Teen wrestlers to tussle in national tournament
By David Dowgiello
Three local wrestlers will represent the Virginia National Wrestling team in the 2008 Accelerade Cadet & Asics/Vaughan Junior National Championships July 19-23.
Alex Fleming, a 2008 graduate of Dominion High School, will travel with Charlie Haislip and Ryan Snead, both rising seniors at Potomac Falls.
The junior national tournament takes place in the Fargo Dome on the campus of North Dakota State University. It showcases the top high school talent in the nation in the freestyle and Greco-Roman styles of wrestling.
These styles are different from high school wrestling matches, which feature folkstyle wrestling. The Loudoun teens all will compete in Greco-Roman-style matches while at the tournament.
Fleming, who hopes to wrestle at Northern Michigan University this fall, described folkstyle wrestling as a more “technical” style of wrestling than Greco-Roman.
“Greco wrestling is all upper body,” said Haislip, who will compete in the 140-pound weight class. “You can't attack your opponents' legs. The rules are less strict as compared to folkstyle wrestling -- it's a lot more rough.”
Because of the leniency in rules and the forced upper-body maneuvers, Fleming said, “Greco is definitely more crowd-pleasing. People are impressed by the over-the-head throws and the suplexes.”
Fleming went winless in this tournament last year. He's heading back to compete in the 145-pound weight class.
“I'm a lot more confident this time,” he said. “I know what to expect this time around. Losing last year really opened my eyes to how good everyone else is.”
All of the wrestlers qualified for the event at a Junior State tournament at Henrico High School in Richmond earlier this year.
“It's not too insane to qualify, but you've got to be a decent wrestler,” said Snead, who just returned from a 21-day wrestling camp at Iowa State hosted by Cael Sanderson, who went 159-0 at ISU and won Olympic gold in 2004.
This is Snead's second time qualifying for the tournament, but it will be his first time attending. Snead, a 135-pound competitor, also noted the intense level of competition at this tournament.
“There are about 100 guys in each weight class, all the best in the country, so it's really hard to place in this tournament,” Snead said.
Haislip, who -- like Fleming -- wrestled in the tournament last year but failed to win a match, said, “Almost every college coach from around the nation is at this tournament, so there is a lot of recruiting attention.”
While he acknowledged that the odds of winning are low, Haislip said his main goal is “to win a match or two and just compete as hard as I can and to the best of my ability.”
The three wrestlers all mentioned the emotions that come with competing on such a big stage.
“It's a big setting and the competition is really tough,” Snead said. “All you can do is stay positive and wrestle well to earn recognition out there.”
The trio are currently attending a camp at Old Dominion University in preparation for the national tournament.
It is the common interest the three share in Greco-Roman wrestling that brings them together.
“We've known each other most of high school through wrestling,” Fleming said. “We travel together, we compete together and most of all we are very supportive of one another.”