The United States, which entered three teams, won 11 of 12 dual meets they contested at the Second Annual Kit Carson International Cup of Greco-Roman wrestling held at Fort Carson, Colo., January 27-28. Eight of the matches were held on Saturday morning, after the first four bouts were contested Friday night.

USA Red, which includes all seven members of the 2005 U.S. World team, went 4-0 for the tournament. On Saturday, USA Red opened their day with a 6-1 victory over Uzbekistan. Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) opened the meet with a second-period pin of Sherali Shodmanov of Uzbekistan. 

In a match of international stars, U.S. Olympic team member Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) stopped 2004 Olympic champion Alexandr Dokturishvili of Uzbekistan, 2-1, 3-1 at 85 kg/185 lbs. Dokturishvili is competing up one weight division from where he won his Olympic title.

In their other bout on Saturday, USA Red defeated Bulgaria, 5-2. Scoring a fall at 66 kg/145. lbs. was Harry Lester, Akron, Ohio (USOEC/Gator WC) who put away Rawshan Ruzikulov of Uzbekistan in 1:49. At 60 kg/132 lbs., Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) scored a five-point throw in both periods to defeat Emil Milev, 5-0, 6-0.

Four members of USA Red won all four of their bouts during the Kit Carson Cup: Lester, Vering, T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and 2002 World champion Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs.

USA White defeated Uzbekistan  4-3, winning two bouts by forfeit. After losing the first two bouts, U.S. wrestlers Mark Rial (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. and Jess Hargrave (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 74 kg/163 lbs. Rial stopped Valijon Jonhurozov of Uzbekistan, 6-0, 2-0, with a five-point throw in the opening period. Hargrave secured a second-period disqualification over Jakhongir Muminov of Uzbekistan.

In their second dual meet, USA White edged Japan, 4-3, coming from behind the entire match. A key win for USA White occurred at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., where 2004 Olympian Oscar Wood (Fountain, Colo./U.S. Army) needed all three periods to defeat Noritomo Eto of Japna, 4-0, 1-3, 3-2.

Trailing 3-2 as a team going into the last two bouts, USA White secured wins by R.C. Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids)  at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. and Jalmar Sjoberg of Sweden (who was on the USA White Team) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. Johnson beat  Ryuji Yamaguchi of Japan, 1-2, 6-0, 3-0 and Sjoberg stopped Tetsuya Shato of Japan, 5-0, 4-0 

USA White made it three wins on Saturday, with a 5-2 decision over the Czech Republic. One of the big wins for USA White came at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., when Rial stopped 2005 World bronze medalist Petr Svehla of the Czech Republic, 2-0, 1-1, 1-1. The U.S. clinched the win with victories at 84 kg/185 lbs. from Sasa Petkovic (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and Al Sankey (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 96 kg/211.5 lbs., both by disqualification.

USA Blue won its opening bout of the day, stopping Japan 4-3. Japan held a 3-1 lead in the dual meet, but USA Blue won the final three matches to take the meet. Brad Ahearn (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) won at 84 kg/185 lbs., followed by a victory by Adam Wheeler (Lancaster, Calif./USOEC/Gator WC) at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. 

The dual meet was tied at 3-3, and went to the heavyweight match. Russ Davie (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) scored a five-point throw in each of the first two periods to end the match against Tetsuya Shato of Japan, 6-0, 5-0, giving USA Blue the team victory.

Davie also won the deciding match in the next dual meet, when USA Blue edged Bulgaria, 4-3.  With the dual meet knotted at three wins apiece, Davie stopped Todir Mihov of Bulgaria, 4-2, 7-0 at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. 

Other winners for USA Blue against Bulgaria were Joe Betterman (Chicago, Ill./USOEC/New York AC) at 55 kg/121 lbs., Glen Garrison, Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Army) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. and Jess Hargrave, Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Army) at 74 kg/163 lbs. Betterman scored a first-period pin in 1:34 over Venelin Venkov of Bulgaria.

In its third dual meet of the day, USA Blue lost the only match for the United States, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Czech Republic. As with the other matches on Saturday, the dual meet was decided in the final weight class, 120 kg/264.5 lbs. This time, however, Davie was defeated in the deciding matchup, falling to David Vala of the Czech Republic, 3-0, 1-1.

Winning bouts for USA Blue in the dual meet against the Czech Republic were Betterman, Hargrave and Wheeler.

Team and individual awards are not presented in this event. All of these teams and athletes will be participating in the Dave Schultz Memorial International in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 2-3.

See the international page of the Results Section of TheMat.com for complete summaries of each dual meet.