Photo By Stephen Warns | Spc. Dalton Roberts of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program celebrates his...... read more read more
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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Spc. Kamal Bey, Sgt. Ellis Coleman, and Spc. Dalton Roberts fulfilled one part of their Olympic dreams by winning the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials on April 19-20 at Penn State.
Now the trio have one more tournament to make those dreams a reality.
The Greco-Roman wrestling Soldier-Athletes of the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program won their respective weight classes at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials at the Bryce Jordan Center. They will now compete in the World Olympic Qualifier on May 9-12 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Should Bey (77 kilograms), Coleman (67 kg) and Roberts (60 kg) place in the top 3 in their respective weights, they will compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris from July 26-Aug. 11.
“It was a phenomenal performance by those three Soldier-Athletes,” said Sgt. 1st Class Spenser Mango, one of the Army WCAP Greco-Roman coaches. “Now we’re looking to qualify those weights for Team USA in Turkey.”
Mango was also honored by USA Wrestling by being named Team USA Greco-Roman Coach of the Year for the fourth time and credits the WCAP program for allowing him to be all he can be.
“WCAP is immensely important to the Army,” Mango said. “Every time I go to speak at schools, the kids think the Army is infantry. But when I tell them that we can do all these cool things, I’m traveling the world coaching wrestling, the Army has been such a huge help. A lot of people
don’t know about it. I’m getting to do something I love to do and make a living off it.”
It was also the first time a four-star general officer attended an Olympic Trials event. Gen. Gary Brito, the 18th commanding general of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, was impressed with what he saw.
“These Soldier-Athletes are doing a dynamite job of representing their Army and service to the country, and I could not be more proud of them,” Brito said.
Two of the best-of-3 matches pitted WCAP teammates against one another.
Roberts earned his first U.S. Olympic Trials title by beating Sgt. Ildar Hafizov 2 matches to 1.
Roberts won the first match 2-0, lost the second match by technical superiority 10-1, and won the third 3-2.
Roberts and Hafizov have wrestled 17 times in competition, with Roberts holding a slight edge over Hafizov.
“Going in, I felt confident and ready,” Roberts said. “I stuck to my game plan in the first match, and I was able to get a push out and passivity. In the second match, I dislocated my ring finger, and in the third match, I knew I couldn’t give up a takedown.”
Roberts might have edged Hafizov, who won the Pan American Games gold medal in November, but he said he listens intently to Hafizov’s advice.
“He’s a leader in the practice room,” Roberts said of Hafizov. “We compete against each other a lot, we’re brothers in arms, and there’s a lot of familiarity,” Roberts said. “It’s always a battle and always a marathon.”
Roberts is confident going into the qualifier, and he credits WCAP for his evolution as a Soldier-Athlete.
“I feel I’m a more mature wrestler,” Roberts said. “I know it’s going to be a bloodbath. There are a little nerves, but it’s a good thing. I’m excited.”
Coleman beat teammate, Spc. Alex Sancho, 2 matches to 1 to earn a berth in the last-chance qualifier. Sancho won the first match on criteria, but Coleman rallied to win the next two matches, 2-0 and 3-2.
It was a validation of sorts for Coleman, who lost to Sancho in the finals of the 2021 Olympic Trials. Coleman recently was cleared to compete again in February after three years off the mat.
“I enjoyed the time off, let my body heal up and come back mentally fresh as possible,” said Coleman, who made the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team as a 20-year-old. “I was doing a lot of therapy for concussions, and I’ve had surgeries on my left elbow, right triceps surgery, right hamstring
surgery, left ankle surgery, multiple surgeries on both knees and I tore my right oblique. I was trying to let my whole entire body heal.”
Mango said Coleman, now 32, might be older but he wrestled at a furious pace throughout the tournament.
“He’s getting older as far as athleticism, but he kept his foot on the gas pedal the entire tournament and it paid off,” said Mango, who competed with Coleman on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. “Once you get older you don’t want to run through the brick wall. You want to navigate around it. His body has been through a lot of battles and injuries and he has become more efficient.”
Coleman enlisted in the Army in 2013 and joined WCAP shortly thereafter. He credits the program for helping him progress as a wrestler.
Coleman said he was shaky at first competing in his first tournament since the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, but he found his groove as the tournament progressed and is a few matches away from becoming a two-time Olympian.
“I’m just really grateful, honestly, to having had so many injuries and bouncing back from those injuries,” Coleman said. “Being my first and only tournament in three years, that could take away a lot, but me just getting back out there, I’m going into the World Qualifier confident.”
Bey gave up only two points throughout the trials. It was a rebound for him after falling short of qualifying the weight class for Team USA in the Pan American qualifier in Acapulco in February.
“When you got your head on your shoulders, everything seems to fall in line,” said Bey, who captured the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Games in November. “It was a very good bounce back for myself. I just have to remember it’s about wrestling. Everything else doesn’t
matter.”
Bey is confident going into the World Qualifier and said he’s in the right mindset to try and earn his first Olympic berth.
“It’s six minutes of hard wrestling, and I don’t have to beat the entire world. I just have to beat the guys who are in front of me,” he said. “I’m more than capable of doing that.”
While those three Soldier-Athletes earned one more chance to try and qualify for the Olympics, Spc. Spencer Woods at 87 kg lost a heartbreaker to Payton Jacobson in the best-of-3.
Woods, who had qualified the weight class in during the February qualifier in Acapulco, dropped the first match 8-2, won the second match 5-3 and lost the third 3-1.
“That was a rough one,” Mango said. "Sometimes I feel like the amount of time, effort and sacrifice doesn’t always show. I would like to say he deserved to win the match, but at the end of the day in
wrestling you have to earn it.”
Despite the loss, Woods said he doesn’t have regrets.
“I’m confident in my training, my wrestling intuition, and I’m confident in our program,” Woods said. “I left it all out there and I can sleep well at night knowing that.”
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2024 23:35 |
| Story ID: | 470200 |
| Location: | STATE COLLEGE, PA, US |
| Hometown: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Hometown: | FOWLERVILLE, MI, US |
| Hometown: | JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, VA, US |
| Hometown: | MARQUETTE, MI, US |
| Hometown: | MIAMI, FL, US |
| Hometown: | SHUNGNAK, AK, US |
| Hometown: | ST. LOUIS, MO, US |
| Hometown: | TASHKENT, UZ |
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