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WRESTLING: 9 from Springs going to Beijing

 LAS VEGAS – Four wrestlers knew they would make the Olympics. Three figured they might get there. Two thought they would have to watch on TV.   Nine Olympic Training Center residents entered the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials with different expectations. All left with tickets for the Beijing Games.   Dremiel Byers, Steve Mocco and Adam Wheeler became the final qualifiers Sunday in the conclusion of the trials, scoring narrow wins in championship series at Thomas & Mack Center.   Byers topped OTC teammate Timothy Taylor in the 264.5-pound Greco-Roman finals; Mocco upset Tommy Rowlands at 264.5 freestyle; and Wheeler stunned Justin Ruiz, also of the OTC, at 211.5 Greco-Roman.   Earning Olympic berths in men’s freestyle were Ben Askren (163), Andy Hroval (185) and Daniel Cormier (211.5). Askren and Cormier were favored. Hroval was a heavy underdog to Mo Lawal, a three-time national champion.   Three of the four women’s freestyle qualifiers crowned Friday are OTC residents – Clarissa Chun (105.5), Marcie Van Dusen (121) and   – Randi Miller (138.75). Other Colorado Springs qualifiers are T.C. Dantzler (163) and Brad Vering (185) in Greco-Roman and Henry Cejudo (121) in men’s freestyle.   Byers, 33, beat Taylor 1-1, 4-0 in their first match, suffered a 0-3, 1-1, 1-1 loss in their second match and won the deciding match 3-0, 5-0 after flipping Taylor in the third period.   “I think my eyes were closed,” Byers said of his clinching takedown.   Mocco, 26, won his first and third matches 1-0, 1-0, rebounding from a 3-0, 1-0 defeat. In the deciding match, he scored thirdperiod points on a leg grab and a forceout.   “I put myself in a position to win,” Mocco said, “and that’s what happened.”   Wheeler, 27, needed three matches to get past Ruiz, claiming a 2-2, 1-1, 1-1 win in the first, then a 1-1, 1-0, 2-0 victory in the third after a 3-0, 4-0 setback. His third match went to sudden death, and Ruiz couldn’t turn him.   “I wasn’t going to quit,” Wheeler said. “I knew I couldn’t stop moving.”   It’s not surprising Byers, Dantzler, Van Dusen and Vering are headed to Beijing, considering their combined three world medals, five Pan American Games medals and 16 national titles.   Cejudo and Miller knocked off 2004 Athens Games silver medalists. Cejudo rallied for a threematch finals win over OTC resident Stephen Abas, and Miller swept Sara Mc-Mann.   Chun shocked OTC resident Patricia Miranda, a 2004 Olympic bronze medalist. She took both matches against Miranda, benefiting from late-period scores in the first and a sudden-death win in the second.   “We’ve got such a closeknit, tight team,” Vering said. “We all work together. It doesn’t matter if we have a coach in the corner. We’re going to be there supporting each other.”

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