Deitchler is first high schooler on U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 32 years
Published 9:04 pm Saturday, June 14, 2008
LAS VEGAS — There’s a new whiz kid of American wrestling.
Jake Deitchler, an 18-year-old from Minnesota unfazed by any deficit or opponent, pulled off two major upsets Saturday to win the U.S. 1451/2-pound Greco-Roman trials and become the first high schooler on the Olympic wrestling team in 32 years.
That he did so at such a young age is nearly unfathomable in a sport where experience and expertise count considerably and many of the top wrestlers are well into their 30s — including T.C. Dantzler, who made the Olympic Greco team for the first time at age 37 by winning at 163 pounds.
“I believe I can do anything,” said Deitchler, who didn’t specialize in Greco until less than two years ago yet finished second at the U.S. nationals in April. “People tell me I’m young enough, and ignorant enough, that I’m not realistic about things, but it doesn’t really matter if I can do things like this.”
But to do this, and do it now?
“People are like ‘He’s a high school kid, he got lucky at nationals, that’s one tournament, let’s see what he does here,”’ coach Brandon Paulson said. “They wanted him for their draw.”
Deitchler’s stunning performance overshadowed 21-year-old Henry Cejudo’s ascension to the freestyle team at 121 pounds only two years after he won the U.S. nationals as a high schooler — stamping him as wrestling’s latest kid sensation. Except Deitchler did him one better.
Deitchler won the first two matches of a best-of-3 finals against fourth-seeded Faruk Sahin, a former Turkish champion, in which each match can last three periods of two minutes each. Deitchler lost the first period in each match, then came back to win each of the next two periods. He trailed 5-0 in the second period of his second match, yet used his quickness and throwing ability to score seven consecutive points and win.
Paulson, a former Olympian, knows the other wrestlers in Deitchler’s class — including heavily favored Harry Lester, a world bronze medalist the last two years — didn’t think Deitchler could do it.
“I thought it was 1 in 100 or 1 in 1,0000 but he did it,” Paulson said of the teen, who graduated from high school 21/2 weeks ago.
The last high schooler to make the Olympic team, according to governing body USA Wrestling, was Mike Farina at 106 pounds in Greco in 1976. Four years before that, teen Jimmy Carr made the freestyle team.
Deitchler, whose ability to throw from any position on the mat already may be unmatched by any American wrestler, stunned Lester in the semifinals by winning the final two periods by scores of 5-2 and 5-3. Lester won the first period 5-0.
“I haven’t had pressure here the whole tournament,” said Deitchler, a three-time Minnesota high school champion at Anoka and a 2007 junior national champion. “They told me to relax, wrestle hard, score points, and don’t focus so much on winning and losing. But in that second match I thought, ‘Hey, this could be a lifelong dream here in about six minutes.”’
Cejudo withstood three full matches in the finals to outlast 2004 silver medalist Stephen Abas, who dropped his arms and walked away with the final seconds remaining, conceding Cejudo’s title. Abas then took off his shoes and left them in the middle of the mat, the symbolic sign of a wrestler’s retirement.
“To represent the U.S. is great,” said Cejudo, tears streaming down his cheek as his brother, Angel, who had lost earlier in the day at 132 pounds, hugged him.
The 30-year-old Abas, injured much of the last two years, reached the finals after beating national champion Matt Azevedo, disappointing a hometown Las Vegas crowd that was clearly rooting for Azevedo to reach the Olympics 28 years after political reasons kept his uncle, John Azevedo, from competing.
Also making the Olympic team were top-seeded Doug Schwab at 1451/2 pounds in freestyle, after defeating Bill Zadick in consecutive matches, and repeat Olympian Brad Vering at 185 pounds in Greco, in which holds below the waist are not permitted.
