June
15, 2008:
Deseret Morning News
Utahn a Runner-Up at Olympic Trials
Cheney Haight, a former standout wrestler
at Orem's Timpanogos High, just missed making the 2008
U.S. Olympic team after falling twice in Saturday's
best-of-three championship series of the 74-kilogram
Greco-Roman division at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Wrestling for the New York Athletic Club,
Haight had the best results of the four former Utah
wrestlers in Saturday's middle day of the three-day trials
event in Las Vegas.
Three-time Utah prep state champion Justin
Ruiz of Taylorsville, who went on to become an
All-American at the University of Nebraska and is a
five-time U.S.
Nationals champ, wrestles tonight at the
favorite in tonight's 96-kilogram Greco-Roman division.
Haight, who wrestled collegiately at
Northern Michigan, was seeded fourth in his division and
had finished fourth in April's U.S. Nationals. He ripped
through his division's "Challenge" (preliminary
wrestle-off) matches, reaching the best-of-three
Championship matches against T.C. Dantzler, who like Ruiz
in his weight class, was advanced directly to the
championship matches because of his national and
international successes.
Dantzler needed only the two-match minimum
to send Haight to runner-up status, winning both by
decisions the first by a 3-2, 0-2, 5-0 score, and the
second, 5-1, 1-1, 4-1.
After an opening-round bye, Haight
decisioned Ken Cook of Sunkist Kids (7-1, 2-1) in the
quarterfinals and decisioned Andrew Bisek of Minnesota
Storm (1-1, 1-1, 4-0) in the semifinals.
In the first-place match of the division's
challenge series, Haight beat Keith Sieracki of the U.S.
Army in a 4-1, 3-1 decision, pushing Haight into Saturday
night's championships to face a fresh and rested Dantzler.
In the same 74-kilogram Greco-Roman
challenge, Talan Knox formerly of Brighton High,
currently of Northern Michigan and wrestling for Sunkist
Kids went from No. 8 seed to third-place finisher.
Knox opened with a 1-1, 2-1 decision over
Steven Forrest of the U.S. Marines (1-1, 2-1), then downed
N.Y. Athletic Club's Jake Fisher (1-1, 0-4, 1-1) before
falling to Sieracki (1-1, 1-1, 1-1) in the semifinals.
Working his way back through the
consolation side of the bracket, Knox beat Cook in a 6-0,
0-2, 1-1 decisions before beating Army's Jess Hargrave
(1-1, 2-1) in the Challenge's third-place match.
Also, former Provo High wrestler Nathaniel
Holt won one match by forfeit and lost two in the
66-kilogram freestyle class, while ex-Pleasant Grove
wrestler Bo Beckman lost both of his matches in the
66-kilogram Greco-Roman division.
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