Cooper, Bosch win silver medals, Shillow takes bronze medal at Vaanta Cup in Finland, Dec. 9-10
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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
12/12/2000
Three U.S. wrestlers won medals at the 2000 Vaanta Cup of Greco-Roman in Vaanta, Finland, Dec. 9-10. Capturing silver medals were Marcel Cooper (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marines) at 152 pounds and Ethan Bosch (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 187.25 pounds. Winning a bronze medal was James Shillow (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marines) at 138.75 pounds. Cooper had a 4-1 record in the tournament, including a 2-0 overtime win over Kim-Jussi Nurmela of Finland in the semifinals. He dropped a 2-0 overtime match to Mikhail Ivanchenko of Russia in the gold-medal finals. Bosch won three straight matches to make the finals, including a 7-3 victory over Sergiy Chyzhov of Ukraine. In the gold-medal finals, he was defeated by 1996 Olympic silver medalist Marko Asell of Finland, 6-0. Shillow won his pool competition with two victories, then was defeated in the semifinals by Oleksandr Khvoshev of Ukraine, 10-6. In the bronze-medal match, he stopped Juha Koivunen of Finland, 6-2. Placing fourth in the tournament was Dan Hicks (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marines) at 286 pounds. Hicks was competing up one weight class from his normal 213.75 pounds. In the bronze-medal match, Hicks lost to Ruslan Kostenko of Ukraine, 3-2. The U.S. Marines placed fifth with 14 team points. Russia won the team title, followed by Ukraine, the St. Petersburg, Russia club and Finland. The Marines team was led by U.S. Marine Corps head coach Jay Antonelli of Quantico, Va. A U.S. team, consisting entirely of Ethan Bosch, was tied in ninth in the standings with five points.