Knowing how to carry his weight |
| Posted by Administrator on Apr 02 2008 |
Photo by Nicholas Hauder
Graphics by Eric Korth
After winning two national titles and helping his Lopers to their first team title, Tervel Dlagnev looks to make his way to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
By Hannah Hotovy
Antelope Staff
To win a national team title and two individual national titles is a huge accomplishment. But 'huge' isn't enough for heavyweight wrestler, Tervel Dlagnev. The graduating senior may have finished his career at the collegiate level, but he still has some unfinished business.
Coming to UNK as a freshman, Dlagnev already had his eyes set on the gold. Winning a national title was something he had always been striving for.
"That was always my goal. People always are saying to set your goals high and, hopefully, you will reach them. I definitely wanted to win a championship coming into the program here. That was the plan," Dlagnev said.
Dlagnev not only used the wrestling program to become a better athlete, but said that he has gained so much more from the program.
"The relationships that I have made through the wrestling program during my collegiate experience are probably what have meant the most to me. I will never forget these guys," Dlagnev said.
At nationals, the winning of the team title landed on the shoulders of Dlagnev, who had to beat Central Oklahoma's Dustin Finn in the his finals match, which was the last match of the evening. Dlagnev beat Finn, 4-1, allowing the UNK wrestlers to win by a half a point for the team title. Even though Dlagnev was under a lot of pressure to win this final match, he said that he kept his focus.
"I did the same thing that I do for all my matches. Just go out there and wrestle. Don't think too hard about the situation, just on the wrestling. I was just focusing on my performance," Dlagnev said.
Now that Dlagnev has accomplished everything that he could wish for in a collegiate career- two national titles, one team national title, 4-time All-American, a collegiate record of 167-19, which includes an 87-1 record in the last 2 years, and countless other awards and honors- he plans on furthering his academic and athletic careers.
"My plans are to be a graduate assistant, probably at Northern Iowa. I want to keep training, keep learning and keep improving."
Improving is just what Dlagnev needs to accomplish his next wrestling goal, competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Dlagnev plans on wrestling in the U.S. Open, April 24-26, in Las Vegas. The top seven wrestlers from this tournament will qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which will be held June 13-15, again, in Las Vegas. Dlagnev is excited and hopeful about his upcoming wrestling tournaments.
"My expectations are that I definitely want to win both. I haven't learned the strategy of wrestling freestyle as well, though. I want to become a better, well-rounded wrestler, and I can develop myself into a better wrestler by becoming better at freestyle and other styles of wrestling. As much as people like to talk about my going to the Olympics, like, 'Aww, cool! You're going to the Olympics!' it's not that easy. There are a lot of tough guys I have to beat. I guess I'm looking at all of it from a performance perspective rather than from the winning perspective."
The performance perspective seemed to help Dlagnev win his finals match at nationals, and, hopefully, will help him win his way to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
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