Ramico Blackmon defeats two Olympians on his way to the finals

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Jaimie McNab (USA Wrestling)
02/10/2002


Sunday morning at the Dave Schultz Memorial International wrestling tournament, in an impressive upset during the 74 kg semi-finals, 2001 U.S. Nationals champion Ramico Blackmon (Colorado Springs, Colo./Team Excel) defeated Daniel Igali (Canada) who was the 2000 Olympic champion.     Blackmon struck first in the match with an escape and never lost the lead. The match ended with a decision of four to two.    Blackmon continued his success from earlier in the week when he wrestled in the Little Caesars "Save USC Wrestling" Showdown at USC Massari Arena in Pueblo, Colo. There he faced Sergei Demtchenko of Belarus.  Demtchenko placed fourth at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.      Even with his recent successes Blackmon is humble about his accomplishments. "I know that it is not all me," he says. "Everyone here knows my weaknesses, including me. The power of God is working through me and without that I would not have been able to perform like I have. I am also very excited and looking forward to the final match."    Blackmon is scheduled to compete against Donny Pritzlaff (Madison, Wis./Dave Schultz WC) in the final match. Pritzlaff is coming off of an overtime victory over Casey Cunningham (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) that ended with an eight to five decision. Pritzlaff has won two NCAA titles for Wisconsin. He was also the 2001 Sunkist Kids International Open champion and the 2001 NYAC Open champion.     Blackmon was the 2001 Dave Schultz Memorial champion and named Outstanding Wrestler at the tournament. Blackmon is a US Olympic Training Center resident athlete and will possibly have a home advantage over Pritzlaff with the crowd. His match will be wrestled during the evening session that is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.