Warren, Byers win gold medals as USA places second at Poland Open

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
03/13/2005


Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) won individual gold medals, leading the United States to a second place team finish at the Poland Open of Greco-Roman wrestling, held in Walbrzych, Poland, March 12-13.    Warren captured the 60 kg/132 lbs. division, winning six matches on the way to the title. In the gold-medal finals, Warren stopped Kim Soon Min of Korea.    Four of the six opponents Warren defeated were from Korea. He opened with a win  over Mihael Seminov of Belarus, then beat Lucjan Kwit of Poland. His following four wins were against Koreans Kang Kyung Il, Kwack Hyun Young, Kim Geon Hwoi and then Kim Soon Min in the finals.    Warren was second at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in his weight division.    Byers, a 2002 World champion, scored four wins on his way to the title at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. He stopped Marek Mikulski of Poland in the gold-medal match.     Byers opened with a win over Lee Choong Jim of Korea, then defeated Fatih Bakir of Turkey. In the semifinals, Byers defeated Nico Schmidt of Germany.    Byers was second at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. In addition to his 2002 World title, Byers was also sixth in the 1999 World Championships.    Justin Ruiz (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) claimed a silver medal at 96 kg/211.5 pounds. Ruiz won his first four matches to qualify for the gold-medal round, where he was defeated by Roman Meduna of Slovakia.    Ruiz opened with a victories over Zaur Nuriv of Moldova and Csaba Farkas of Slovakia. In the quarterfinals, he defeated two-time Olympic champion Hamza Yerlikaya of Turkey, then stopped Minduagus Ezerskis of Lithuania in the semifinals.    Ruiz was second in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. He competed at both the 1999 World Championships and the 1999 Pan American Games for the United States.    Two U.S. wrestlers placed fifth after losing in bronze-medal matches:  2004 Olympian Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 84 kg/185 lbs. and Russ Davie (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs.    Vering won his first three matches, including wins over former World champion Marko Yli Hannuksela of Finland, and veteran star Viacheslav Makaranka of Belarus. In the semifinals, Vering lost to Kim Jung Sub of Korea. In the bronze-medal match, Vering was defeated by Bae Man Ku of Korea.    Davie opened with a loss to Poland's Marek Mikulski. In his first repechage match, Davie defeated Stinjo Hirokazu of Japan. In a bronze-medal match, Davie was defeated by Sergei Pavlov of Ukraine.    Korea won the team title, followed by the United States, Japan, Lithuania and the WKS SLASK club of Warsau, Poland. There were 33 teams entered in the tournament from 18 different nations.