Byers wins bronze medal at Hungarian Grand Prix in Szombathely, Hungary
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Josi Carlson (USA Wrestling)
03/07/2005
Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) won the only medal for the United States at the Hungarian Grand Prix Greco-Roman tournament held in Szombathely, Hungary on March 5-6. Byers won the bronze medal at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. He defeated David Vala of Czechoslovakia in the bronze medal match, 5-0, 4-2. Byers' other victories were against Yekta Guel Yilmaz of Turkey and Gyula Branda of Hungary. He lost to Konstantin Striyak of Ukraine, 3-0, 2-0. Striyak went on to the silver medal. Byers was the 2002 World Champion and was second in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) made it to the bronze medal match at 60 kg/132 lbs. but lost to Rustam Sindikov of Russia 1-3, 1-5. Warren defeated Eusebiu Diaconu of Romania and Laszlo Kliment of Hungary and lost to eventual champion Oleksey Vakulenko. Vakulenko was fourth in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Darryl Christian (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) also lost in the bronze medal match at 74 kg/163 lbs. Christian lost to Vladimir Shats of Ukraine 3,0, 3,0. Christian lost to eventual champion Hoon-Duk Choi of Korea, 3-0, 4-0. His victories were against Zac Dominguez (Colorado Springs, Colo./ Sunkist Kids) and Zsolt Dajka of Hungary. The U.S. squad travels to the Poland Open in Walbrzych, Poland, March 12-13.