Team USA Blue goes 2-0; Team USA Red loses to Belarus on first day of Kit Carson International Cup

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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
01/28/2005


Fort Carson, Colo. - Team USA Blue scraped out wins against Bulgaria, 14-12, and Belarus, 13-12, even though the flip of the coin did not always go their way at the Kit Carson International Cup of Greco-Roman wrestling on Friday evening.    The Kit Carson International Cup is a Greco-Roman dual tournament that is featuring two U.S. teams along with teams from Belarus and Bulgaria in a round-robin format.    Against Bulgaria, Team USA Blue got off to a quick start as Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) defeated Ivo Angelov, 1-1, 2-1, 1-0, at 55 kg/121 lbs.    Belarus then fought back with two consecutive wins, including an upset at 60 kg/132 lbs., where Nikolai Georgiev defeated two-time Olympian Jim Gruenwald (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), 1-0, 3-0.    The U.S. team racked up some big team points in the next two matches, as Darryl Christian (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) pinned Velin Marinov in the first period at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Keith Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) received a forfeit at 84 kg/185 lbs.    At 96 kg/211.5 lbs., Olympian Kaloian Dinchev defeated Justin Ruiz (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC), 3-0, 0-1, 1-0.    Belarus capped off the dual meet with another upset, as Peter Bogaevski defeated 2002 World Champion Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) with a win at 120 kg/264.5 lbs., 1-0, 1-0.    In many of those matches, at least one period remained scoreless and the two wrestlers went to a clinch to decide the period winner. Many times, as was also the case in the dual against Bulgaria, the U.S. team lost the coin flip and had to score in overtime or be defeated.    Against Bulgaria, Durlacher defeated 2004 University World bronze medalist Aleksei Shaipak, 1-1, 1-0, 1-0, at 55 kg and Gruenwald downed Mikhail Siaminov, 1-0, 4-0, at 60 kg.    Team USA Blue then lost four consecutive matches to trail Bulgaria 12-7 in the team score. Once again, the U.S. lost numerous coin flips in overtime, giving the advantage to the Bulgarian wrestlers.    But Team USA Blue closed out the dual with two straight wins by Ruiz at 96 kg and Byers at 120 kg.    Ruiz defeated 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Vyatcheslav Makarenko, who is wrestling up one weight class for this tournament, 1-0, 1-0.    Byers downed Vladimir Marusov, 0-1, 3-0, 1-0 to give Team USA Blue its second victory of the night.    Team USA Red was not as lucky in its dual, losing its only match of the night to Belarus, 17-9.    In the dual, the U.S. team received wins from Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 60 kg, Harry Lester (Akron, Ohio/USOEC/Sunkist Kids) at 66 kg and Russ Davie (Cleveland, Ohio/New York AC) at 120 kg.    The Kit Carson International Cup will resume on Saturday at 10 a.m. (Mountain Time). Team USA Red will face Bulgaria and Team USA Blue, and Belarus will face Bulgaria as well.