Cyclones crown 3 freestyle national champions

[Clone83]

. . . of 7 weight classes. Congratulations to Trent Paulson, Travis Paulson, and Jake Varner. This automatically makes them the number 1 seeds for the World Team Trials, which are held May 30 and 31st in Council Bluffs (the Paulson's hometown).

In addition, Nick Gallick finished 5th; Chris Bono, 7th; Jon Reader, 5th; Cyler Sanderson, 8th; and David Bertolino, 4th. The top 7 finishers in each weight class qualify for the World Team Trials. Congratulations, all.

Harry Lester, a Cyclone until he left to focus on Greco, also won a championship and was outstanding wrestler in Greco.

Here are articles from themat.com on the championship round:

Freestyle
TheMat.com - The Official Website of USA Wrestling

Greco-Roman
TheMat.com - The Official Website of USA Wrestling

And a nice one on the Paulsons before the finals:

Paulson Twins Storm into Freestyle Finals
TheMat.com - The Official Website of USA Wrestling

 

[isukendall]

Thanks for posting this! Some tough matches in there if you look at the brackets.

 

[ktoddcyclones]

Go cyclones!!

 

[Cardinal&Gold11]

Don't know which Paulson that is in the picture, but he is ripped!! But congrats to all of them

 

[Clone83]

Don't know which Paulson that is in the picture, but he is ripped!! But congrats to all of them

I thought the same thing when I saw that picture. That is Trent taking down Doug Schwab (former Hawkeye and 2008 Olympian).

It's too bad the Paulson's aren't still at Iowa State. But I wonder if being at Nebraska for the better opportunity (and $ I presume) isn't good for them, to gain some different experience. It is also close to home for them and Lewis Central where they went to high school, and to their former high school coach, Keith Massey. Massey no longer coaches high school, but I think he is still involved with the Golden Eagles Wrestling Club in Underwood:

Golden Eagles Wrestling and Wrestling Techniques by Keith Massey

It has had a lot of success over the years at both the state and national level. I couldn't get the 2009 state tournament results to display, but if you click on 2008, you can see a lot of wrestlers have trained there, including the Weathermans from Ballard-Huxley.

 

[Clone83]

I see Trent and Travis both coach there:

Golden Eagle Wrestling Camps

 

[CycloneWarning]

I thought the same thing when I saw that picture. That is Trent taking down Doug Schwab (former Hawkeye and 2008 Olympian).

It's too bad the Paulson's aren't still at Iowa State. But I wonder if being at Nebraska for the better opportunity (and $ I presume) isn't good for them, to gain some different experience. It is also close to home for them and Lewis Central where they went to high school, and to their former high school coach, Keith Massey. Massey no longer coaches high school, but I think he is still involved with the Golden Eagles Wrestling Club in Underwood:

Might as well have them cut their coaching teeth at NU. Then, if we have an opening on the staff -- bingo, no learning curve to return home.

 

[Clone83]

Here's a blurb and a link to the article in their hometown paper, The Council Bluffs Nonpareil:
Daily Nonpareil Online > Archives > Sports > Paulsons finish first at national freestyle

. . . At mat side as coach was Trent and Travis’ former high school coach, Keith Massey.

“We don’t see former high school coaches at this level very often but we know Coach Massey is an excellent technician and can break down film,â€￾ said Trent. “After graduating, he (Massey) took a main role. We finished Nationals last year with disappointing sixth and seventh places. We trained hard, traveled extensively and got instruction from several elite coaches including Massey that made us better wrestlers. With one more year of experience, we took the necessary steps this year to be successful.â€￾

The former Lewis Central standouts will be fan favorites and No. 1 seeds in their respective divisions at the World Trials. The top seven wrestlers of each weight from the U.S. Nationals qualify to compete at the World Team Trials. Wrestlers seeded second through seventh compete in the Challenge Tournament early in the day in each weight class, with a best-of-three Championship Finals Series against the top-seeded wrestler at the conclusion of the day.

Incidentally, Craig Sesker, who writes for USA wrestling and who wrote those articles for themat.com, used to be a sportswriter for the Omaha World-Herald.

 

[Melvin]

The 2012 Olympics (London) are only a couple of years away, but woun't the Paulsons and Varner be in the Prime of their lives for 2012?

 

[Clone83]

The 2012 Olympics (London) are only a couple of years away, but woun't the Paulsons and Varner be in the Prime of their lives for 2012?

Yeah, I would think so. As someone who wrestled in HS, I know how exhausted you are after a match that only lasts a few minutes. In my layman's opinion, experience and wisdom helps, but as to speed, strength, and probably most important - cadio-vascular - they will be at an age someone is likely to peak physically for the sport.

Related and probably of even greater importance, though, is mentally - doing what you have to to stay at or near the top that long.

You know the difference between 1st and others often isn't much.