I apologize for not posting anything for a long time.  As some of you may already know, my wrestling career has been put on hold indefinitely.  The injury I suffered in Uzbekistan has led many doctors to the same conclusion, which is: no wrestling.  It has taken me some time to post this message because a part of me has not given up on my dreams of going to the Olympics.  I’m not one to sulk about anything and have since directed my time and energy into my job.  I began a full time position as an engineer at Kionix, Inc in August, which allows me to utilize the education i earned.  In addition, I have assumed a coaching role at Cornell and the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club, which keeps me involved.  Although I'm no longer pursuing my Olympic aspirations in wrestling, I'll continue my involvement with wrestling by teaching wrestling camps and offering individual teaching sessions.  Please contact me if you're interested.          

I wrestled well this weekend with 5 wins en route to a first place finish.  It was nice to get some wins under my belt after a disappointing tourney in Russia.  I felt like I stayed in good position this weekend and controlled the tie-up fairly well.  I surprised myself by winning all of my matches in 2 periods.  It was a good weekend of wrestling with wrestlers from Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, China, Korea, Brazil, and Italy.    Clint Wattenberg, my teammate, came away with the gold at 84kg the day before I wrestled.  It was a good showing for the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club and Cornell wrestlers.  This was a good tourney to win, but I definitely can’t relax and need to keep training hard until the U.S Open and World Team Trials.

Well after a long journey I finally returned from Krasnoyarsk (it’s close to the center of Siberia).  I lost my first match at the Ivan Yariguine tournament and since my opponent didn’t make it to the finals I didn’t have a chance to wrestle back.  I won the first period 1-0 and was winning the second 2-0 after a takedown.  I got a little over zealous on top with a leg ride and got into a weird scramble.  My leg got caught and I was pinned for the first time in my life with 10 seconds left in the period.  I can’t say I’m very happy about my performance in Russia, but it was a good experience that’ll motivate me in the future.  The flight over to Russia was tiring and the food wasn’t the greatest, but there are no excuses for my performance.  I don’t have time to sulk about it and need to focus on training hard the rest of this week for the Dave Schultz tournament next weekend.  On a brighter note, I went to the Red Square and St. Basil in Moscow.  Some pictures from Russia are posted below.

It has been a while since my last post in December.  I've been pretty busy traveling and training recently.  I had a nice break at home in Hawaii and got to see my family.  It was a little crazy trying to workout while also trying to relax.  I left home on the 1^st, got back to Ithaca late on the 2^nd and went back to work on the 3^rd.  I was able to work out with Adam Smith and Brad Pataky for a couple days after the Penn State dual on the 7th.  I headed back to the OTC for a training camp on January 10^th.  I worked out 7 times in 4 days and was pretty sore when I left.  I took a day off when I returned to Ithaca and have been training hard since.  I went with the team down to Lehigh for the dual meet yesterday and got back late last night.  I'm excited to leave for Krasnoyarsk on Monday, but a little nervous about the cold weather that awaits me in Siberia.  I weigh-in on the 27^th and wrestle on the 28^th.  I know there will be a lot of good wrestlers out there and am looking forward to the competition.      

I just spent 5 days in Colorado Springs training at the OTC.  I had a good week of training and worked a lot on my technique with Kevin Jackson and Terry Brands (clearing 2 on 1, under hook defense/offense, single leg defense/finishes).  The OTC residents have been conditioning hard for the past few weeks and are on a different schedule.  During my stay I was more focused on improving my technique and tried to get the most out of KJ and Terry.  I also got a chance to review my matches from the NYAC tourney with KJ and figured out what I needed to focus on. 

 My next tournament is the Yariguine International (Krasnoyarsk, Russia) on January 28th.  I’m looking forward to my first trip overseas and getting experience against some of the toughest wrestlers in the world.  I’ll be cross training hard while I’m at home for Christmas and will try to make it back out to the OTC before I leave for Russia. 

 For a while I was contemplating whether or not I should try out for RPW (Real Pro Wrestling), but I decided that I can’t wrestle in RPW with my training schedule, competitions, and work.  I also learned recently that the super-regional qualifier was cancelled.  RPW sounded like a great opportunity, but unfortunately its conflicting schedule is not ideal for those training for the world and Olympic teams.

The NYAC didn’t have quite the turn out I was hoping for, but I still got some good matches in.  I won 3 matches and lost in the finals 1-0, 1-0 to a guy from Japan.  In the quarterfinals I wrestled the Canadian that I faced in the finals of the Clansmen.  I gave up a take down late in the first period and lost 1-0.  I finally started getting going in the second period and got to a leg from the underhook position to score a takedown and win the second period 1-0.  I won the third period 6-0 with a take down, a gut and a crotch lift.  In the semifinals I beat Zach in a very close match.  I lost the first period 3-2 off a single leg attack.  I countered his single leg attack in the second period next to the edge to win 1-0 and countered the move again late in the third period to win as time ran out.  I didn’t wrestle very well in the finals at all.  I didn’t get off to a fast start and gave up two takedowns at the end of both periods.  Besides my finals match I think I wrestled pretty well, but definitely not up to my potential.  I have to start scoring points before I’m in danger of losing a period.  I think it was good for me to get back on the mat and stay injury free this weekend.  There are no tournaments coming up soon, so for now its back to training.