Three Soldiers earn berths in wrestling championships

Three Soldiers earned berths in the 2010 FILA Wrestling World Championships by winning their weight classes at the U.S. World Team Trials June 10 to11 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program Greco-Roman wrestlers Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers, Spc. Faruk Sahin and Spc. Jeremiah Davis earned spots on Team USA for the second consecutive year. The World Championships are scheduled for Sept. 6-10 in Moscow, Russia.

Byers won two straight matches against WCAP teammate Spc. Timothy Taylor in the best-of-three-match finals of the 120-kilogram/ 264.5-pound division.

Sahin needed three matches, including all three periods of the third, to defeat WCAP teammate Staff Sgt. Glenn Garrison at 66 kilograms/145.5 pounds.

"Garrison just beat him a month ago at the U.S. Open and they went to the third rubber match here, so you knew that could go either way," WCAP head coach Shon Lewis said. "Faruk wrestled a good, sound match and Garrison wrestled a smart match, but it just takes one minor mistake.

After winning their classic Greco battle, Sahin would not let go of Garrison. He even tried pulling four of the Army assistant coaches from the corners onto the center of the mat to share in the glory of getting his hand raised.

"This is our team spirit before practice, during practice and after practice - we are always together," Sahin explained. "We know that we are fighting for the warriors, we are representing the warriors, but at the end we are like teammates, like brothers. It's not like, 'Hey, I'm done with you. I beat you. Go away.' I said, 'Come on, come on, team together.' That's why I didn't want to let him go."

Davis prevailed in two straight matches against All-Army wrestler Spc. Nathan Piasecki in another all-Soldier showdown in the finals at 60 kilograms/132 pounds.

Piasecki admittedly lost his cool when a referee's call did not go his way, and that hurt him throughout the fray against the poised Davis.

"Sometimes he lets his emotions get the best of him, even in practice," Lewis said of Piasecki. "I tried to point that out to him so hopefully, once he cools down a little bit and he's able to think sensibly, he'll reflect back on this weekend and see where he mentally took himself out of the matches."

Piasecki said he understands what Lewis means.

"That's just how I normally wrestle," Piasecki said. "I just want to go, I want to win, and I just go hard. I mean it's tough to wrestle a guy who just moves back and I get frustrated a little bit when I get a bad call. And then, you know, it's my fault - I wasn't keeping my head. Yeah, it cost me the match. It probably cost me both matches. I can't let the refs get involved. I've got to be smarter."

Davis maintained his composure through both wild and wooly matches and won by scores of 2-0, 4-1 and 2-0, 5-0.

"He kind of lost his head a few times and I capitalized on it," Davis said. "This is the World Team Trials so everybody's heart and soul is in it, so it's acceptable to get mad at this tournament. ... In the training room, we don't go as hard as out here because someone could get hurt, but we still have our days when we give it our all."

Byers has won a medal of every color - gold, silver and bronze - at the World Championships.

"He wrestled as expected: dominant," Lewis said. "He really wasn't ever in any danger of getting scored on - just making sure that we got on that bus to get to go to Moscow. That was the big plan for here. We weren't really trying to see where we're at as far as peaking or anything - just making sure that we got our airline ticket punched.

"Taylor came through and had a great match against Brandon Rupp," Lewis said of another elite wrestler who is considering joining the Army. "I think that was his first time beating him. If he had beaten him before that, it's been a while."

Byers did just enough to win against teammate Taylor, whom he cherishes having as a training partner and never takes for granted.

"Tim Taylor is a guy that can do all the moves I can do," Byers said. "You won't see him doing them much, but it's in him to do them. I don't take him lightly for any reason. When we get in here I just want to be careful with him and keep it easy on my part and don't go all out and crazy because that guy can wrestle.

"It hurts to have your teammate in a final. It just sucks. But it says a lot. It says how tough your room is. If you've got the number one and number two guys in the nation in your room, that says something. The guy is a great wrestler and I just think that you've got to watch him."

Although seven Soldiers represented the Army in the finals of the World Team Trials, six of them squared off against teammates for three spots on the U.S. team.

"That's the easy part of my day once they make it to the finals if they're head-to-head," Lewis said. "It's going to be sweet and sour - sweet for one guy in the room and sour for another guy in the room.

But they're all in the same room and I've got to coach them. That's what our staff does: we don't pick favorites.