June 12, 2008: The Salt Lake Tribune

Local Wrestlers to Take First Steps Toward Olympic Dreams
by Michael C. Lewis

When Taylorsville's Justin Ruiz steps on the wrestling mat at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Las Vegas this weekend, he will be aiming to finally make up for the crushing disappointment of four years ago, when he lost the title match that would have sent him to the 2004 Athens Games.

But he won't be alone.

While the former world bronze medalist and five-time national Greco-Roman champion is the overwhelming favorite in his weight class to qualify for the Beijing Games in China this summer, a quartet of younger Utahns will be taking their first steps toward their own Olympic dreams - dreams that probably won't be realized until 2012, or even 2016, when they could comprise an unprecedented Utah contingent.

"Of course, we're all going out there trying to win," Provo's Nathaniel Holt said. "But realistically, when we get more international experience like all these veterans right now, someday we'll be where they're at."

Holt is the only freestyle wrestler in the group, which also includes Sandy's Talan Knox, Orem's Cheney Haight, and his half-brother Bo Beckman — all Greco-Roman wrestlers like Ruiz.

All of them are competing in the trials for the first time, after growing up together while learning the fundamentals of their sport and aspiring to follow in the footsteps of local wrestling legends such as Cael Sanderson, Rulon Gardner and Mark Fuller. Springville's Jason Chamberlain is not far behind them, either, though he will not be competing at the Olympic Trials.

"It's the golden age of Utah wrestling," said Brian Preece, the Provo High School coach who mentored Holt. "We're in a real high level right now and I think you're going to see a lot of Utah kids really excel at the NCAA and the Olympic levels and on national teams. . . . All of these guys are really, really young. It's just kind of the tip of the iceberg. Bigger things lie ahead."

The unusual crop of potential Olympians had its start at the Treehouse Athletic Club in Draper, where former Olympic wrestler Ivan Ivanov ran a heralded but now-defunct wrestling program that helped propel Ruiz's career, as well. Knox, Haight and Beckman all wrestled in the club, and Holt often attended its camps.  "That club was real big back then," Beckman said.

When Ivanov took a job running the wrestling program at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University, he attracted his former pupils.

Knox, Haight and Beckman are all enrolled in the program - Holt is transferring to Boise State, from Central Michigan - and Knox and Beckman are even suitemates on campus.

"We've developed into pretty good friends," Knox said.

On the mat, it's a different story.

Knox and Haight wrestle in the same weight class, for example, meaning that one of the three-time state prep champions might have to defeat the other to advance this weekend. The wrestlers could meet in the semifinals of the challenge tournament — an exhausting mini-tournament to determine who will meet defending national champion T.C. Dantzler in the best-of-three finals, for the right to wrestle in the Olympics.

"I'm not going to let anybody come through that tournament and claim it," Dantzler said. "Whoever comes through that tournament, it doesn't matter. . . . That's my weight class."

That's brash, but almost certainly true, and the young Utah wrestlers know it.

Although they each vowed not to back down from anybody at the Thomas & Mack Center this weekend, they also acknowledged the reality that wrestling is a sport in which age and experience almost always win out. Just like Ruiz, most wrestlers need years to "claw your way up to the top," as Knox said.

"It's kind of a hard thing to explain," he added, "but it's almost like, through the years, your body develops more of a specific strength for wrestling, kind of developing more like 'old man' strength. . . . It's a combination of that and gradually learning a few more tricks of the trade as you get older."

So maybe some day, the young wrestlers who will compete this weekend will find themselves in the same position as Ruiz, one win away from the Olympics after having dedicated years of his life to his grueling sport.

For now, though, "I have nothing to lose," Beckman said, "just go in there and wrestle my hardest."

Locals at Nationals

• Wrestler Age Hometown/High School Discipline Wt.

• Bo Beckman 19 Orem/Pleasant Grove Greco 145.5

• Cheney Haight 23 Orem/Timpanogos Greco 163

• Nathaniel Holt 20 Provo/Provo Freestyle 145.5

• Talan Knox 20 Sandy/Brighton Greco 163

• Justin Ruiz 28 Taylorsville/Taylorsville Greco 211.5

*All wrestlers except Ruiz compete on Saturday. Ruiz wrestles on Sunday.