Two international wrestling stars, Greco-Roman wrestler Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and women's freestyle wrestler Kristie Marano (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) have been named as finalists for the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award. The AAU has announced the 11 finalists for the James E. Sullivan Award, given each year to the nation's top amateur athletes. Ballots for the 78th Sullivan Award are being to AAU officials, U.S. Olympic Committee members, college sports information directors and others. Fans can cast their ballot at sports.usatoday.com or on their mobile phones. The fan votes count one-third toward the final tally. Voting ends March 10. The winner for athletic excellence in 2007 will be announced on April 1. Fans are encouraged to vote online at: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2008-02-21-sullivan-award_N.htm To vote by mobile, send a text message to 44636 for the athlete listed below of your choice. You can only vote once; multiple votes will not be counted. Standard carrier text message rates apply. Text AAUVOTE6 to 44636 to vote for Kristie Marano Text AAUVOTE11 to 44636 to vote for Brad Vering The other James E. Sullivan Award finalists are: Brian Duncan (football), Tim Tebow (football), Jeff Lerg (ice hockey), Robert Pillow IV (basketball), Philippa Raschker (track and field), Angela Tincher (softball), Jonathan Horton (gymnastics), Thomas Finchum (diving) and Jamie Lovemark (golf). Both Vering and Marano won silver medals for the United States at the 2007 World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Both are considered top hopefuls for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for wrestling. Vering won a World silver medal at 84 kg/185 lbs. in Greco-Roman wrestling at the World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in September. It was the top performance by a U.S. wrestler at the competition. At the World Championships, Vering opened the tournament with a victory over Nikola Kinezvic of Montenegro, 7-0, 6-0, then defeated Bolat Abdullayev of Ukraine, 4-0, 4-0. In the third round, he beat Jan Fischer of Germany, 3-0, 4-0, then stopped Saman Tahmasebi of Iran, 2-1, 0-3, 2-1 in the quarterfinals. In dramatic fashion, Vering pinned Korea's Jung-Sub Kim in the semifinals in the second period, 3-0, 1:59. In the championship round, he dropped a 4-0, 4-0 finals match to 2004 Olympic champion Aleksey Mishin of Russia. He was a member of the historic 2007 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team, which won the World Team Title for the first time ever. The USA defeated Russia by one point in the team standings at the World Championships. Vering won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in July, the major multi-sport event held every four years. He was one of three U.S. champions in Greco-Roman wrestling. He defeated Eddy Bartolozzy of Venezuela in the finals. He won the title at the U.S. World Team Trials in Las Vegas, Nev. in June. It was his fourth career victory at the World Team Trials. He defeated 2006 U.S. World Team member Jake Clark of the U.S. Marines in the finals series in two straight matches. Vering also won the title at the U.S. Nationals championships in Las Vegas, Nev. in April. He pinned Justin Millard of the U.S. Air Force in the finals match. Vering claimed a gold medal at the Pan American Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador in May. This was the qualifying event for the 2007 Pan American Games. He won the gold medals at three other international events, the Dave Schultz Memorial International in Colorado Springs, Colo. in February, the Gedz Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia in March and the Vantaa Cup in Vaanta, Finland in November. He also added a bronze medal at the Ion Cornianu Memorial Tournament in Brasov, Romania in August. He was named USOC Male Wrestler of the Year for 2007. Vering, 30, is a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete. He was a 2000 NCAA Div. I champion and three-time All-American at the Univ. of Nebraska. A native of Howells, Neb., Vering was a three-time Nebraska state high school champion. Marano was a World silver medalist at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. in women's freestyle wrestling at the World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in September. It was the top performance by a U.S. wrestler at the competition. At the World Championships, Marano won three straight matches to qualify for the finals. She defeated Agnieska Wieczczek of Poland, 3-0, 1-0, then pinned Maider Under of Spain in the second match, 1-0, 1-6, 1:13. In the semifinals, she pinned 2004 Olympic silver medalist Guzel Manurova of Russia in 49 seconds. In the gold-medal match, Marano dropped a 3-0, 3-0 decision to 2006 World champion Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria. Marano tied a U.S. record for all three styles by winning her ninth World medal. Amazingly, she's won a medal in all nine trips to the Worlds, going nine-for-nine in her career. She tied men's freestyle superstar Bruce Baumgartner with nine World medals. She won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in July, the major multi-sport event held every four years. Marano was one of two U.S. champions in women's freestyle wrestling. She pinned Canada's Ohenewa Akuffo in the gold medal finals in the first period. Marano won the title at the U.S. World Team Trials in Las Vegas, Nev. in June. It was her seventh career victory at the World Team Trials. She defeated Stephany Lee of the Sunkist Kids in the finals series in two straight matches. She also won the title at the U.S. Nationals championships in Las Vegas, Nev. in April. It was her ninth career U.S. Nationals gold medal, tieing her for second in history among U.S. women wrestlers. She pinned 2005 World champion Iris Smith of the U.S. Army in the finals. She also won a silver medal at the Warsaw Cup in Warsaw, Poland in August. Her only loss was to 2006 World champion Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria. She was named USOC Female Wrestler of the Year for 2007. Marano, 29, is a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete. She is originally from Albany, N.Y., where she competed on the wrestling team at Colonie Central High School. Three wrestlers have previously won the AAU James Sullivan Award, all who have been both World and Olympic champions: John Smith in 1990, Bruce Baumgartner in 1995 and Rulon Gardner in 2000. Below is the list of past wrestlers who have been finalists for this prestigious award: James E. Sullivan Award Finalists 1945 - M. Allen Northrup 1946 - Douglas Lee 1946 - Henry Wittenberg 1948 - Henry Wittenberg 1957 - Doug Blubaugh 1959 - Terry McCann 1966 - Larry Kristoff 1967 - Larry Kristoff 1970 - Wayne Wells 1971 - Dan Gable 1972 - Dan Gable 1973 - Lloyd Keaser 1975 - Lloyd Keaser 1976 - John Peterson 1977 - Stan Dziedzic 1978 - Lee Kemp 1979 - Lee Kemp 1980 - Ben Peterson 1981 - Chris Campbell 1982- Greg Gibson 1984 - Steve Fraser 1985 - Mike Houck 1986 - Bruce Baumgartner 1987 - Mark Schultz, John Smith 1988 - John Smith 1989 - John Smith * 1990 - John Smith 1992 - Bruce Baumgartner 1993 - Bruce Baumgartner 1994 - Bruce Baumgartner * 1995 - Bruce Baumgartner 1997 - Les Gutches 1998 - Sammie Henson 1999 - Stephen Neal * 2000 - Rulon Gardner 2002 - Cael Sanderson 2004 - Cael Sanderson 2006 - Bill Zadick, Joe Warren 2007 - Brad Vering, Kristie Marano * = Sullivan Award winner