McCoy Reaches Trials With Wrestling Upset

Kerry McCoy upset top-seeded Stephen Neal in the super heavyweight division to win his first U.S. National Wrestling championship Saturday night at Las Vegas.

McCoy, of State College, Pa., scored the first takedown and built a 3-1 lead. He held off a late charge from Neal, the 1999 world champion from Bakersfield, to win, 3-2.

“We’ve wrestled against each other enough times where I know his moves and he knows mine,” said McCoy, seeded second and the only wrestler to defeat Neal last year.

“We both try to pick up new things here and there, but when the chips are down you have to resort to your bread and butter and it’s a matter of who hits it first,” McCoy said.

Both will advance to the U.S. Olympic team trials, but McCoy will get an automatic bid into the finals by virtue of being the U.S. champion.

In the Greco-Roman super heavyweight division, Rulon Gardner, of Colorado Springs, Colo., beat Matt Ghaffari, 1-0 in overtime, for the title.

Other freestyle champions were: Sammie Henson, of Norman, Okla., at 119 pounds; Kerry Boumans, of Colorado Springs, Colo., at 127; Cary Kolat, of Morgantown, W.Va, at 138; Lincoln McIlravy, of Iowa City, Iowa, at 152; Brandon Slay, of Colorado Springs, Colo., at 167; Les Gutches, of Colorado Springs, Colo., at 187; and Melvin Douglas, of Mesa, Ariz., a 213.

Other Greco-Roman champions were: Brandon Paulson, of Golden Valley, Minn., at 119; Dennis Hall, of Plover, Wis., at 127; Kevin Bracken of Colorado Springs, Colo., at 138; Heath Sims of Huntington Beach at 152; Matt Lindland, of Lincoln, Neb., at 167 pounds; Quincy Clark, of New Brighton, Minn., at 187; and Jason Gleasman, of Colorado Springs, Colo., at 213.

The top six finishers in men’s freestyle and the top eight in men’s Greco-Roman qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, to be held June 22-24 at Dallas. The individual weight-class champions move directly into the best-of-three finals series for the Olympic team.

Tricia Saunders of Phoenix won her 10th consecutive U.S. title with a pin of Clarissa Chun of Kapolei, Hawaii, in the 101-pound division of the women’s finals.