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Precin, Herbert Ready for U.S. Olympic Team Trials
EVANSTON,
Ill. – Former Northwestern wrestlers Brandon Precin and Jake Herbert
will compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials this weekend in Iowa City,
Iowa, with the hopes of achieving their Olympic dreams. Competition
runs Saturday, April 21-Sunday, April 22 inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Precin (55 kg/121 lbs.) and Herbert’s (84 kg/185 lbs.) freestyle weight
classes will be contested Sunday.
Precin, a three-time NU
All-American at 125 lbs., is one of 14 entrants in the competitive
55kg/121 lbs. weight class that currently features 2011 U.S. World Team
member Nick Simmons, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo and 2012
Pan American Champion Sam Hazewinkel.
“It’s an exciting
time of the year, it’s what I’ve worked for up until this point and I’m
ready to wrestle,” Precin said. “I look back at all the repetitions I
did, all the training I did and I feel that I’m ready. I know what I
want to achieve, so having that training just makes me feel good. There
can’t be any doubts about what you’ve done training-wise, so I’m going
into the trials thinking that I can win it.”
This past
year, Precin has balanced working as a volunteer assistant coach with
the Wildcats while training for the Olympic trials. He qualified for
this weekend’s event by placing second at the 2011 Freestyle Olympic
Trials Qualifier in December. He competed in a number of other
freestyle events throughout the year, finishing runner-up at the 2012
Dave Schultz Memorial International in February and took fifth at the
2011 Dmitry Korkin International in Russia during early October.
“It
would mean a lot to me (to make the Olympic team),” Precin said. “It
would reflect a lot on the efforts of my support staff, the coaches and
athletes here at NU as well as my family and friends. I feel that it
would be, not only me making the team, but that it was a team effort.
Having a group of people behind me is really what has propelled me to
get this far.”
Considered the front-runner at the 84
kg/185 lbs. division, Herbert takes his second shot at the Olympic
trials and is one of 14 expected to wrestle this weekend. A two-time
NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy recipient at Northwestern, Herbert
earned his spot at the trials as a past U.S. World Team member (2010)
and by finishing second at the 2011 World Team Trials. Herbert is one
of the most decorated athletes in the weight class as he won a 2011 Pan
American Championships title, a silver medal at the 2009 World
Championships and three-straight (2009-2011) U.S. Open titles.
Other
contenders in the 84 kg weight class include Keith Gavin (third at 2011
World Team Trials, runner-up to Herbert at 2010 World Team Trials),
Travis Paulson (2010 U.S. World Team) and Jon Reader (2011 Freestyle
Olympic Trials Qualifier champion) among others. Herbert finished
runner-up to Cael Sanderson at the 2011 World Team Trials, but it has
been reported that the Penn State head coach will not compete this
weekend.
While past NU greats seek to make the Olympic
team, a future Wildcat also will wrestle this weekend. NU signee Jason
Tsirtsis has been selected to compete at the prestigious Dream Team
Classic all-star match Friday, at 7 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. This
annual dual pins some of the best high school wrestlers in the country
against the top Iowa high school seniors. Tsirtsis is the No. 1 ranked
wrestler in the country at 145 lbs. and he follows in the footsteps of
Herbert who wrestled at the event in 2003.
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