Jd Bergman won a gold medal in dominant fashion at the Cerro Pelado International in Cuba. He finished with a 3-0 record, including a 2-0, 0-1, 3-0 win over Oldrik Wagner of Germany in the finals. Bergman was also able to defeat Eduardo Mesa of Cuba and Johannes Kessel of Germany. 

Shawn Bunch earned a broze medal by going 3-1. He beat Garcia from Colombia and Jamali from Germany before falling to Valdes of Cuba in the semifinals. For 3rd, he then defeated Roberty from Cuba.

60 kg/132 lbs. - Shawn Bunch, Columbus, Ohio (Gator WC), 3rd
WIN Nelson Garcia (Colombia), 1-0, 2-0
WIN Yashar Jamali (Germany), 3-0, 1-0
LOSS Alejandro Valdes (Cuba), 1-3, 3-0, 1-4
WIN Cesar Roberty (Cuba), 4-0, 5-0

96 kg/211.5 lbs. – J.D. Bergman, Columbus, Ohio (New York AC), 1st
WIN Eduardo Mesa (Cuba), 3-2, 7-2
WIN Johannes Kessel (Germany), 4-0, 4-0
WIN Oldrik Wagner (Germany), 2-0, 0-1, 3-0

One thing that the highest level of wrestling provides is the opportunity to travel worldwide. Since the World Team training camp in Germany and the World Championships in Denmark, Bunch, Bergman, and Dlagnev haven't had the opportunity to go overseas. But, the international circuit is just now starting to ramp up.

Tervel Dlagnev and Shawn Bunch left for Krasnoyarsk, Russia on January 24 to compete in the Ivan Yarygin International Memorial tournament. The Yarygin tournament is considered one of the toughest international events in the world each year. Shawn and Tervel will compete this weekend and will come back to the states February 2.

J Jaggers will be heading out to Colorado Springs to the Olympic Training Center to compete in the Dave Schultz International Memorial tournament on February 4 and will compete this weekend.

JD Bergman was scheduled to compete in Turkey and Ukraine from February 9-22. After making the World Cup Team, he will now be competing in Cuba only prior to the World Cup. Bunch and Dlagnev will join him for the remainder of the international competitions.

Shawn, JD, and Tervel will be competing in Cuba February 17-21. They will then fly back out to the Olympic Training Center for a 3 day World Cup Team training camp before leaving for the World Cup in Mahachkala, Russia and the Medved tournament in Belarus. Their schedule will be as follows:

Three Ohio RTC athletes earned a spot on the United States World Cup Team Friday. While Tervel Dlagnev earned a spot automatically by winng a bronze medal at the last World Championships, Shawn Bunch and JD Bergman had to each win 2 matches to earn their spot. Held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the winners in each weight class will earn a spot on the U.S. team which will compete in the Freestyle World Cup in Mahachkala, Russia, March 6-7. The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, and features the top eight nations in the world.

Bunch defeated Derek Moore 1-0, 1-0 before knocking off Coleman Scott in a grueling 3 period match 1-0, 0-3, 2-0.  Video

Bergman looks fully recovered from earlier injuries as the pulled off upsets in the wrestling world, but just full-filled his own expectations. In the first match, he defeated Bryce Hasseman (New York AC), 1-0, 1-0. Next, he faced 2008 Olympian Andy Hrovat 1-0, 2-1. The first period he used a knee pick to eventually force Hrovat to step-out and earn 1 point. The second period, he earned another 2 push-out  points with a bodylock and an underhook. Video
 

 The Ohio Regional Traiing Center can now claim 3 of the 7 atheletes that earned World Cup berths. The support that these athletes get from the community and donors allows them to have a singular focus on reaching their gold medal potential. As evident by the World Cup results, it is a very effective set-up.

The Olympic Hopefuls that call Columbus, Ohio their home have taken pride...and a little joy, in helping their community. This Fall brought forward many opportunities to impact the community, including reading to multiple elementary schools and various speaking engagements.

All 4 of the Ohio RTC's Olympic Hopefuls visited Trinity Elementary School
in Grandview. JD Bergman, J Jaggers, Tervel Dlagnev, and Shawn Bunch
all met with the 4th and 5th graders. They read to the kids, spoke with
them about there personal Olympic aspirations, held a humorous Q&A, and even
managed to do a little arm wrestling with some of the students.

The next week, Tervel and Shawn had already left town for Thanksgiving, but JD and J headed to Dublin Elementary School. They shared the duty of reading a story about Thanksgiving to a cafeteria filled with first graders. To no surprise, they asked some pretty interesting questions.

JD was asked by a few different organizations to speak. He spoke at the OAC tournament in Marion, OH last month and just this week spoke at a junior high dual meet tournament in Toledo, OH at Toledo Central Catholic High School. A few weeks ago, JD spoke to the Centerburg wrestling team in Centerburg which is about an hour outside of Columbus. He also volunteered as a clinician at Columbus Desales High School wrestling camp.

In all, the Hopefuls have been enjoying mentoring the young lives when they are in town. Our athletes are supremely focused on their goals of being the best in the world, but they
find time to improve the community that they live in.

Ohio RTC athlete JD Bergman, Director Tommy Rowlands, and President Blake Kaplan went to New York City to teach a clinic at Beat The Streets. Beat The Streets is an organization that creates wrestling programs in traditionally lower income areas of New York City, where high school wrestling is not funded by the school systems. This year, over 4000 athletes have participated in the program and help give them an after school option besides the streets of NYC.

The Ohio RTC was proud and honored to be able to meet with such dedicated young men. Huge progress has been made the last five years and they will develop many fine wrestlers and people. Please view some of the videos of the clinic and go to www.beat-the-streets.org for more information.

JD Bergman traveled to Dublin, Ohio today to read to the 1st graders at Chapman Elementary School.  He also spoke to the kids about dreams, in particular, his Olympic Dream!  Stay tuned for more RTC news.

Ohio RTC Olympic Hopeful J Jaggers spent the day at Chapman Elementary School in Dublin, OH assisting grades K-5 with stretching activities for the school walk-a-thon.  The Ohio RTC maintains a strong obligation to the local community.  J spoke to the kids about the Olympic Games in 2012 and everything it takes to be the best in something.  Chapman Elementary was very excited to have the RTC join them on such a fun filled day!  Stay tuned for more!

Wed, 09/23/2009 - 21:59 — buckeyewrestling

Team USA Places Seventh in Denmark

US Earns two Freestyle Medals

Kevin Schlosser; www.buckeyewrestling.com

The US freestyle team finished seventh at the 2009 World Championships in Herning, Denmark. For a team that featured seven wrestlers making their first trip to the Worlds things could have better and things could have been worse. With two individual medalists there was success, but with four winless wrestlers there is still room to progress.

Jake Herbert was the highest place winner for Team USA earning silver at 84 kilograms. Despite losing the first period in three of his first four matches Herbert was able to win all four to advance to the finals. His luck ran out when he dropped a close 1-0, 1-0 decision to Zaurbek Sokhiev (Uzbekistan) to place second.

Tervel Dlagnev, the newest Ohio RTC resident athlete, was the second US place winner earning bronze at 120 kilograms. With four shutout wins in the tournament his only loss was a 1-0, 1-0 decision to Valadi Masoumi (Iran) in the championship semifinals. Dlagnev rebounded with a 2-0, 2-0 decision against Alex Modebadze (Georgia) to win his third place match. Putting things in perspective four of his five opponents were former Olympians.

Jake Varner was the only other American to earn a victory in Denmark. In what was considered one of the deepest weights of the tournament Varner won his first two matches at 96 kilograms before dropping a 1-0, 1-0 decision to Saeid Abrahimi in the championship quarterfinals. Abrahimi lost in the semifinals and Varner was eliminated without wrestling again.

The rest of Team USA did not fare as well as each lost their opening match and had to wait see how far their opponents advanced before they learned if they would get another match.  Unfortunately for the Americans none of their opponents made it past the semifinals and all four were eliminated after a single loss.

On Monday Danny Felix lost a 3-0, 1-1 decision to Namig Sevdimov (Azerbaijan) at 55 kilograms while Trent Paulson lost a 1-1, 3-0, 2-1 decision to Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan). Shawn Bunch was pinned in the first period on Tuesday at 60 kilograms and Dustin Schlatter lost a 1-0, 1-2, 1-1 on Wednesday at 74 kilograms.

Scoring 63 points the Russians ran away with the team title on the strength of six individual medalists. Clinching the title on Tuesday all seven wrestlers placed and they ended the tournament with four gold medals, a silver, and a bronze. Azerbaidjan was second with 48 points and Iran took third with 40 points. Completing the top five Turkey was fourth with 27 points and Ukraine fininshed fifth with 23 points. Belarus finished sixth with 21 points and the United States was seventh with 19 points.

Ohio RTC resident Athlete Shawn Bunch.

For mor pictures click here

The Ohio RTC Golf Outing is less than a week away. There are some fantastic auction items that you can bid on. Just a small sampling of the gifts are:

- 2 Iowa vs. OSU football tickets

- 3 golfers to play the famous Inverness course

- 3 golfers playing a round with Craig Krenzel, the captain of the 2002 National Championship team

- 4 club level seats to see Shaqs debut with the Cavs Oct 27 as they play the Celtics.

There is limited room available for the remaining golfers, so get your applications in quick.  This will be a great event and we look forward to seeing your there.

(Columbus, OH) The Ohio Regional Training Center is hosting their first annual USA Wrestling Developmental Training Camp this week on the Ohio State campus. Ohio RTC head coach Lou Rosselli is running the weeklong camp with the assistance of Tim Flynn, Tom Shifflett, Tommy Rowlands, Tom Ryan, Bobby Douglas, Jamill Kelly, and Zeke Jones. More than forty developmental wrestlers have been training throughout the six day camp.

USA Wrestling freestyle head coach Zeke Jones was at Steelwood Olympic Training Center on Wednesday and Thursday to observe the workouts and assist where he could. While the national team members were his focus, as with all the coaches in attendance Jones was available to everyone in the room. In year one of his first four-year Olympic Cycle as the head coach; he is leading by example since taking over after the 2008 Olympic Games.

I was able to sit down with Zeke before he left for the airport to head back to Colorado Springs.

On the job for ten months we discussed the details of his initial four-year plan: where he thinks they are at; what has changed; and how he plans to get the job done at 2012 London Games. We looked at Regional Training Centers and the different training camps as well as his efforts to reach out to current college coaches and former Olympians. We talked about working towards common goals; bringing the best coaches and wrestlers together; the Living the Dream Fund and increasing financial incentives; and where the National Team is at heading into September with the World Championships five weeks away.

This article provided by www.buckeyewrestling.com