AKRON, Ohio – Already qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team Trials with his Northeast Regional, Brad Pataky of Clearfield prevented any other 121-pound hopefuls from qualifying through the USA Wrestling National Championships by defeating five opponents April 12 and 13 in the University of Akron\’s Athletics Field House.
Only the champs advance to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Las Vegas June 13-15, though the event sponsored by the Kent State University wrestling program and USA Wrestling/Ohio also was a qualifier for the University World Team Trials May 23-24 in Colorado Spring, Colo. That tourney will determine the U.S. team that will compete in the World University Championships in Greece.
Pataky, who red-shirted at Penn State during the 2006-07 season and is in line for an Olympic red-shirt for 2007-08, breezed to the finals by pinning Cruse Aarhus (Panther Wrestling Club) in 10 seconds, Michael Gomez (unattached) in 6-0, :35 and former Indian Valley High School standout Nick Bedelyon (Golden Pride) 6-0, :17 before besting Tony Mustari (Northern Colorado) 4-0, 2-0.
In the gold medal match, Pataky beat Zach Sanders (Minnesota Storm) 3-1, 0-3, 3-1. Sanders had given up only two points in his three wins.
Pitt sophomore John Sutika of Grampian also competed at 55 kilograms/121 pounds.
The Curwensville Area High School grad defeated Desmond Moore of Penn State 5-3, 4-2 but then lost to Fred Santaite of the Graybird WC 8-4, 1-0 and Anthony Easter of The Citadel 6-4, 9-3.
Many of the same wrestlers will be competing in the U.S. National Championships at Las Vegas this weekend, including 2008 NCAA Champion Keith Gavin of Pitt at 74 kilograms/163 pounds.
The FILA Cadet National Championships were held in conjunction with the University Championships, and twins Dylan and Andrew Alton of Central Mountain High School in Lock Haven shared top honors at 63 kilograms/138.75 pounds.
USA Wrestling rules dictate that brothers can be declared co-champions if they reach the finals and choose not to wrestle each other. Both were Cadet National champions in freestyle in 2007,competing in different weight classes.
Dylan Alton was one of two repeat champions.
The 552 wrestlers in the University Freestyle Nationals and 155 entries in the University Greco-Roman Nationals were the most in the history of the annual event. Previous highs were 490 and 114, respectively.
The FILA Cadet division numbers were down slightly at 360 for the freestyle discipline and 182 for the Greco-Roman division.
