make his first World-level team at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

“Moving to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs has really helped me,” Wheeler said. “The top five guys in my weight class are there, in addition to Dremiel and some of the heavyweights. Being around the best guys in the country brought me up to a new level. I’m really confident coming here because the guy I beat to make our team was a World medalist. I know if I can beat him I can beat anybody in the World.”

Byers is another of the leaders on this squad. He won a World title in 2002 and won the bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. to help the U.S. wrap up the team title.

Byers was a training partner for 2000 Olympic champion Rulon Gardner at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Gardner won a bronze medal in 2004 before retiring.

“I benefited from battling Rulon for so many years,” Byers said. “When I went with him to Athens to be his training partner, all the pressure was off of me. All I had to do was help him. I was watching and still learning. I saw how badly he wanted it and how badly I wanted it for him. He didn’t win a gold medal, but a bronze. He touched the podium and I saw that. Now it’s my time. I’m going to use that as fuel to accomplish my goal.”

FARGO, N.D. – The start of the 2008 Olympic Games are just 18 days away and Ryan Mango can’t wait to travel to Beijing, China, to watch his brother Spenser compete.

But he has a little business to take care of first.

Mango has his sights set on becoming a Junior Nationals champion this week in Fargo.

The two-time state high school champion from Missouri looks poised to do just that. He steamrolled past his first three opponents in the Greco-Roman competition on Sunday. In his third match, he polished off Ohio’s Brandon Gambucci with a body lock and spectacular throw late Sunday afternoon.

Mango is one of four USA Wrestling age-group national champions competing in the Junior Nationals 112-pound bracket in Greco-Roman.

Mango was a double Cadet Nationals champion in 2006 before following with a Cadet Nationals folkstyle title in 2007. He missed this event last year in Fargo after breaking his wrist a couple of weeks before the tournament.

“It feels great to be back here wrestling again,” Mango said. “I was real nervous for my first match, but I’m getting back in the groove now. I’m feeling real good out there.”

Mango won the FILA Cadet Nationals in Greco-Roman earlier this year in Akron, Ohio. He placed second at the Junior World Team Trials in May.

The power-packed Junior 112 class also includes Nathan Furches of Kansas, Alan Waters of Missouri and Cody Tyler of Missouri. Furches is a Junior Nationals champion in Greco-Roman, Waters won a Cadet Nationals title in Greco-Roman and Tyler won a FILA Cadet Nationals title in Greco-Roman. Mango beat Waters in the FILA Cadet Nationals finals in April.

“We all know each other pretty well,” Mango said. “Most of us were out at the Olympic Training Center just training with each other. It will be fun to see who comes out on top.”

Also at 112, Cody Pack of California was a Junior Nationals Greco-Roman runner-up. Jamie Clark of Ohio was a FILA Cadet Nationals Greco-Roman runner-up. Clark is a past Cadet Nationals champion in freestyle.

Ryan Mango will travel to his family next month to watch Spenser compete in the Olympics at 55 kg/121 lbs. Spenser is scheduled to compete on the first day of wrestling competition on Aug. 12.

“I’m real excited about the Olympics,” Ryan said. “I can’t wait to see how Spenser does. I’m already proud of him. That would be really sweet to see him come home with a medal, hopefully a gold medal.”

Ryan is hoping to join his brother on the U.S. Olympic Team in 2012.

“That’s our goal,” Ryan said. “2012, we both want to make it. We talk about that all the time.”

Ryan is a top college prospect. He said he hasn’t decided if he wants to follow his brother to the U.S. Olympic Education Center Greco-Roman program at Northern Michigan University or try wrestling folkstyle at the collegiate level.

“I still don’t know if I want to do folkstyle or not,” Ryan said. “I will probably sit down in the next few weeks after this tournament and make a decision.”

Ryan can’t say enough about the impact his big brother has had on him.

“Spenser has done so much for me, not just in wrestling but with everything,” Ryan said. “Every sport he tried, I tried. When he started wrestling, then I jumped right into it the next year. I really look up to him. He’s a great big brother. His support means a lot.”

FARGO, N.D. – There were no significant upsets during the first session at the ASICS/Vaughan Junior Greco-Roman Nationals at the FargoDome on Sunday.

In action on Sunday was Max Nowry of Illinois (105), a returning double champion who won both styles at the Junior Nationals last year. The other eligible returning double champion, David Taylor of Ohio, is not entered in Greco-Roman this year.

Nowry opened with a 5-0, 4-1 win over Blayne Shockley of Missouri.

In addition to Nowry, a returning 2007 Junior National Greco-Roman champion competing this weekend is Kendrick Sanders of Florida (140). Also competing are 2006 Junior National Greco-Roman champion Nathan Furches of Kansas (112), Justin Forrest of Missouri (119) and Eric Grajales of Florida (130). All emerged from the morning session undefeated.

All three 2007 Junior runners-up in the field were also unbeaten in the session, Cody Pack of California (112), Alec Ortiz of Oregon (160) and Tyrell Fortune of Oregon (215).

There were a number of past Cadet Nationals champions in the field today who also were unbeaten in the morning session. These included Alan Waters of Missouri (112), Ellis Coleman of Illinois (130), Andrew Alton of Pennsylvania (140), Carson Fields of Georgia (140), Dirk Cowburn of Pennsylvania (152), Joel Bauman of Minnesota (160), Ethen Lofthouse of Utah (171) and Kyle Caylor of Kansas (215).

Fields scored two pins in the session, stopping Bill Borseth of Iowa and David Calhoun of Florida.

A Cadet National champion who lost a bout in the morning session was Kyle Detmer of Kansas (152), who fell in the second round to Jonathan Urango of California, 2-2, 6-0, 0-4.

Andrew Alton won two matches in the session, as did his twin brother Dylan, who was a Cadet National runner-up last year and is competing at 135 pounds this year. Both Alton brothers had one pin and one technical fall in the session.

2008 FILA Junior National freestyle champion Logan Stieber of Ohio (119), who was also a Cadet National freestyle champion last year, is also in the field. He won his first two bouts, one by pin and the other by technical fall.

This year, the ASICS/Vaughan Junior Greco-Roman Nationals included 790 athletes, representing 44 states and Puerto Rico.

This messy, cluttered, typically teenage bedroom belongs to Jake Deitchler, an atypical 18-year-old Olympian. While most of his fellow graduates of Anoka High School in Anoka, Minn., will spend the summer bumming off their parents, Deitchler is training for Beijing.

He finished high school in early April and took part in his graduation ceremony last month. Three weeks later, he qualified for the Olympics, becoming the fifth Greco-Roman Olympic wrestler from Anoka High and the youngest United States Olympic wrestler since Mike Farina in 1976.

“My life changed like this,” Deitchler said, shaking his head and snapping his fingers. “In an instant.”

Deitchler was talking during his first trip to Manhattan, during his first visit to a pub, as part of a USA Wrestling promotional tour late last month.

There, at a corner table underneath neon Bud Light signage, Deitchler tried to pinpoint where this crazy journey began. Best he can figure, it started in Brandon Paulson’s driveway.

Paulson won a Greco-Roman silver medal at the 1996 Olympics. He retired in 2004 after an epic triple-overtime loss at the Olympic trials, a defeat so painful he thought about it every day for years.

The match is still saved on his TiVo. The ending never changes: Paulson, resting on his knees, drenched in sweat, hands covering the agony written on his face.

“This is a wrestler’s classic, one for the ages,” the announcer says. “This will be tough on Brandon Paulson.”

After the loss, Paulson told reporters everything happened for a reason. When he returned to Minnesota, he found the Anoka High wrestling coach, Todd Springer, waiting in his driveway. He wanted to discuss a ninth grader named Jake Deitchler.

Soon, Paulson and Deitchler began working out. Paulson gave Deitchler his telephone number and told him to call anytime. Big mistake.

Deitchler called the next day, and the day after that, and most days for weeks and months and years. One Sunday, the workout stalker called six times.

“It was just one of those matches,” said Jason Deitchler, Jake’s father. “You can’t explain it. It was divine.”

Paulson and Deitchler are cut from the same competitive cloth. They compete in everything — foosball, wrestling, sauna sit-offs. During one practice session, the teacher tore his anterior cruciate ligament wrestling the student.

The more Paulson pushed, the more Deitchler responded. He stayed after practice every day, arrived at school before sunrise and left after sunset, won three state championships and more matches — 201, including the last 111 straight — than anyone in school history.

Only Deitchler did not make small gains. He made exponential leaps. He learned moves one day and used them in matches the next. Even before the Olympic trials.

“I thought of something on Monday,” Paulson said. “I showed him on Tuesday, and he beat the best guy in the world at his weight class with it later that week. That’s not normal. That’s not even coaching.”

Asked for a comparison, the talkative Paulson suddenly was silent. Told the progress sounds more typical of a prodigal violinist, he nodded.

“There’s nobody to compare him to in wrestling,” Paulson said. “He progressed faster than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

That statement means something in Anoka, a suburb north of Minneapolis that locals call the Halloween Capital of the World. Deitchler also wrestles for the Minnesota Storm, coached by Dan Chandler, a three-time Olympian and Anoka High graduate. The school has sent at least one Greco-Roman wrestler to every Olympics since 1968.

Deitchler did not end up at Anoka High by accident. Jason Deitchler had known his son would follow in the family wrestling tradition since the first weekend of his life, when Jake was born and Jason left for a college wrestling tournament the next day.

Dad became an all-American at Mayville State in North Dakota, and because Jake was born during his freshman year, teammates became extended family, a wrestling team that raised a wrestler.

Jason Deitchler moved the family to Minnesota. Eventually, he moved again, to Anoka, even though the house there cost an extra $70,000.

Jason fed Jake books, mostly self-help, biography and inspirational.

He built his son a wrestling room in the basement of their three-story home, complete with a mat, a dummy and the sauna he installed for Jake on his 16th birthday. They talked wrestling every morning, every meal, every night.

Despite the wrestle-mania upbringing, Deitchler waited until age 12 before adding the Olympics to his goals. Overhearing that, Paulson rolled his eyes and noted that was only six years ago.

Paulson always had an infatuation with the Olympics, religiously watching the winter and summer games. At Deitchler’s graduation party, it was Paulson who gave him the Olympic flag. During the two weeks before the trials, Deitchler found himself drawn to his bedroom, where he sat on the bed and stared obsessively at the flag.

In the Olympic trials in Las Vegas, Deitchler lost the first period of every match during qualifying. He beat the celebrated Harry Lester, a two-time world bronze medalist and a medal favorite in Beijing, in the 145.5-pound division with a move Paulson taught him earlier that week. He celebrated like any 18-year-old would — dinner at the Hard Rock, a 32-ounce Mountain Dew and this gem: “I’m off to the arcade now,” he quipped to reporters.

Folks in wrestling described the upset as one of the sport’s greatest.

People told Paulson the last match they saw that was that exciting was his triple-overtime loss in 2004. This time, the memory hurt a little less.

He thought back to his quotation. Everything happens for a reason.

“It was the ultimate thrill of victory, following the ultimate agony of defeat,” Paulson said. “That’s what I went through the last four years.”

After missing his prom and finishing classes two months early, Deitchler wants to retain some semblance of a normal life. He plans on wrestling next season at Minnesota, again following in Paulson’s footsteps. His goals are taped to the wall leading to the basement.

He taps them as he walks downstairs. National champion. Tap. World champion. Tap. Olympic champion. Tap.

Until then, he must confront the whirlwind. One day, Deitchler is at his graduation party with 200 friends, picture montages and medals lining the garage, family telling him to do his laundry before leaving for Las Vegas. The next, he is toppling wrestlers he once idolized. Then Manhattan, where he asked his mother, Racheal, if he could get a tattoo of the Olympic rings.

“Absolutely not, Jacob,” came the stern reply.

Kids these days.

Greg Bishop – New York Times

105 pounds
Brandon Nelson of Indiana went 6-0
Brian St. James of Georgia went 6-0
Max Nowry of Illinois went 6-0

112 pounds
Kent Williams of Illinois went 6-0

125 pounds
George Ivanov of Iowa went 6-0
Jimmy Chase of Illinois went 6-0

130 pounds
Ian Paddock of New York went 7-0
Justin Lavalle of Minnesota 1 went 6-0

135 pounds
NONE

140 pounds
Carson Fields of Georgia went 6-0

145 pounds
Bobby Barney of Texas went 7-0
Carson Fields of Georgia went 6-0

152 pounds
Kalvin York of Wisconsin went 8-0

160 pounds
NONE

171 pounds
Stephen McPeek of Texas went 7-0

189 pounds
Colin Warner of Indiana went 6-0

215 pounds
Dominic Pica of California 1 went 6-0

285 pounds
Elijah Madison of Missouri went 7-0

Click play to view the interview, no membership required.

State-level teams will compete in dual meet action in both Olympic styles of the sport, freestyle and Greco-Roman. Cadets are athletes who are 15 and 16 years old.

The Greco-Roman competition will be held on Thursday, June 26 and Friday, June 27.

In Greco-Roman, Illinois claimed the team title last year, after stopping Minnesota by a 46-27 finals score in the championship dual.

The freestyle competition will be held Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29

In freestyle, Pennsylvania is the defending champion, after defeating host Team Missouri, 53-22 in the championship dual.