Dennis Hall and Aaron Sieracki win gold medals at the Petrov Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria

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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
02/02/2004


Sofia, Bulgaria - Dennis Hall (Plover, Wis./Sunkist Kids) and Aaron Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) captured gold medals at the Petrov Tournament on Feb. 1.    Hall, a 1995 World Champion and 1996 Olympic silver medalist, dropped down in weight to 55 kg/121 lbs., his lowest weight since he competed at 57 kg/125.5 lbs. at the 1996 Olympic Games.    Hall defeated Alfred Ter-Mkrtchyan of Germany 5-4 in the gold-medal match. Ter-Mkrtchyan won a World title in 1994 and has won five World medals and competed in three Olympic Games in his career.    Ter-Mkrtchyan defeated Hall in pool competition, 4-0. But Hall defeated 2003 World Cup gold medalist Asset Imanbayev of Kazakhstan in his other pool match to advance to a repecharge round.    Hall then won his next three matches to earn the rematch with Ter-Mkrtchyan, including a 5-3 win over 2003 Junior World champion Nurbakyt Tengizbayev of Kazakhstan in the semifinals.    Sieracki won all five of his matches en route to the gold medal at 84 kg/185 lbs. In the finals, Sieracki downed Kai Dittrich of Germany.    In pool competition, Sieracki did not surrender a single point, pinning Volodkevic Stanislav of Lithuania in just over one minute and defeating Majid Ramezani of Iran, 4-0 in overtime.    Placing fifth in the Petrov Tournament were Americans Jacob Hey (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) at 60 kg/132 lbs. and Steven Woods (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) at 74 kg/163 lbs.    The next U.S. Greco-Roman Winter Tour event will take conclude with the Poland Open in Raciborz, Poland, March 13-14.