CRAIG SESKER / For the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, June 15, 2008 7:00 pm
Former Husker Justin Ruiz lost out on a bid for the Olympics after loosing to Adam Wheeler at the US Olympic trials at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center.
LAS VEGAS — Justin Ruiz worked years for this moment.
He’s wrestled in the World Championships four times, winning a bronze medal in 2005.
The former Husker competed for the U.S. squad that won the Greco-Roman team title at the 2007 World Championships.
But Ruiz’s lifelong dream of wrestling in the Olympics ended in heartbreaking fashion Sunday night at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center.
Adam Wheeler outlasted Ruiz, a two-time All-American at Nebraska, in a tough three-match series to earn a trip to the Beijing Games.
Wheeler won the first match 2-2, 1-1, 1-1 and Ruiz won the second bout 3-0, 4-0. Wheeler then pulled out the decisive third match by a 1-2, 1-1, 2-0 score at 96 kg/211.5 pounds. Wheeler and Ruiz hugged moments after the match as tears streamed down Ruiz’s face.
“It’s hard to put it into words other than I’m disappointed,” Ruiz said. “I’ve trained so hard for this. Tonight, looking back in hindsight, there’s things I could have done here and there but I felt like I was giving it everything I could in the moment.”
Ruiz was the No. 1 seed for the second straight Olympic Trials. But in a repeat of the 2004 Trials, Ruiz placed second. He lost to Olympic bronze medalist Garrett Lowney in 2004.
Wheeler placed second to Ruiz in the 2005 and 2007 U.S. World Team Trials. Wheeler was Ruiz’s training partner last year at the World Championships and they both train together at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“I wasn’t going to quit no matter what,” Wheeler said. “Justin has an awesome gut wrench and he is a great wrestler. I knew I couldn’t stop moving and couldn’t let him turn me.”
Ruiz was hoping to join fellow Husker and close friend Brad Vering on the Olympic Team. Vering qualified in Greco-Roman on Saturday night. Vering wrestles at 84 kg/185 pounds.
NU club coach Les Sigman placed fifth in freestyle Sunday at 120 kg/264.5 pounds. Sigman was a four-time NCAA Division II national champion for Nebraska-Omaha. Tervel Dlagnev went 1-2 in the same class. Dlagnev won two NCAA Division II national titles at Nebraska-Kearney.
Tolly Thompson, a 1995 NCAA champion for Nebraska, may have wrestled the last matches of his career Sunday. Thompson went 1-2 in freestyle at 120 kg/264.5 pounds. Thompson was a two-time U.S. World Team member, earning a bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships.
Thompson was eliminated when he lost to Sigman 3-1, 2-0 in the consolation semifinals.