BY KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star
For most of the last four years, the Nebraska 197s have painted a small corner of Colorado Springs, Colo., their own shade of Husker red.
Two members of that club ” Brad Vering and Justin Ruiz ” will try to do the same thing about 10,000 miles to the east in Baku, Azerbaijan, when the World Wrestling Championships are held Sept. 17-23.
That, both said, is partially because they have another fellow Husker ” B.J. Padden ” training with them at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
Those three ” all former NCAA qualifiers at 197 pounds (Vering was the 1999 champion) ” are major players in the upper weight classes on the national team.
“Justin and I are real good friends, have been for a long time,” Vering said in a telephone interview last week. “Now, with B.J. out here, we all are close and we push each other to do better. I think it’s paying off for all of us.”
Part of that payoff will be when Vering (84 kilograms/185 pounds) and Ruiz (96 kilograms/211 pounds) will represent the U.S. in the Greco-Roman competition at worlds. It will be the fourth time at the world meet for each, but it will be a sweet homecoming for Vering, who spent most of the last year away from the training center after failing to qualify for the team.
Vering found time to re-evaluate his wrestling career and decided to try a new approach to his regimen.
“I got beat off the team (in a qualifying meet) and that made me realize that I had to change some of the things I was doing. My body was getting beaten down and I can’t handle that anymore,” Vering said.
“I made some changes in my training. I turned 30 a couple weeks ago, and I can’t train like I did in college.”
So, instead of the harder, longer intense practices he’d been used to at Nebraska and in preparations for previous world meets (2002, 2003, 2005) and the 2004 Olympics, Vering, a former world bronze medalist, found that less sometimes is more.
“I’ve started having smarter practices, hoping to get more out of fewer practices,” he said. “Before, I was thinking about volume, now I try to get the quality.”
Part of that quality is having Ruiz and Padden as regular training partners.
“It’s nice to have guys like that, all who wrestled at Nebraska,” Ruiz said. “All three of us wrestle together. We’re all serious competitors and helped each other, passed (knowledge) on to each other.”
That closeness was evident at the 2004 Athens Olympics, when Vering competed and Ruiz didn’t. Vering, however, brought Ruiz along as a training partner.
When Vering failed to make last year’s world championships, Ruiz returned the favor.
Now, Ruiz said, with Vering back on the national team, things seem a little more comfortable.
“It’s great to have him back on the team, because we feed off each other,” Ruiz said. “We kind of have the same routine and we travel together. Plus, I like watching him wrestle, because it gets me pumped up for my matches because he’s been wrestling really great lately.”
The ex-Huskers also know that this meet is an extremely important steppingstone on their career wrestling paths. That’s because the medalists will automatically qualify for the 2008 Olympics in China.
“Things don’t get any easier just because it’s my fourth trip to worlds,” Vering said. “It’s going to be a nasty tournament because everyone will be bringing their ‘A’ game because it’s a qualifier for the Olympics.
“But right now, I’m healthy and I feel 100 percent. It’s the healthiest I’ve felt at this time of the year since the 2004 Olympics. I’ve never been more ready for a tournament, never been more excited for one.”
Having a friend close by can also help when you have to spend a long time in a strange place. Both Vering and Ruiz said the next two weeks probably won’t be as exciting as some people might think.
“There will be lots of down time,” Vering said. “I’ll probably spend most of it with a cup of coffee, trying to cut some weight. But I’ll be enjoying every minute of it. Not too many people from Howells get the chance to do this or travel like I have been able to.”
Reach Karl Vogel at 473-7432 or kvogel@ journalstar.com
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