Got all weighed in today and just relaxing before the match tomorrow. This will be a fun and exciting match and event to wrestle in because it is in New York City in Times Square on a raised platform stage. This is the first ever athletic event that will be displayed in Times Square. An event like this is special for wrestling because this does not happen everyday to be able to wrestle in such an atmosphere and especially outside, and it will also catch the eye of people who have never watched a wrestling match let alone know anything about wrestling. With all the people in NYC, it will catch their attention to even stop by and see whats going on, and chances are they will watch the whole dual. People have not seen anything like this in the United States and it should bring good media and attention to the sport of wrestling, especially with all the programs being dropped now. So with something like this event happening, it boosts the sport and should help bring it to a bigger stage. Anyways back to the match and how you prepare for a match like this. You train for this match just as you would any other, but being a month out from trials as well you have to make sure you stay on the right track with your training cycle. A match like this is big but at the same time it is just another step towards your goal so you have to learn from it as well just like any other match. This match is against some of the best in the world so it is good to test yourself as you would in any other match to see how your training is paying off and what areas you need to or still need to work on. This match is preparation for the world team trials even though it is just one match, you stick to your same training plan as if you were training for the trials. These matches are fun to wrestle in because they are very competitive and you have to work for what you want and that is a win. Obviously it is not all about winning and losing as long as you are learning and giving it your best effort, but with a match like this it’s always good to walk away with a win being on your home turf! But the learning experience and best effort is most important. But I know everytime I step on the mat I wrestle hard and to win and that is what I am going to do tomorrow. I am going out there with my plan and my style and will enforce it on the guy and wrestle my match, and that is how you go into a match like this, just as you would any other match. When you step on the mat its go time and a time for you to show off a little of the skills you have. This event will be playing live online at 6pm eastern time and will be a great event for everyone to watch!!

Hey sorry I have not been on in awhile, just been busy healing up from an injury from January, been training, the US Open, and now getting ready for the Beat The Streets dual against Russia in a few days, and getting ready for trials. But a little of what has been going on. In January I wrestled in the Yarigin tournament in Russia, which is probably the biggest tournament outside of the world and olympic championships, due to the amount of russians in each weight. I was wrestling really well in the tournament and was looking to win the tournament, I reached the semis and about 40 seconds into the match I got injured and had to injury default out of the tournament down to 5th. This was not a good feeling because I trained hard for this tournament and was wrestling really well, but things happen in wrestling and now I am all healed up. I ended up wrestling in the Northeast Regional, mostly to get some matches in since I had not wrestled since being hurt, I wrestled up a weight and had two matches and won.The next tournament was the US Open which was in April in Cleveland, Ohio. I was really excited to wrestle in this tournament because it is a fun tournament to wrestle in and it felt good to get back out in competition and compete in front of fans. I won 4 matches in route to winning the US Open. I felt like I wrestled pretty well, but you can always get better in wrestling even when you win. Since then I have been getting ready for trials, and will be wrestling in this dual meet against the russians on Mat 5th. This will be a fun match to wrestle because it is on home turf and we are wrestling the Russians. I will be wrestling the guy I was wrestling in the Yarigin semis when I got hurt. So for me its a good chance to go out there and finish what I started. This will be a fun dual because you wrestle an american pretty much everyday and when you get a chance to wrestle a foreigner, especially a russian, you get to test yourself and go out there and wrestle hard. After this dual I will be going back to State College and preparing for the trials in June. Other than that, that is what I have been up to the past few months.