Las Vegas, Nevada \u2013 When it comes to Greco-Roman wrestling and the Minnesota Storm, it\u2019s not always strength in numbers.<\/p>\n
One of the nation\u2019s premier international clubs, the Storm relies on its quality to bring home hardware and at the U.S. Open Championships on December 17-18 at the Westgate Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Storm did just that.<\/p>\n
Pat Smith claimed his first U.S. Open championship after finishing second on four different occasions, while Hayden Zillmer finished with a silver medal. Jayson Ness, Barrett Stanghill and Malcolm Allen finished with bronze medals to lead the Storm to the Division II national team championship.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s championship came at 71kg where he defeated Anthonie Linares of the New York Athletic Club 8-0. Smith built a 5-0 lead and cruised to the gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmith just owned it,\u201d said Minnesota Storm coach Dan Chandler.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe moved up another level after the Clubs Cup in Hungary. He\u2019s going to Stockholm for about two months to get some of his MBA credits out of the way and training with some clubs in Stockholm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zillmer, who recently moved to the Twin Cities and will commence training with the Minnesota Regional Training Center, fell in a tight 2-0 loss to G\u2019Angelo \u201cTracy\u201d Hancock of the New York Athletic at 98kg. Club. Zillmer, a college All-American at North Dakota State, has been training with Chase Nelson, who is an assistant coach at NDSU.<\/p>\n
Zillmer, like Smith, will also be spending some time in the near future training in Sweden.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to go to Goteburg with the Ogryte Club in January,\u201d said Chandler. \u201cThey\u2019re having a four country training camp before going back to (Colorado Springs) before the Schultz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malcom Allen, a 2016 NCAA Division II runner-up for Minnesota State, also made waves with a third-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s stocky and always smiling,\u201d said Chandler. \u201cIn the third place match, he went out and got launched for four and he ran back to the middle with a big smile on his face. He came back and won the match,\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen was the only Storm heavyweight competing as Tony Nelson suffered an injury to his eardrum prior to the event. Allen defeated Eric Fader of the United States Marine Corps 7-5 at 130kg.<\/p>\n
Ness was one of a number of athletes who typically favor freestyle, but he joined Zach Sanders in giving it a run. He fell in the quarterfinals to 2012 Olympian Ellis Coleman of the Army\u2019s World Class Athlete Program before battling back to finish third at 66kg. Ness won three matches in consolation competition to reach the bronze-medal bout, where he topped Jessy Williams of the New York Athletic Club by fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another door,\u201d said Chandler. \u201cIf he put all his energy into Greco, he could be the top guy there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders lost to eventual champion Hayden Tuma of the Army\u2019s World Class Athlete Program in the quarterfinals. Sanders then picked up a consolation win over Mike Fuenffinger, a former Storm wrestler now wrestling for the Army, before falling to Sam Jones of the New York Athletic Club. Sanders finished seventh, defeating Lilashawn Coleman of the Army 11-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a real good Greco wrestler in high school,\u201d said Chandler. \u201cHe\u2019s a real fighter and that\u2019s good and he really enjoyed it. He said thanks for inviting me, so in that respect, it was all good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the Greco-Roman World Team Trials set for Las Vegas at the same time men\u2019s freestyle is holding its national championships, Chandler is still going to try to recruit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to try to talk those guys into wrestling Greco at the Schultz,\u201d said Chandler. \u201cAt some point in time, they might see Greco as a valid option. I know for (Jayson) Ness, he might beat Logan Stieber the next time they wrestle \u2013 he might lose to him two-three times, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrett Stanghill, a Montana native and relatively new addition to the Storm, finished third at 80kg. Stanghill fell to runner-up Jon Jay Chavez of the New York Athletic Club in a tight 2-1 bout in the quarterfinals. He then reeled off three straight technical falls to reach the bronze medal bout where he defeated 2015 Pan Am Games gold medalist Jonathan Anderson of the U.S. Army 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the middle of the night, he tries to come in my room because the front desk gave him the wrong key, so we got (Stanghill) into another room and he slept in the chair,\u201d joked Chandler. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure he sleeps a chair now every day before he wrestles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brad Dolezal finished seventh at 71kg, while Alec Ortiz finished fourth at 75kg. Other wrestlers representing the Storm were Justin LaValle at 59kg, Dylan Reel at 71kg and Romero Cotton at 85kg. Cotton, a two-time NCAA Division II champion for Nebraska-Kearney, was joined by former college teammate Chase Nelson, who wrestled with the Storm and the North Dakota State-based Bison Wrestling Club. Nelson finished third at 71kg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Las Vegas, Nevada \u2013 When it comes to Greco-Roman wrestling and the Minnesota Storm, it\u2019s not always strength in numbers. One of the nation\u2019s premier international clubs, the Storm relies on its quality to bring home hardware and at the U.S. Open Championships on December 17-18 at the Westgate Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Storm did just that. Pat Smith claimed his first U.S. Open championship after finishing second on four different occasions, while Hayden Zillmer finished with a silver medal. Jayson Ness, Barrett Stanghill and Malcolm Allen finished with bronze medals to lead the Storm to the Division II national team championship. Smith\u2019s championship came at 71kg where he defeated Anthonie Linares of the New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n