Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Vering captures silver at wrestling worlds

Colorado Springs resident Brad Vering won a silver medal today in the 185-pound Greco-Roman weight class at the World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Vering lost to Russia's Aleksey Mishin 4-0, 4-0 in the finals after winning five straight matches. The top-eight finish qualified the U.S. for the 2008 Beijing Games at 185 pounds.

"Ever since last year when I didn't make the world team, I sat down with my coaches and knew I needed to make some changes or this was going to be a rough way to end my career," Vering said. "I've made some positive changes and started scoring a lot more points and getting stronger. I feel really good right now, and I'm excited about what is coming up next year with the Olympic year."

Colorado Springs residents T.C. Dantzler (163 pounds) and Justin Ruiz (211.5) did not log top-eight finishes. They'll have three more chances to qualify their weight classes for Beijing, starting with the Pan American Championships, which are Feb. 29 to March 2, 2008, in Colorado Springs.

In the final Greco-Roman weight class, Colorado Springs resident Dremiel Byers will wrestle Wednesday at 264.5 pounds. Also Wednesday, Colorado Springs resident Henry Cejudo will wrestle in the men's freestyle competition at 121 pounds.

First winners decided at shooting junior nationals

The trap winners of the USA Shooting Junior Olympic National Championships were crowned at Fort Carson.

In the men's competition, Richard Valdez beat Matthew Gossett and Josh Cresswell with 140 targets. Miranda Wilder won the women's division with 134 targets, edging Stephanie Martinago and Kayle Browning.

A look at the national championships schedule:

Wednesday: Men's double trap finals

Thursday: Men's and women's skeet training

Friday: Men's and women's skeet preliminary rounds

Saturday: Men's and women's skeet finals

Curling trials coming to Broomfield

The U.S. Olympic team trials in curling will be held in Broomfield in 2009.

The U.S. Curling Association announced that it selected a bid by the Metro Denver Sports Commission over finalists Bismarck, N.D., and Rochester, N.Y. Other cities that submitted bids were Milwaukee and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Twenty teams will compete in the trials Feb. 21-28, 2009, at the Broomfield Event Center, with the top teams advancing to the 2010 Vancouver Games. The event will double as the 2009 national championships, a qualifier for that year's world championships.

Sled hockey team to begin Springs camp

The U.S. national sled hockey team will hold a training camp Wednesday through Sunday at World Arena.

The 17-person team, coached by Olympian Keith Blase, is preparing for its upcoming season. It opens with a three-game exhibition series against Canada in November in Park City, Utah, and will compete in a tournament in Japan in January. The Ice Sledge Hockey World Championship is March 26 to April 6, 2008, in Marlborough, Mass.

A look at the training camp schedule:

Wednesday: 10-11:15 p.m.

Thursday: 5-7 p.m.

Friday: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Saturday: 2:15-4:15 p.m., 7:15-9:15 p.m.

Sunday: 6:45-8:15 a.m.

Pate heading to cycling worlds

Colorado Springs cyclist Danny Pate will compete Sept. 26-30 at the Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Pate, sponsored by Slipstream/Chipotle, is coming off a 13th-place finish in the Tour of Missouri, a 563-mile stage race that's part of the USA Cycling Pro Tour.

He'll be joined at the world championships by seven other elite men's riders on a 166-mile course. The U.S. team also includes eight elite women's cyclists and six under-23 men's cyclists.

Downs co-captain of boxing team

Fort Carson solider Christopher Downs has been named a captain of the U.S. Olympic boxing team, which began practice Monday at the Olympic Training Center.

Downs, a 32-year-old member of the World Class Athlete Program who has served in Iraq, is the 178-pound light-heavyweight national champion, and co-captain Luis Yanez, of Duncanville, Texas, is the 106-pound light-flyweight national champ.

Members of the 11-person team are part of the OTC's first boxing resident program since the early 1980s. They will attempt to qualify for Beijing at the World Championships, scheduled for Oct. 23 to Nov. 3 in Chicago.

A look at the Olympic team:

Light-flyweight: Luis Yanez, Duncanville, Texas

Flyweight: Rau'shee Warren, Cincinnati

Bantamweight: Gary Russell Jr., Capitol Heights, Md.

Featherweight: Raynell Williams, Cleveland

Lightweight: Sadam Ali, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Light-welterweight: Javier Molina, Commerce, Calif.

Welterweight: Demetrius Andrade, Providence, R.I.

Middleweight: Shawn Estrada, Downey, Calif.

Light-heavyweight: Christopher Downs, Knoxville, Tenn.

Heavyweight: Deontay Wilder, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Super-heavyweight: Michael Hunter, Las Vegas

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