Zadicks help U.S. reach World potential
From Media Reports
Kevin Jackson remembers two years ago, when he talked about the “P” word while visiting with Bill Zadick’s father, Bob.
“Bill always had potential in my mind,” recalled Jackson, the U.S. National coach, about the former University of Iowa assistant coach who was trying to get back to the international stage again after competing in the 2001 World Championships. “He had to focus on training full-time in a freestyle-oriented wrestling room every day. He made a sacrifice to leave Iowa and come to the Olympic Training Center.”
Two years later, the current resident of Colorado Springs, Colo., is on top of the wrestling world after beating five straight opponents, including Otari Tushishvili (Georgia) in the 145.5-pound finals, which Zadick rallied to win, 1-2, 3-0, 1-0.
“It is awesome, a dream come true. It is what everybody trains for,” said Zadick, who won the final period by using a clinch advantage to switch from a single to a double for the winning takedown. “Before the coin toss, I thought it doesn’t matter what color comes up, you have to be tough. I don’t think there are
any secrets in the clinch position. The first guy to create action, 99 percent of the time wins.”
This victory was the climax of several years of hard work, especially after 2002 when FILA eliminated the 138-pound weight class, forcing the native of Great Falls to move up to 145.5. Before making this year’s U.S. World team, he had fallen short in five straight World/Olympic Trials.
“Life is tough,” Zadick said. “It doesn’t matter if you wrestle, or you knit, whatever you do. There are ups and downs. If you set your mind to something, you continue after it, no matter what it takes, no matter what the obstacles are. You keep plugging away.”
“Bill is the World champion in the toughest weight class in the world,” Jackson said. “His weight has the biggest size and the most World medalists in it. For him to win that weight class five years after the last time he was at the World Championships says a lot about Bill and the resident program. All of the credit must go to Bill himself. (U.S. resident coach) Terry Brands has been a major influence on Bill, working with him. Bill always had the ability. He just got the opportunity to get it done.”
Jackson had similar feelings about his first four wrestlers who competed in Guangzhou as 121-pound Sammie Henson (bronze), 132-pound Mike Zadick (silver) and 163-pound Donny Pritzlaff (bronze) all medaled to put the Americans on top of the team standings with just two weights remaining. Unfortunately, both 211.5-pound Dremiel Byers and heavyweight Tolly Thompson went no farther than the quarterfinals, dropping the U.S. to No. 3.
“We couldn’t close the deal,” Jackson said. “We came in with a chance to win the title. We had two guys who did not wrestle to their ability. It is disappointing. We need guys to get it done. That will be hard for them to live with, for them to travel all across the world and not get their best match at the World Championships.
“We will be back. We will win next year. I have all the confidence in the world we will win.”
The following is a weight-by-weight breakdown of the Americans’ 2006 World performances.
55K/121 pounds
Sammie Henson (Sunkist Kids WC), a 1998 World champion, saw his chance at a second World gold medal come to an end when he lost 4-0, 7-1, in his semifinal match to eventual champion Radoslav Velikov (Bulgaria), who put the American on his back three times, including twice in the final 30 seconds of period two.
But that didn’t stop the resident of Flintstone, Ga., from fighting back for his third medal on the international level as he rallied to beat Adcham Achilov (Uzbekistan), 2-1, 2-0, in the bronze medal match.
“I have three medals now,” said Henson, who also earned a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic. “It was hard. I haven’t been in wrestlebacks for a long time. It is hard to get the mindset back. But all the people, you don’t want to let them down; like coaches Kevin Jackson and Lou Rosselli, my workout partner Danny Felix, the team leader Steve Silver. You see them and you do what you can to win for them. I wanted this for my family and for all of them.”
Henson opened the 2006 Worlds by defeating 2002 World champ Rene Montero (Cuba), 1-2, 1-0, 6-0 — as Henson held the Cuban on his back for the final 49 seconds — before defeating Francisco Sanchez (Spain), 3-0, 6-0, in a second-round bout. He then pinned Taghi Dadashi (Iran), 1-2, 1:42 in the quarterfinals, ending the match by scoring a takedown at the 1:22 mark before catching the Iranian on his back 20 seconds later.
Henson, who returned to international competition in 2004, hopes to use this as motivation for the 2007 Worlds and 2008 Olympics.
“The mistake I made in the semis was stupid,” Henson said. “I let myself down. I need to get sharper. It has been two years since I came back from retirement. Every year, I get better. I am glad I got the bronze medal. In a few weeks, if I lost and placed fifth, I would really be upset with myself.”
60K/132 pounds
The day before his older brother, Bill Zadick, won a gold medal at 145.5 pounds, Mike Zadick (Hawkeye WC) found himself in nearly the same position … only to fall short in a 1-0, 1-1 setback to 2005 World bronze medalist Seyed M. Mohammadi (Iran) who clinched the gold medal by scoring a pushout against Zadick in the final nine seconds of the second period.
And while Mike’s Worlds finish was impressive — considering the native of Great Falls, Mont., was competing in his first World Championships — the 28-year-old former Iowa All-American was not impressed.
“There’s not much to say,” said Zadick shortly after spending 20 minutes working out following his loss to Mohammadi. “You have to keep wrestling and I didn’t keep wrestling. I was too worried about making a mistake. I didn’t keep wrestling solid, keeping up the pressure. It’s something I should always do. There is no excuse, I was tentative. It’s a difference of being a World champion or not — the smallest little thing.”
Before this loss, Zadick dominated his competition and allowed just one point in beating in order: Saeed Azarbayjani (Canada), 3-1, 1-0; Aliaksandr Karnitski (Belarus), 1-0, 1-0; Dutt Yogeshwar (India), 2-0, 1-0; and Mavlet Batirov (Russia), 1-0, 1-0. In those bouts, Zadick scored eight takedowns, including a double with ten seconds left in the second period of his semifinal victory over Batirov, the 2004 Olympic champion.
And it was a defensive stand against Batirov’s overtime clinch in the first period that set the tone for his victory.
“The leg clinch is so new,” Zadick said. “I feel confident with people on my legs. The main focus came from the World Team coaches, who have been drilling me in the position. They tell me to wait on the leg, and it paid off. Like anything, if you work hard enough, it will pay off. That was my confidence from my coaches. I felt good there. I have been beaten overseas in that position.
“The coaches said I could do what I was doing against Americans, but not against the world’s best. They showed me what to do. It paid off in the match for me. It worked, and I stayed focused.”
66K/145.5 pounds
Facing a third period in his gold medal victory over Otari Tushishvili (Georgia) was nothing new for Bill Zadick (Gator WC) who found himself in a similar position at two other times during the 2006 Worlds: a 4-0, 1-4, 3-1 second-round triumph over Geandry Garzon (Cuba) and a 0-1, 1-0, 2-1 victory over Albert Batyrov (Belarus) in the semifinals.
Garzon, the 2005 bronze medalist, even took a 1-0 lead over Zadick in the third period of their match before Zadick responded with a bodylock and two-point tilt at the 1:11 mark before clinching the victory with a counter move with 22 seconds left.
Against Batyrov, Zadick barreled in for a double leg with 37 seconds left in the second period to force a third period, where Zadick scored a pair of takedowns in the first 1:17 before giving up a meaningless takedown with two seconds left.
“I am more prepared and having the experience of being here makes a difference,” said Zadick, who finished seventh at the 2001 Worlds. “You can’t take things for granted. You have to seize your opportunities when they come.”
Russia’s Makhach Murtazaliev, who won the 2005 World title, failed to win a medal this year after he lost to the Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik in a quarterfinal match. Serafin Barzakov (Bulgaria), who finished second in 2005, also lost a quarterfinal to the eventual runner-up Otari Tushishhvili.
74K/163 pounds
Donny Pritzlaff (Overtime WC), competing in his first World championship, came to China with golden dreams. But the native of Red Bank, N.J., certainly wasn’t going to leave Guangzhou without bronzing his efforts.
At least that’s the attitude Pritzlaff took into beating Murad Gaidarov (Belarus), 1-3, 1-0, 1-0 for third place after losing to Ali Asgharbazrei (Iran), 2-0, 1-1, in a quarterfinal match.
“I didn’t achieve my goal here,” Pritzlaff said. “I remember we had a team meeting over at (U.S. resident coach) Terry Brands’ house where I was talking with the guys. Daniel Cormier said if you lose and you get a chance to take the bronze, you better seize the moment. He had a few chances and didn’t get it done. He said if you get the chance to get a bronze, wrestle like it is the gold.”
After getting pushed out twice for period-deciding points in his loss to Asgharbazrei, Pritzlaff was on verge of losing to Gaidarov, who used a takedown and gut-wrench to win the first period of the bronze medal match. But Pritzlaff used a clinch advantage to score a takedown in the second period, then drove his Belarus opponent off the mat for a single with 22 seconds remaining in the final period for the victory.
“In the beginning of the second period, I felt I controlled all of the wrestling,” Pritzlaff said. “I didn’t score until the clinch, but I was in control the whole way. In the third period, I did a lot of the same stuff. I had to keep him moving. I set up one shot to drive him out. It was near the end of the period but it was there. I kept hand-fighting and felt him getting tired. In the second and third period, I was controlling all the tie-ups. He was reacting to me.”
84K/185 pounds
It took Andy Hrovat (Overtime WC) just one match to realize it’s not how you start but how you end matches at the World Championships. Unfortunately, the native of Cleveland, Ohio, got to wrestle just one match in his first Worlds experience. He lost a first-round match, 2-2, 5-3 to Vadim Laliev (Armenia), who then lost his next match; ending Hrovat’s chance of competing in the consolation bracket.
Hrovat used a reverse body lock to take two and three-point leads, respectively, in each period, before surrendering the lead to Laliev, who used a takedown and two-point gut-wrench with eight seconds left in the second period for the victory.
“I knew everything I was doing,” Hrovat said. “After I got up 3-0, I wasn’t focused on keeping him from scoring. I messed up. You don’t lose when you have a three-point move. I didn’t stop his offense. If I moved more, he wouldn’t have been able to score on me.”
Hrovat said he was not overwhelmed by his first World Championships.
“For me, every match is the same,” he said. “You go out there and do what you are best at. That is what I tried. I wasn’t good enough to beat him. This isn’t different than any other tournament. You can’t put it on a pedestal.”
96K/211.5 pounds
No one has a bigger nemesis in international wrestling than Daniel Cormier (Gator WC), who saw his chance at winning a World or Olympic medal come to an end for the third time in four years at the hands of Iran’s Alireza Heydari (Iran) who defeated the native of Lafayette, La., 2-0, 0-1, 7-0, in a first round-match.
And since the Iranian, who also eliminated Cormier in the 2003 Worlds (by a 6-3 margin) and the 2004 Olympics (3-2 in overtime), lost his next match to eventual silver medalist Gerge Gogshelidze (Georgia), Cormier’s stay in China was short-lived.
“It kills me,” said Cormier. “I am so disappointed in myself right now. Like coach (Kevin) Jackson says, I have to look ahead. I can cry and be disappointed later. If he pulls me through, I have to get my mind right and be ready to wrestle.”
After losing the first period, Cormier looked like he had the momentum by countering a leg clinch in the second period. But that ended when Heydari caught Cormier in a body lock at the 1:31 mark and ended the bout seven seconds later when he twice put Cormier on his back.
“He shot a single leg,” Cormier said. “Instead of possibly using a baseline defense or giving up the point, I pulled him to my body and went to my back with a minute left. I have to be smarter. I felt good. I made a bad, costly mistake. He was in on a deep waist and arm. He flipped me a few times for the technical fall.”
120K/264.5 pounds
The only thing bigger than the Wall of China for Tolly Thompson (Sunkist Kids WC) in this Far East country was the defense put on him by Iran’s Fardin Masoumi Valadi, who scored three takedowns to none by Thompson in losing his quarterfinal match.
“There’s not much to say,” said Thompson, a 2005 bronze medalist, whose chance at a 2006 medal ended when Valadi lost his semifinal bout to Russia’s Kuramagomed Kuramagomedov. “I wrestled hard. I just didn’t score.”
After receiving a first-round bye, Thompson proved to be the more offensive wrestler in beating Eldar Kurtanidze (Georgia), 3-3, 1-0, 2-0, in a second-round bout.
In that match, Thompson lost the first period when he got pushed out with one second remaining, but came back to score on a pair of pushouts and one takedown in the final two frames.
(The majority of information and quotes for this story were made available by TheMat.com.)
Kevin Jackson remembers two years ago, when he talked about the “P” word while visiting with Bill Zadick’s father, Bob.
“Bill always had potential in my mind,” recalled Jackson, the U.S. National coach, about the former University of Iowa assistant coach who was trying to get back to the international stage again after competing in the 2001 World Championships. “He had to focus on training full-time in a freestyle-oriented wrestling room every day. He made a sacrifice to leave Iowa and come to the Olympic Training Center.”
Two years later, the current resident of Colorado Springs, Colo., is on top of the wrestling world after beating five straight opponents, including Otari Tushishvili (Georgia) in the 145.5-pound finals, which Zadick rallied to win, 1-2, 3-0, 1-0.
“It is awesome, a dream come true. It is what everybody trains for,” said Zadick, who won the final period by using a clinch advantage to switch from a single to a double for the winning takedown. “Before the coin toss, I thought it doesn’t matter what color comes up, you have to be tough. I don’t think there are
any secrets in the clinch position. The first guy to create action, 99 percent of the time wins.” This victory was the climax of several years of hard work, especially after 2002 when FILA eliminated the 138-pound weight class, forcing the native of Great Falls to move up to 145.5. Before making this year’s U.S. World team, he had fallen short in five straight World/Olympic Trials.
“Life is tough,” Zadick said. “It doesn’t matter if you wrestle, or you knit, whatever you do. There are ups and downs. If you set your mind to something, you continue after it, no matter what it takes, no matter what the obstacles are. You keep plugging away.”
“Bill is the World champion in the toughest weight class in the world,” Jackson said. “His weight has the biggest size and the most World medalists in it. For him to win that weight class five years after the last time he was at the World Championships says a lot about Bill and the resident program. All of the credit must go to Bill himself. (U.S. resident coach) Terry Brands has been a major influence on Bill, working with him. Bill always had the ability. He just got the opportunity to get it done.”
Jackson had similar feelings about his first four wrestlers who competed in Guangzhou as 121-pound Sammie Henson (bronze), 132-pound Mike Zadick (silver) and 163-pound Donny Pritzlaff (bronze) all medaled to put the Americans on top of the team standings with just two weights remaining. Unfortunately, both 211.5-pound Dremiel Byers and heavyweight Tolly Thompson went no farther than the quarterfinals, dropping the U.S. to No. 3.
“We couldn’t close the deal,” Jackson said. “We came in with a chance to win the title. We had two guys who did not wrestle to their ability. It is disappointing. We need guys to get it done. That will be hard for them to live with, for them to travel all across the world and not get their best match at the World Championships.
“We will be back. We will win next year. I have all the confidence in the world we will win.”
The following is a weight-by-weight breakdown of the Americans’ 2006 World performances.
55K/121 pounds
Sammie Henson (Sunkist Kids WC), a 1998 World champion, saw his chance at a second World gold medal come to an end when he lost 4-0, 7-1, in his semifinal match to eventual champion Radoslav Velikov (Bulgaria), who put the American on his back three times, including twice in the final 30 seconds of period two.
But that didn’t stop the resident of Flintstone, Ga., from fighting back for his third medal on the international level as he rallied to beat Adcham Achilov (Uzbekistan), 2-1, 2-0, in the bronze medal match.
“I have three medals now,” said Henson, who also earned a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic. “It was hard. I haven’t been in wrestlebacks for a long time. It is hard to get the mindset back. But all the people, you don’t want to let them down; like coaches Kevin Jackson and Lou Rosselli, my workout partner Danny Felix, the team leader Steve Silver. You see them and you do what you can to win for them. I wanted this for my family and for all of them.”
Henson opened the 2006 Worlds by defeating 2002 World champ Rene Montero (Cuba), 1-2, 1-0, 6-0 — as Henson held the Cuban on his back for the final 49 seconds — before defeating Francisco Sanchez (Spain), 3-0, 6-0, in a second-round bout. He then pinned Taghi Dadashi (Iran), 1-2, 1:42 in the quarterfinals, ending the match by scoring a takedown at the 1:22 mark before catching the Iranian on his back 20 seconds later.
Henson, who returned to international competition in 2004, hopes to use this as motivation for the 2007 Worlds and 2008 Olympics.
“The mistake I made in the semis was stupid,” Henson said. “I let myself down. I need to get sharper. It has been two years since I came back from retirement. Every year, I get better. I am glad I got the bronze medal. In a few weeks, if I lost and placed fifth, I would really be upset with myself.”
60K/132 pounds
The day before his older brother, Bill Zadick, won a gold medal at 145.5 pounds, Mike Zadick (Hawkeye WC) found himself in nearly the same position … only to fall short in a 1-0, 1-1 setback to 2005 World bronze medalist Seyed M. Mohammadi (Iran) who clinched the gold medal by scoring a pushout against Zadick in the final nine seconds of the second period.
And while Mike’s Worlds finish was impressive — considering the native of Great Falls, Mont., was competing in his first World Championships — the 28-year-old former Iowa All-American was not impressed.
“There’s not much to say,” said Zadick shortly after spending 20 minutes working out following his loss to Mohammadi. “You have to keep wrestling and I didn’t keep wrestling. I was too worried about making a mistake. I didn’t keep wrestling solid, keeping up the pressure. It’s something I should always do. There is no excuse, I was tentative. It’s a difference of being a World champion or not — the smallest little thing.”
Before this loss, Zadick dominated his competition and allowed just one point in beating in order: Saeed Azarbayjani (Canada), 3-1, 1-0; Aliaksandr Karnitski (Belarus), 1-0, 1-0; Dutt Yogeshwar (India), 2-0, 1-0; and Mavlet Batirov (Russia), 1-0, 1-0. In those bouts, Zadick scored eight takedowns, including a double with ten seconds left in the second period of his semifinal victory over Batirov, the 2004 Olympic champion.
And it was a defensive stand against Batirov’s overtime clinch in the first period that set the tone for his victory.
“The leg clinch is so new,” Zadick said. “I feel confident with people on my legs. The main focus came from the World Team coaches, who have been drilling me in the position. They tell me to wait on the leg, and it paid off. Like anything, if you work hard enough, it will pay off. That was my confidence from my coaches. I felt good there. I have been beaten overseas in that position.
“The coaches said I could do what I was doing against Americans, but not against the world’s best. They showed me what to do. It paid off in the match for me. It worked, and I stayed focused.”
66K/145.5 pounds
Facing a third period in his gold medal victory over Otari Tushishvili (Georgia) was nothing new for Bill Zadick (Gator WC) who found himself in a similar position at two other times during the 2006 Worlds: a 4-0, 1-4, 3-1 second-round triumph over Geandry Garzon (Cuba) and a 0-1, 1-0, 2-1 victory over Albert Batyrov (Belarus) in the semifinals.
Garzon, the 2005 bronze medalist, even took a 1-0 lead over Zadick in the third period of their match before Zadick responded with a bodylock and two-point tilt at the 1:11 mark before clinching the victory with a counter move with 22 seconds left.
Against Batyrov, Zadick barreled in for a double leg with 37 seconds left in the second period to force a third period, where Zadick scored a pair of takedowns in the first 1:17 before giving up a meaningless takedown with two seconds left.
“I am more prepared and having the experience of being here makes a difference,” said Zadick, who finished seventh at the 2001 Worlds. “You can’t take things for granted. You have to seize your opportunities when they come.”
Russia’s Makhach Murtazaliev, who won the 2005 World title, failed to win a medal this year after he lost to the Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik in a quarterfinal match. Serafin Barzakov (Bulgaria), who finished second in 2005, also lost a quarterfinal to the eventual runner-up Otari Tushishhvili.
74K/163 pounds
Donny Pritzlaff (Overtime WC), competing in his first World championship, came to China with golden dreams. But the native of Red Bank, N.J., certainly wasn’t going to leave Guangzhou without bronzing his efforts.
At least that’s the attitude Pritzlaff took into beating Murad Gaidarov (Belarus), 1-3, 1-0, 1-0 for third place after losing to Ali Asgharbazrei (Iran), 2-0, 1-1, in a quarterfinal match.
“I didn’t achieve my goal here,” Pritzlaff said. “I remember we had a team meeting over at (U.S. resident coach) Terry Brands’ house where I was talking with the guys. Daniel Cormier said if you lose and you get a chance to take the bronze, you better seize the moment. He had a few chances and didn’t get it done. He said if you get the chance to get a bronze, wrestle like it is the gold.”
After getting pushed out twice for period-deciding points in his loss to Asgharbazrei, Pritzlaff was on verge of losing to Gaidarov, who used a takedown and gut-wrench to win the first period of the bronze medal match. But Pritzlaff used a clinch advantage to score a takedown in the second period, then drove his Belarus opponent off the mat for a single with 22 seconds remaining in the final period for the victory.
“In the beginning of the second period, I felt I controlled all of the wrestling,” Pritzlaff said. “I didn’t score until the clinch, but I was in control the whole way. In the third period, I did a lot of the same stuff. I had to keep him moving. I set up one shot to drive him out. It was near the end of the period but it was there. I kept hand-fighting and felt him getting tired. In the second and third period, I was controlling all the tie-ups. He was reacting to me.”
84K/185 pounds
It took Andy Hrovat (Overtime WC) just one match to realize it’s not how you start but how you end matches at the World Championships. Unfortunately, the native of Cleveland, Ohio, got to wrestle just one match in his first Worlds experience. He lost a first-round match, 2-2, 5-3 to Vadim Laliev (Armenia), who then lost his next match; ending Hrovat’s chance of competing in the consolation bracket.
Hrovat used a reverse body lock to take two and three-point leads, respectively, in each period, before surrendering the lead to Laliev, who used a takedown and two-point gut-wrench with eight seconds left in the second period for the victory.
“I knew everything I was doing,” Hrovat said. “After I got up 3-0, I wasn’t focused on keeping him from scoring. I messed up. You don’t lose when you have a three-point move. I didn’t stop his offense. If I moved more, he wouldn’t have been able to score on me.”
Hrovat said he was not overwhelmed by his first World Championships.
“For me, every match is the same,” he said. “You go out there and do what you are best at. That is what I tried. I wasn’t good enough to beat him. This isn’t different than any other tournament. You can’t put it on a pedestal.”
96K/211.5 pounds
No one has a bigger nemesis in international wrestling than Daniel Cormier (Gator WC), who saw his chance at winning a World or Olympic medal come to an end for the third time in four years at the hands of Iran’s Alireza Heydari (Iran) who defeated the native of Lafayette, La., 2-0, 0-1, 7-0, in a first round-match.
And since the Iranian, who also eliminated Cormier in the 2003 Worlds (by a 6-3 margin) and the 2004 Olympics (3-2 in overtime), lost his next match to eventual silver medalist Gerge Gogshelidze (Georgia), Cormier’s stay in China was short-lived.
“It kills me,” said Cormier. “I am so disappointed in myself right now. Like coach (Kevin) Jackson says, I have to look ahead. I can cry and be disappointed later. If he pulls me through, I have to get my mind right and be ready to wrestle.”
After losing the first period, Cormier looked like he had the momentum by countering a leg clinch in the second period. But that ended when Heydari caught Cormier in a body lock at the 1:31 mark and ended the bout seven seconds later when he twice put Cormier on his back.
“He shot a single leg,” Cormier said. “Instead of possibly using a baseline defense or giving up the point, I pulled him to my body and went to my back with a minute left. I have to be smarter. I felt good. I made a bad, costly mistake. He was in on a deep waist and arm. He flipped me a few times for the technical fall.”
120K/264.5 pounds
The only thing bigger than the Wall of China for Tolly Thompson (Sunkist Kids WC) in this Far East country was the defense put on him by Iran’s Fardin Masoumi Valadi, who scored three takedowns to none by Thompson in losing his quarterfinal match.
“There’s not much to say,” said Thompson, a 2005 bronze medalist, whose chance at a 2006 medal ended when Valadi lost his semifinal bout to Russia’s Kuramagomed Kuramagomedov. “I wrestled hard. I just didn’t score.”
After receiving a first-round bye, Thompson proved to be the more offensive wrestler in beating Eldar Kurtanidze (Georgia), 3-3, 1-0, 2-0, in a second-round bout.
In that match, Thompson lost the first period when he got pushed out with one second remaining, but came back to score on a pair of pushouts and one takedown in the final two frames.
(The majority of information and quotes for this story were made available by TheMat.com.)