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Dennis Hall, a 1995 World Champion and 1996 Olympic Silver Medalist, has been named the new head coach at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan. Hall, a stalwart on the Greco-Roman scene through the 1990s, will lead the Greco-Roman athletes in a post vacated earlier this year by Ivan Ivanov.

For Hall, a Wisconsin native, the journey is two-fold. First is to continue to build world-level Greco-Roman athletes from the USOEC, and the second, to finish his degree.

List to what Hall has to say about his new post.

Minnesota native Chas Betts came out of one of the state’s top high school programs at St. Michael-Albertville, but wrestling at the NCAA level didn’t really come into play. With the formation of the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan, Betts knew what his calling would be — Greco-Roman.

Betts topped T.C. Dantlzer at the World Team Trials to earn a trip to Denmark and his first U.S. World Team. What does Betts believe helped him through the Trials and what does he need to improve on? Find out?

 

 Greco-Roman World Team Member - Chas Betts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

R.C. Johnson was set to head to Augsburg College to wrestle and play football after graduating high school in the Twin Cities. Then, four days before school started, he got some information from Northern Michigan about its fledgling USOEC Greco-Roman program.

In a weight known for World & Olympic medalists like Garrett Lowney, Justin Ruiz and Adam Wheeler, Johnson makes his first World Team and looks to continue the tradition. But Johnson isn’t some dumb jock, the Computer Science major is putting his degree to work for him while working towards a World Championship.

 

 Greco World Team Member - R.C. Johnson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Coming out of high school, Spenser Mango was set to go to Division II Truman State. Then Ivan Ivanov started pestering Mango. Then he started doing it more. Then more. Of course, all this was taking place in Fargo, N.D., at the Junior Nationals. When Ivanov got a chance to show Mango what Northern Michigan had to offer, the career of the St. Louis native changed forever.

What does Mango have in mind to prepare for the 2009 World Championships? How has Greco been most exciting for him? Find out by listening below.

 

 Olympian and 2009 World Teamer - Spenser Mango: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you look around the Division III coaching ranks, there are just a handful of “name” coaches the average wrestling fan can recognize. Coe’s John Oostendorp, Wartburg’s Jim Miller, Augustana’s Eric Juergens and Elmhurst’s Steve Marianetti come to mind.

Now you can add two-time Greco-Roman Olympian Jim Gruenwald to that list. Gruenwald accepted the head coaching position at Division III Wheaton earlier in the week and has realistic, but high expectations of his new program. Gruenwald talked to Wrestling 411 on Wednesday about his role with the new job and where his involvement with the U.S. Greco-Roman program will be.

Photo by Larry Slater

Hello wrestling world,

So we just got back from weigh-ins about an hour and half ago and I’m a good three kilos heavier. We drove from our hotel the Crowne Plaza to the tournament site and checked our weight,

I was .1 kg over and I was not happy at all. So Coach Lewis (Army coach) and I walked to the sauna and I lost the .1 pretty quickly. They started weigh-in a little early about five minutes early which was extremely nice, after we made weight we drew our number from some sticks.

Hi everyone, my name is Nate Engel, I train at the United States Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Mich., and I’m representing the USA at 55kg in Greco-Roman in the Pan American Championships in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

I’m going to try to update you on the trip at least once a day if not more to let you know how the trip and tournament is going.

My trip started at 3 a.m. on Monday morning in Marquette with Spenser Mango, who is wrestling 60kg. The weather was cold and started to snow as we drove the three and half hours to Green Bay, Wisc., to start our long trip to Venezuela.

Video from Thursday’s show with Harry Lester and Chris Pendleton.

Fresh off a championship in Greco-Roman at the U.S. Nationals, Harry Lester joined Wrestling 411 on Thursday to talk about his comeback, the move up in weight and his decision to focus on Greco rather than chase the “glory” of freestyle and NCAA wrestling. Lester, surrounded by friends in Las Vegas, gave wrestling fans a great insight on how his mind works.

Chris Pendleton, assistant coach at Oklahoma State, talks about his career in Stillwater, coaching and the season gone by for the Cowboys. Pendleton provided a spirited commentary on wrestling, his toughest opponents and the best Mexican restaurant in Stillwater.

 

 Harry Lester & Chris Pendleton: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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