Wrestling Trials Deliver the Drama

They battled until they bled, until the bruises on their temples turned mottled shades of black and their legs buckled beneath them.

There were so many fine wrestlers and so few spots on the U.S. Olympic team for the Athens Games.

“I’m so sorry it had to end this way. I hated it,” Dennis Hall of Plover, Wis., said after winning the best-of-three Greco-Roman finals with a 4-3 overtime victory over Brandon Paulson, his training partner and fellow Atlanta silver medalist.

“Either one of us had a shot at a gold medal in Athens. I knew it had to be one of us who lost. It could very well have been me.”

But it was Hall who prevailed in the 121-pound class after 16 minutes 54 seconds of sweating and straining, becoming one of 17 soon-to-be Olympians on the final day of the wrestling trials at the RCA Dome.

“I had fun. I didn’t like it,” Hall said, laughing at the absurdity. “I’ve got a headache.”

Emotions ran high Sunday, and understandably so.

It’s not enough to say Greco-Roman heavyweight Rulon Gardner overcame a dislocated wrist to defeat Dremiel Byers twice in overtime and will defend the gold medal he won at Sydney. Or that Stephan Abas of Fresno defeated 2000 silver medalist Sammie Henson in a scrappy 121-pound freestyle match. Or that Tela O’Donnell became the most famous athlete from Homer, Alaska, when she upset Tina George twice on falls to win the women’s 121-pound freestyle berth.

Or that Cael Sanderson, renowned for his 159-0 record at Iowa State, earned his first Olympic trip by hanging on against U.S. champion Lee Fullhart in the decisive third freestyle match at 185 pounds.

All had fascinating stories of overcoming injuries or doubts and juggling family, school and work. Jim Gruenwald, a high school math teacher in Colorado Springs, said he doesn’t talk about himself in class, but his victory over Joe Warren by 3-0 and 5-3 scores at 132 pounds in Greco-Roman merits an exception. “I did my best for my country, my family, my name,” said Gruenwald, whose left shoulder is held together by titanium screws.

Patricia Miranda, who had a bye to the finals as the 105.5-pound U.S. champion, easily defeated Clarissa Chun, 6-3 and 10-0. It was enough to delight even her father, Jose, who opposes her athletic career but was among the crowd of 9,478.

“We’ve never been an emotional family, but my wrestling brought my family closer together,” she said. “We cry together and laugh together.”

For some, there were no tears.

Kristie Marano of Albany, N.Y., who was the 2003 world champion at 138.75 pounds but had to move up a class when she weighed in a pound over the limit, lost to Toccara Montgomery, 9-6, in overtime and 4-3 in the second match. She declined to speak to reporters, running off the mat with a stunned expression.

But Sara McMann of Colorado Springs, who replaced Marano as the top-seeded wrestler in the 138.75-pound class and got a bye to Sunday’s finals, capitalized on her luck to defeat Alaina Berube twice on technical falls.

“Everything that was my biggest obstacle just went away,” McMann said, beaming. “This is just a dream. The things you thought of and planned for, I never knew how they could feel so great in reality.”

Said Montgomery, a Cleveland resident: “All things happen for a reason. This was something that was supposed to be, fate.”

The fates also were kind to Oscar Wood. He finished second to Faruk Sahin in the 145.5-pound Greco-Roman class at last month’s U.S. championships but got the top seeding at the trials after Sahin tested positive for a banned substance and withdrew. Wood, a 28-year-old Army sergeant stationed at Ft. Carson, Colo., defeated Kevin Bracken by a fall in their first match and with a pair of gut-wrenches in the second match.

“I’ve always dreamed of being an Olympian, but I never dreamed of being an Olympian as a soldier,” he said. “It gives me a lot of pride.”

Gardner, who had surgery on his dislocated wrist April 16 and twice developed infection, persevered on guts, winning the first match against Byers on a takedown in overtime and the second when Byers unlocked out of the clinch and didn’t score in the next minute. Byers promptly offered to help Gardner prepare for Athens. “Every hour of the day I’ll be there for him, no matter what,” Byers said.

Said Gardner: “The last two months, I thought it was virtually impossible to be sitting here, more than my last gold medal,” he said. “To be sitting up here is a miracle.”