By ERIC KNOPSNYDER
The Tribune-Democrat
July 22, 2008 12:25 am
—
Nick Roberts took the first step Monday on what he hopes will end in England four years from now.
Roberts, a 14-year-old from Hooversville capped a dominant run to a national Greco-Roman wrestling title at 84 pounds on Monday night in Fargo, N.D., helping Pennsylvania capture the team title in the Accelerade Cadet National Championships.
He beat Colorado’s Dylon Thompson by technical fall in the finals, 7-0, 6-0. In Greco-Roman wrestling, competitors are not allowed to use their legs or touch their opponent’s legs and a match can consist of up to three periods. If the same wrestler wins each of the first two periods, the third is not necessary, or if a fall is recorded the match is automatically finished no matter the period.
Thompson, a Colorado state champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman, was his state’s Middle School champion and finished sixth in the Schoolboy Nationals.
Roberts did not allow a point in the tournament, winning five of his seven matches by technical fall and one by fall. The only match that went the distance was a 5-0, 3-0 victory over Tommy Williams of Kansas.
Roberts just took up Greco-Roman this season. He’s hoping to turn it into a spot in the London Olympics four years from now. Such a dream might have been unthinkable a few months ago, but Jake Deitchler gave Roberts hope. The 18-year-old Minnesota wrestler earned a chance to wrestle in the Beijing Games by winning the Olympic trials at 145.5 pounds.
“In 2012, I want to wrestle in England,” Roberts said. “I’ll be the next Deitchler. That’s what’s motivating me, I want to be him.”
Roberts is certainly off to a good start. The cadet national title is an impressive start. Jody Strittmatter, who coaches Roberts at Young Guns Wrestling Club, is believed to be the last local wrestler to win a cadet national title when he did it 15 years ago in freestyle.
Roberts, who won state titles in both freestyle and Greco-Roman, will have a chance to match Strittmatter’s feat later this week when the national freestyle competition begins on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania’s Mark Havers of Bradford won the 160-pound championship while 285-pounder Evan Craig from Abington Heights High School captured a third crown to help the Keystone State earn the team title.
Roberts was as dominant in his finals match as he was in the rest of the tournament, using three gut-wrench tilts in the first period for the 7-0 victory, then adding another in the third in the 6-0 win.
“I just like upper body stuff,” Roberts said of why he’s excelled so quickly in Greco-Roman. “I like throwing kids and I really have a good gut wrench. That’s what I’m really good at, gut wrenches and body locks.”
He said that Strittmatter and Cam Plocus, who coached the Pennsylvania squad in Fargo, were instrumental in his development.
“Jody Strittmatter, my coach, pretty much taught me all of it,” Roberts said. “I pretty much owe this national championship to Jody and my coach, Cam Plocus.”
Success is nothing new to Roberts, who has captured a pair of Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling, but it was a third-place finish in the state folkstyle tournament this season that has spurred him to train even more.
“That’s exactly what motivated me to go harder this year is that loss,” he said.
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