Well it was a long trip to Romania. A lot longer than we expected it to be. But when traveling you always plan on having some kind of delay which is all part of it. As we were leaving Washington Dulles on monday evening, we boarded the airplane and started pulling away from the terminal, by this time I was falling asleep and figured by the time I woke up we would be in the air. Well I guessed way wrong, i woke up an hour and a half later and we were sitting in the runway still. I couldn’t believe it, I thought maybe something had gone wrong with the plane or something was being fixied, and then 3 hours later we finally take off. It ended up being we had to wait for a storm to pass through and they wouldn’t let anyone take off yet. So I guess the moral of the story is, go with the flow when you travel no matter what happens because you have no control over those kinds of things that can give you delays in your travel.

So with the little delay out of the states to Frankfurt we ended up missing our connecting flight to Romania, so we had to sit around for a couple hours and hang out. One of the US greco teams ended up showing up, so then at that time we knew we at least had a ride to the hotel when we got to Romania. We finally land in Romania and there is about 15 of us, and we had to pack ourselves into this 15 or so passenger bus, with all of our luggage as well. Being wrestlers as we are, we made it all fit. Our drive was only about 40 miles from the airport to the hotel, so we figured it would be about a 40-45 minute drive or so. Well what else you have to understand is when overseas anything can happen, and it ended up taking 2-2 1/2 hours. I think we ended up driving through neighborhoods, taking back roads, we turned a lot, and even got stopped by a train. So it was quite the experience, and it was pretty hot and the no air conditioning. So I tried to sleep as much as I could on the bus, which was most of the ride. Then after we finally got here and settled in, I went and ate, which was pretty good food, and then we went for a little jog to get the trip out of us.

That was all yesterday. Today we went and worked out this morning at 11am and got a good blow in. The place we worked out in, I think is the arena we will be wrestling in this weekend as well. The arenas back here are not huge by any means, but they have the crowd right there on you, so it will be pretty fun to wrestle in. Hopefully they can pack the place. After that just came back to the hotel and went and walked around a little bit, and walked over to draculas castle. I guess it was Vlad the Impelars castles back in the 15th or 16th century, or something like that. His fathers name was Vlad Dracul (Dracula), and I guess there were stories written back then creating the myth about Dracula. But it was a pretty cool thing to experience and see. There was a church with a lot of paintings on the inside of it telling the story about Jesus, and pictures of all the apostles. It was pretty cool to see something like that still standing, and somewhat good condition. It was also cool to see what it was built out of, which was pretty much stone and rock, with a stone and rock wall built all the way around the palace. But that was our day today and gonna just relax now and eat here in a little bit. Be back soon with some updates.

Sorry I have not been updating lately, been pretty busy with training. A lot has gone on since I last posteed. I won the US Nationals back in April which automatically put me in the finals of the 2011 World Team Trials that were in Oklahoma City, OK back in June. I ended up winning the world team trials which landed me a spot on the 2011 world team. I am very excited to be back on the world team because I feel I can be the world champion this year and have been training hard to do so. Some more exciting news from the world team trials are that 3 NLWC members have made the US World Team, all 3 of us are training in State College, which include myself, Teyon Ware at 66kg (145.5 lbs), and Cael Sanderson at 84kg (185 lbs), who is my current coach and training partner, and who was my college coach at Iowa State. We also have two members of the NLWC who are from Puerto Rico, and they also live and train in State College as well, and they are both representing Peurto Rico at the world championships this year in Istnabul, Turkey. Their names are Franklin Gomez 60kg (132.2 lbs), and Jaimie Espenal 84kg (185 lbs). So it is exciting news for the NLWC having 5 members wrestling in the world championships this year. I am also very excited to be competing with my coach, Cael Sanderson, he made a comeback this year after last competing in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece and bringing home an Olympic Gold medal. So being able to compete alongside with him is an awesome feeling, especially being training partners, it helps us push each other harder in the room and train even harder.

As for training it has been going really well. The focus is the world championships, so a lot of my training has been geared toward that. I am going to wrestle in Romania on August 7 and will be leaving tomorrow, so this is a step towards the World Championships, going to get some matches in and fine tune some things, and also it is good to get out there and compete to see where you are at training wise and what things need to be fixed before the worlds. Everyday of training I have been getting better and been working on things I need to put me on top of the podium in September in Turkey.

I will keep everyone posted on how Romania is going when I get there.

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.

Well the tournament is over in Russia (Yarigin), which is one of the toughest tournaments in the world. It is so tough because of the amount of Russians that are entered in the tournament. For example when you go to the world or olympic championships only one guy from Russia is allowed to wrestle, unless of course there is a Russian wrestling for another country, but in this tournament there are multiple russians in a weight. Supposedly they made a rule limiting the amount of russians into the tournament which would be around 6-8 at each weight, but there were more than double that in each weight class. My weight class (96kg) had 17 russians in it. I like the fact they can enter as many as they want because it makes it sweeter when you beat them. But anyway back to the tourney. We ended up having 6 guys place, One medal in tervel dlagnev, and five 5th place finishes in Brent Metcalf, Jake Herbet, Tommy Rowlands, Les Sigman, and me. We wrestled pretty well but there is always room for improvement and this is just another step to the goal of being an olympic champion. I made the Semis of the tourney and ended up having to default out to the eventual champion. I was confident in myself to win this tournament and was in a groove to do so. But thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and things get in the way. I am dissapointed that I could not finish the tournament but I wrestled pretty well and have made some gains so I guess thats a plus. But my goal everytime I step on the mat is to win and it did not happen this tournament so makes me hungrier for the next competition and makes me want to get better in all positions I can to be ready for every match. It has been a long trip and I am on my way home now which is going to be another long trip. We already had a 5 and a half hour flight from krasnoyarsk (where we wrestled the tournament) to Moscow where we had to then drive to another airport about an hour away and now getting ready to fly to Munich, where I will be separating from the rest of the guys and I then fly into Newark and then to Harrisburg. So it is a long trip and long day but that is how it goes for these things. Thats all for now and ill be back soon. Thanks for you support!

Well sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. Things have been real busy with training and the holidays. But I am back in Russia now getting ready for the Yarigan Tournament. Which is probably the biggest and toughest tournament outside of the world and olympics. It makes it tough because there are multiple russians in each weight class. But we are in Vladikaskav, Russia training right now and I have been able to work out with some world champs, an olympic silver medalist, and other great wrestlers. It is a good experience to be able to get a feel for these guys and something a little different. We have been here for 5 days now and compete at the end of the month. The days are kind of going slow but that is part of the process of getting ready for something like this and being out of your norm. It is fun being able to wrestle some of the best guys in the world to see where I am at. But that is all we have been doing really since we have been here is working out and relaxing. We played basketball today but it is not american basketball, it is more like rugby and basketball mixed. No dribbling and you can tackle and push and throw guys down. We only play to two points because you do not get many decent shots off since someone is always jumping on you. It was different but fun at the same time. Thats all I have for now and I will write as soon as I can get back on the internet since there is no wifi at our dorms we are staying at, I had to come to a cafe with wifi. So be back as soon as I can!

On October 30,2010 was a tragic day. One of my good friends and high school teammates was killed in Afghanistan serving his country. It was not the best news to hear and makes you sick to your stomach when you hear of news like this. Not the best feeling, but it does make you think about something special, and that is “life”. Gives you a whole new perspective of life and what it means. Let me first explain a little about my buddy. His name is Brett Land and was a very talented kid. Him and I grew up not necessarly wrestling together but more like knowing who each other was because we would always see each other at tournaments. His dad and my dad would always chit chat with each other. But back to Brett. He was involved in all kinds of extracurricular activities while growing up and always excelled in the classroom. He was one of those kids who you hear about winning all of those national titles while growing up and thinking to yourself that you wanted to be like that and do the same and wondered how that person got so good. I will explain how he was so good. Brett was a competitor, a competitor at everything he did. Whether it was playing in the band or wrestling, Brett tried his hardest to be the best he could be. Brett lived in Porterville, Ca and in 8th grade decided to go to my high school in Bakersfield, Ca and attended Bakersfield High School. This is where I really got to know Brett. Every time he stepped on the mat Brett came to compete and to win. Now something about Brett he won just about everything when he was little and just about up to high school, so when he got to high school and lost he did not like and figured out how to win. Anyways, Brett went about wrestling like he did life. He gave it his best and left nothing on the table. Brett was never a high school state champion which I know was probably a disappointment for him, but I think that made him work harder each year and made him work harder in life towards what he wanted. Whether Brett was winning or losing a match he never stopped trying and would get back up if losing and try as hard as he could to win because that is what Brett was was a winner and a competitor and whatever happened at the end of a match he accepted because he gave it his best. And thats all you could ask from him because you know he was going to give you his best every time.
Brett was an interesting kid. Brett some times exaggerated some things such as stories or things he was going to buy or get. Which was somewhat humorous because the majority of the time he was being serious and those things actually did happen. When he said he wanted something or wanted to do something he did it. He let nothing hold him back. He was a good kid and gave his best in life. And that in a nutshell is what life means, to give your best.
After hearing about Brett I did not know what to think because I had not talked to Brett since high school, we had both gone separate ways but I would get occasional updates from my family or running into his dad on camping trips. I was more shocked than anything because after getting to know the kid you would think he was indestructible and it just couldn’t happen to someone like that. And right there is when I realized how special life is and to not take it for granted and to give it your best in life. Brett always knew what he wanted, he jumped around a lot from thing to thing trying stuff out. Such as trying college wrestling and then mma and then came to the conclusion he wanted to go into the military and that it would be a good fit for him. He was right in my opinion because in a sense in certain situations he could take matters into his own hands. Brett loved a challenge and would not back down from anything and figured serving his country is where he needed to be and what he needed to be doing and that he could protect his country and do it as best as he could. And thats what he did. He reminded me that if you want something then go out and get it. Nothing is going to be given to you without having to work for it. Life is short and you have to mold your own future. Give your best in life and that is all anyone can ask of you and you will be a happy and successful person. This is what hit me when I heard the news of Brett. A bunch of emotions ran through my head, sad, heartbroken, good memories, and a smile because Brett was a character and I was fortunate enough to have him as a friend and get to know him. He taught me a lot growing up about how to be a competitor and going to get what you want. In the end really think about what life means to you and what you want in life and what your place is in life. For Brett it was serving our country and he will always be remembered. RIP Brett Land you will be missed. Thank you for everything you have taught me and for being a great friend and teammate.

Well we are going on our 5th day in Armenia now. We got in two great workouts the past two days with some live wrestling and matches. Today is Wednesday and we are playing basketball for workout. Curious to see how armenia plays basketball and what their rules are of the game. Should be a fun time. We are 4-5 days out of competition. Daniel Dennis wrestles on Saturday and Trent Paulson, Tervel Dlagnev, and I wrestle Sunday. There are going to be anywhere from 16-20 guys in a weight class, or at least that is what we have been told. Other than that we have just been hanging out mostly. Walking down to the outside market, which has some pretty cool things, and just been hanging out at the hotel. There is only so much you can do in another country without  a car and knowing where you are going. It could be a lot worse but we have a good set up where we are. It is kind of cool too how we have been taken care of. The mayor has two guys that come in and out of our hotel telling us that the mayor told them if we need anything or have a problem to let them know and they will take care of it. So that is pretty sweet and not something you have everyday. The food ha been really good here too which makes the time here better as well. Everything is fresh and they say armenia has the best fruit around. Daniel Dennis can vouch for that he has been trying a bunch of different fruit. Thats all I have for now and will be back with updates later on in the week.

Well the tourney is over and we did not end the tourney how we would have liked. When I go to a tourney and wrestle whether it be a dual tourney or individual one I expect to win. That is the plan everytime I step on the mat and the confidence I have in my team when they step onto the mat. But it did not workout for us this time in Khasavyurt. We ended 6th out of 11 teams. I am disappointed but we will learn from the mistakes made and move forward. There is time to fix these mistakes and better it happen now then later at next years world championships. Everyone gave their best effort but there is always room for improvement in wrestling which is always fun to look at. We are back in Moscow now for the night then Tervel Dlagnev, Trent Paulson, Daniel Dennis, and me are leaving to Armenia in the morning to wrestle on Saturday the 24th. A new tournament and some new faces at this tourney. I am expecting big things from all of us wrestling in Armenia. I think we all can win, it’s just whether each of us wants to get it done on the mat, and I see it happening. I’ll be back with results next time I get internet. I dont know if there will be much internet connection in Armenia, hopefully there is. But we are there to wrestle and bring home some champs.

We made weight today and it ended up being 3 kilo allowance because thats what was advertised all along so FILA could not change it. But weight was easy and I think we wrestle one of Russia’s national teams tomorrow first round at 9am. There are 11 teams in the tournament so hopefully we get 5-6 matches which will be awesome. Everyone is ready to wrestle and looking good. We have a good team here and can win the tournament. Not a whole lot to do here except wait around and hang out, so I am getting ancy to wrestle tomorrow. Ill be back in a few days to give updates.