John Fuller/USA Wrestling
Minsk, Belarus – 2004 Olympian Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and 2003 U.S. World Team member Justin Ruiz (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) won gold medals at the O.Karavaev Memorial International over the weekend.
Also winning medals for the U.S. were bronze medalists Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 55 kg/121 lbs., Glenn Garrison (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. and Russ Davie (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs.
Vering won five matches on his way to the gold medal at 84 kg/185 lbs. He only surrendered three points throughout those five matches. All three of those points came as he lost the first period to Pavel Bashlakov of Belarus in the gold medal bout.
But Vering rallied back to win the next two periods, 1-0, 2-0.
Ruiz battled through a highly competitive bracket at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. for the gold medal.
In the first round, Ruiz defeated 2004 World University champion Denis Shakaya of Russia, 0-3, 3-0, 1-0. After a quarterfinal win over Yuriy Matushek of the Czech Republic, 3-0, 2-0, Ruiz defeated 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Viacheslav Makarenko of Belarus, 3-0, 3-0, in the semifinals.
In the gold medal match, Ruiz downed Valdas Sidlauskas of Lithuania, who placed fourth in the 2004 European Championships. Ruiz won the match in two periods, 3-0, 1-0.
Durlacher won two of three matches, defeating 1997 Junior World silver medalist Alexander Ogorodnik of Ukraine, 0-1, 1-0, 2-0 in the first round before losing to 2004 European Junior bronze medalist Viugar Ragimov of Ukraine, 0-3, 0-3. For the bronze medal, Durlacher defeated Dmitriy Alenskiy of Belarus.
Garrison defeated 2000 Olympian and 2004 European silver medalist Vitaly Zhuk of Belarus, 1-0, 0-3, 1-0 in the bronze-medal match. He also defeated Vadim Burkrey of Belarus, 3-3, 2-0, 1-0, and Eduard Aplevich of Belarus, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0.
Davie gained revenge for his U.S. Nationals loss in the bronze medal bout, defeating 2002 World champion Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army), 1-0, 1-0.
Byers placed fifth overall.
Keith Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) placed eighth at 84 kg/185 lbs.
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