The 2nd annual Kit Carson International Cup of Greco-Roman wrestling began with four dual meets at the Special Events Center at Fort Carson, Colo., Jan. 27-28. Teams from the United States won all four dual meets contested during the first night. 

The tournament features Greco-Roman National Teams from Japan, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic competing against three United States teams in dual meet competition.

USA Team Red, which features all seven members of the 2005 U.S. World Team, won two matches during the session.

In the first session, USA Team Red stopped Japan, 6-1. Japan won the opening bout at 55 kg/121 lbs., then USA Team Red reeled off six straight wins to capture the dual meet handily.

One of the dominant wins for the United States came at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., where Harry Lester (Akron, Ohio/USOEC/Gator WC) dominated  Noritomo Eto (Japan), 6-0, 5-0. Lester won the first period by technical fall, the captured the second period on a five-point throw.

Another U.S. match ended with a spectacular throw during the dual meet, when Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) ended his bout against Tetsuya Shato of Japan, with a five-point throw in the second period, to win the match 3-0, 5-0.

Team USA Red continued to wrestle well in its second dual meet, a dominant 7-0 victory over the Czech Republic.

At 66 kg/145.5 lbs., Harry Lester (Akron, Ohio/USOEC/Gator WC) defeated 2005 World bronze medalist Petr Svehla of the Czech Republic, 4-3, 4-2.

Two U.S. wrestlers won by pin in the dual meet, Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 60 kg/132 lbs. and 2002 World champion Dremiel Byers, (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs.

Warren pinned  Jan Hocko of Czech Republic at the  1:41 mark of the second period, while Byers pinned David Vala of the Czech Republic 47 seconds into the second period.

At 84 kg/185 lbs. 2004 Olympian Brad Vering, (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) had technical falls in both periods, stopping Bohumil Domkar of the Czech Republic, 6-0, 6-0. Also winning with two periods with technical falls was Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) who beat Michal Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-0, 7-1 at 55 kg/121 lbs.

Two other U.S. all-star teams competed in the first evening, and both won their bouts.

USA Team White scored a solid 5-2 victory over Bulgaria. The U.S. team won the first four matches of the dual meet to clinch the team victory. The first four winners were all members of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, which is based at Fort Carson: 
Jermaine Hodge at 55 kg/121 lbs., Josh Habeck at 60kg/132 lbs., Marcel Cooper at 66 kg/145.5 lbs.and Brandon McNab at 74 kg/163 lbs.

USA Team Blue wrestled well in a 5-2 win over Uzbekistan. Two early victories got Team Blue to a strong start, with win by Joe Betterman (Chicago, Ill./USOEC/New York AC) at 55 kg/121 lbs. and  Glen Garrison (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. 

Betterman beat Sherali Shodmanov of Uzbekistan, 3-0, 6-4 and Garrison stopped Valijon Jonhurozov of Uzbekistan, 4-1, 3-0. Team USA Blue never trailed after Garrison's win.

Scoring a win for Uzbekistan was 2004 Olympic champion Alexandr Dokturishivili, who moved up a division but won his match over Brad Ahearn (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) by disqualification at 84 kg/185 lbs.

Three more sessions of dual meet action will be held on Saturday morning. 

The Kit Carson International Cup was created last year by Shon Lewis, who serves as the head coach of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program wrestling team at Fort Carson.  The tournament was formed to bring top international competition to wrestlers in the United States.

For results, visit the International page within the results section.