Durlacher, Sieracki win silver medals and Clark takes a bronze at Haparanda Cup in Sweden

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
12/01/2002


Three U.S. wrestlers claimed medals at the Haparanda Cup of Greco-Roman wrestling in Haparanda, Sweden, Nov. 30-Dec. 1.    Winning silver medals were Lindsay Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./Wildcat WC) at 55 kg/121 lbs. and Aaron Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) at 84 kg/185 lbs. Winning a bronze medal was Jake Clark (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marine Corps)  at 84 kg/185 lbs.    Two U.S. teams participated in the tournament. Placing fifth as a team was the U.S. Marines Corps team with 35 points. Placing sixth as a team was a combined United States team with 31 points. Russia won the team title with 65 points, followed by Ukraine in second with 59 points and Sweden in third with 54 points.    Durlacher had a 4-2 record in the tournament. He lost his only two matches to the same athlete,  veteran Boris Ambartsoumov of Russia, both by technical falls. In the pool competition, Durlacher lost 11-0 and in the gold-medal finals, he lost 10-0.     After losing his opening match, Durlacher strung four straight wins, including two in the repechage wrestlebacks. His 3-0 overtime win Svajunas Adomaitis of Lithuania put Durlacher in the gold-medal match. Durlacher is ranked No. 2 on Greco-Roman Team USA at his weight class.    Sieracki won three straight close matches to qualify for the gold-medal finals, where he was defeated by Andrey Tcherepakhine of Russia, 11-3. He won a tight 2-2 overtime referee's decision over Sergiy Rutenko of Ukraine in the semifinal round, and had a pair of decisions in his pool competition.    Clark had a long road to his bronze medal, earning a 5-2 record in the competition. He was defeated in a four-man pool by Sergiy Rutenko of Ukraine, 3-2, but won his other two pool matches, placing him in a repechage wrestle-back. In the repechage, Clark won both matches to advance to the semifinals.     Clark was beaten in the semifinals by Andrey Tcherepakhine of Russia, 4-2 in overtime. Clark avenged his earlier loss to Rutenko in the bronze-medal match, pinning him in 3:10 to take a medal.     Two U.S. wrestlers just missed winning a medal, placing fourth in their weight class: Steve Woods (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Dan Hicks (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marine Corps) at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. Both won their pools with two wins, but were defeated in the semifinals and bronze-medal matches.    Woods lost his bronze-medal match to Gusejn Zarahov of St. Petersburg, Russia, 5-1. Hicks lost his bronze-medal match to Igor Grabovetchi of Moldova, 3-1.     A total of 10 U.S. wrestlers placed in the top 10 of their weight divisions, and scored team points for their respective club teams. Coaching the U.S. Marines team was Jay Antonelli. Coaching the United States team was Rich Estrella.