PENDLETON — Whenever he steps onto the wrestling mat, it’s time well spent, especially in the off-season, Tremor Bynum said.
Bynum, a senior wrestler at Pendleton Heights, and several of his teammates are putting in some serious off-season work, preparing for the upcoming season.
The wrestling program will send two groups on different journeys this summer.
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One group — Team Awesome — is going to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Saturday, June 23, through Sunday, July 1, to wrestle at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
The other group, composed of four Pendleton Heights wrestlers who qualified for national competition, is going to Fargo, North Dakota, Saturday, July 14, through Friday, July 20, to compete with the Indiana Team at the U.S. Marine Corps Cadet and Junior USA Nationals.
The USA Nationals is one of the largest and most prestigious wrestling tournaments conducted in the United States, an honor earned by only 17 wrestlers from each state, officials said.
Many college coaches will be at the event looking for recruits.
Bynum, who made it to the IHSAA state wrestling tournament as a junior, will be going on both trips.
Bynum, who has taken the Colorado trip before, said he’s looking forward to the upcoming workouts and competition, particularly nationals.
“I don’t want to wish my summer away, but I’m ready for it,” Bynum said. “It’s a really big deal.”
At nationals, wrestlers will be taking part in a form of freestyle and Greco wrestling, called Freco wrestling, which is different from the high school form of folkstyle wrestling.
The rules are harder and the style is different, but that’s what Bynum likes about the opportunity.
“It’s a lot more fun and more relaxed,” Bynum said. “But, it’s also harder in some ways.”
Dave Cloud, Pendleton Heights wrestling head coach, said he couldn’t be more proud of the four wrestlers — Bynum (195 pounds), Jesse Johns (170 pounds), and Conner Poe and Jarod Miller (both 160 pounds) — who went through rigorous qualifying tournaments and have earned the opportunity to represent their school, community and state at nationals.
“It is an amazing experience, and the kids are never the same after they return,” Cloud said.
The national competition allows wrestlers to see what the best in the nation look like and how they train, drill and wrestle.
“We always want the kids to make the trip and see it for themselves,” Cloud said. “We always hope for an All-American, but if they come back with new training habits and a sense of what it takes to get the highest level, then the trip was worth the effort and expense.”
Katie Kriebel, assistant wrestling coach, is taking the larger group to Colorado on Saturday.
The 10-member Team Awesome includes Pendleton Heights wrestlers Derek Sikorski, Zach Sanford, Jacob Fiew, Caleb Gibson, Jace Longere, Clayton Todd, Cade Campbell, Elijah Bauer, Jarod Miller and Bynum.
They, too, will be working on Freco wrestling skills. While Kriebel likes the off-season summer workouts because of the more relaxed atmosphere, it’s also good to see so many wrestlers take the trip seriously, she said.
“Even our easy days are kind of hard,” Kriebel said. “That’s just kind of a wrestling thing.”
The group going to Colorado will train against a couple of different groups, including national girls qualifiers and Team Colorado wrestlers getting ready for the nationals in Fargo.
No matter the kind of success the wrestlers have on their trips, the experience of competing in a different atmosphere against different wrestlers helps them grow, Kriebel said.
“It gives wrestlers a better perspective when they come back to the regular wrestling season,” Kriebel said. “They just get a certain composure about them, and you can tell they’ve been to a different level.”
