June
12, 2008: The Salt Lake Tribune
Local Wrestlers to Take First Steps
Toward Olympic Dreams
by Michael C. Lewis
When Taylorsville's Justin Ruiz steps on
the wrestling mat at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Las Vegas
this weekend, he will be aiming to finally make up for the
crushing disappointment of four years ago, when he lost
the title match that would have sent him to the 2004
Athens Games.
But he won't be alone.
While the former world bronze medalist and
five-time national Greco-Roman champion is the
overwhelming favorite in his weight class to qualify for
the Beijing Games in China this summer, a quartet of
younger Utahns will be taking their first steps toward
their own Olympic dreams - dreams that probably won't be
realized until 2012, or even 2016, when they could
comprise an unprecedented Utah contingent.
"Of course, we're all going out there
trying to win," Provo's Nathaniel Holt said. "But
realistically, when we get more international experience
like all these veterans right now, someday we'll be where
they're at."
Holt is the only freestyle wrestler in the
group, which also includes Sandy's Talan Knox, Orem's
Cheney Haight, and his half-brother Bo Beckman — all
Greco-Roman wrestlers like Ruiz.
All of them are competing in the trials
for the first time, after growing up together while
learning the fundamentals of their sport and aspiring to
follow in the footsteps of local wrestling legends such as
Cael Sanderson, Rulon Gardner and Mark Fuller.
Springville's Jason Chamberlain is not far behind them,
either, though he will not be competing at the Olympic
Trials.
"It's the golden age of Utah wrestling,"
said Brian Preece, the Provo High School coach who
mentored Holt. "We're in a real high level right now and I
think you're going to see a lot of Utah kids really excel
at the NCAA and the Olympic levels and on national teams.
. . . All of these guys are really, really young. It's
just kind of the tip of the iceberg. Bigger things lie
ahead."
The unusual crop of potential Olympians
had its start at the Treehouse Athletic Club in Draper,
where former Olympic wrestler Ivan Ivanov ran a heralded
but now-defunct wrestling program that helped propel
Ruiz's career, as well. Knox, Haight and Beckman all
wrestled in the club, and Holt often attended its camps.
"That club was real big back then," Beckman said.
When Ivanov took a job running the
wrestling program at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at
Northern Michigan University, he attracted his former
pupils.
Knox, Haight and Beckman are all enrolled
in the program - Holt is transferring to Boise State, from
Central Michigan - and Knox and Beckman are even
suitemates on campus.
"We've developed into pretty good
friends," Knox said.
On the mat, it's a different story.
Knox and Haight wrestle in the same weight
class, for example, meaning that one of the three-time
state prep champions might have to defeat the other to
advance this weekend. The wrestlers could meet in the
semifinals of the challenge tournament — an exhausting
mini-tournament to determine who will meet defending
national champion T.C. Dantzler in the best-of-three
finals, for the right to wrestle in the Olympics.
"I'm not going to let anybody come through
that tournament and claim it," Dantzler said. "Whoever
comes through that tournament, it doesn't matter. . . .
That's my weight class."
That's brash, but almost certainly true,
and the young Utah wrestlers know it.
Although they each vowed not to back down
from anybody at the Thomas & Mack Center this weekend,
they also acknowledged the reality that wrestling is a
sport in which age and experience almost always win out.
Just like Ruiz, most wrestlers need years to "claw your
way up to the top," as Knox said.
"It's kind of a hard thing to explain," he
added, "but it's almost like, through the years, your body
develops more of a specific strength for wrestling, kind
of developing more like 'old man' strength. . . . It's a
combination of that and gradually learning a few more
tricks of the trade as you get older."
So maybe some day, the young wrestlers who
will compete this weekend will find themselves in the same
position as Ruiz, one win away from the Olympics after
having dedicated years of his life to his grueling sport.
For now, though, "I have nothing to lose,"
Beckman said, "just go in there and wrestle my hardest."
Locals at Nationals
-
Wrestler Age Hometown/High School
Discipline Wt.
-
Bo Beckman 19 Orem/Pleasant Grove Greco
145.5
-
Cheney Haight 23 Orem/Timpanogos Greco 163
-
Nathaniel Holt 20 Provo/Provo Freestyle
145.5
-
Talan Knox 20 Sandy/Brighton Greco 163
-
Justin Ruiz 28 Taylorsville/Taylorsville
Greco 211.5
*All wrestlers except Ruiz compete on
Saturday. Ruiz wrestles on Sunday.
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