Marano misses weight, moves up in class in Olympic trials

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two-time world champion Kristie Marano unexpectedly didn't make weight Friday and was forced to abandon her No. 1 seeding at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials.

After a few minutes of disappointment, she set out on a different route to the first women's Olympic wrestling competition in Athens.

Marano was about a pound overweight for the 138¾-pound class, thereby making Sara McMann top-seeded at the weight. That allowed McMann to advance directly into Sunday's final against the winner of the two-day challenge tournament that began Friday.

The mini-tournament winner in each of the seven men's freestyle, seven men's Greco-Roman and four women's weights takes on the U.S. national champion Sunday for a trip to Athens.

While McMann gets to rest up, Marano is wrestling up at 158½ pounds, where she was a 10-0 technical fall winner Friday night over Elena Mena. If Marano can win two matches Saturday despite giving up as much as 20 pounds in each match, she will meet two-time world silver medalist Toccara Montgomery on Sunday.

In a sport where even an extra pound or two of muscle can make the difference between winning and losing, Marano doesn't think it's a big deal she suddenly must take on much bigger wrestlers.

"Getting to 63 kilograms (138¾ pounds) is tough for me ... and I feel confident at the (higher) weight," said Marano, who is trained in judo and is one of the most physical women's wrestlers in the world. "I really weigh 150, and I've wrestled big before."

Moving up isn't exactly new to Marano, either.

She lost to McMann in last year's world team trials at 138¾, but went on to become a world champion at 147½ pounds, a weight not competed in the Olympics, after beating Katie Downing in a wrestle-off for the U.S. team berth.

Marano doesn't think it's a disadvantage that she must wrestle while Montgomery sits and waits.

"I'd rather wrestle for two days," she said. "It has its advantages and its disadvantages, but I'm happy to wrestle."

Even if Rulon Gardner and Cael Sanderson, two of the best-known U.S. wrestlers ever, no doubt would prefer to be sitting. Both were beaten in last month's nationals and must wrestle their way to Sunday, though Gardner got a bye Friday and won't take the mat until Saturday morning's challenge tournament semifinals.

Sanderson, the four-time unbeaten NCAA champion from Iowa State, got in nothing more than a brief workout during a 10-0 technical fall victory over Andy Hrovat at 185 pounds. Sanderson, a world silver medalist last year, is looking for a rematch with Lee Fullhart, who upset him 5-2 last month at the national championships in Las Vegas.

Sanderson insisted he won't start thinking about Sunday until he gets through Saturday.

"Of course, that's the goal," he said. "But I've got to win two more matches first."

Gardner, the Greco-Roman super heavyweight who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in any Olympic sport by beating three-time champion Alexander Karelin in Sydney, was forced into the challenge tournament when he lost 3-1 to Dremiel Byers at the U.S. championships.

Byers and Gardner are two of only four U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers to win world championships, yet only one can go to Athens. Gardner followed up his Olympic gold by winning a world title a year later; Byers won in 2002, when Gardner was temporarily shelved after losing a toe to frostbite during a snowmobiling misadventure.

In Friday's biggest upset, two-time world team member T.C. Dantzler tore a left hip muscle and was pinned by No. 10 Mark Rial at 145½ pounds in Greco-Roman. Dantzler dropped down in weight after finishing third at 163 pounds at the national championships, and the loss of weight may have hurt him.

"I knew if I stayed stout with him, I'd be OK," Rial said. "I knew if I stayed solid on the bottom and kept him from lifting me, I could beat him."

There was no upset in Indianapolis for the biggest surprise qualifier in Greco-Roman, 121-pounder Ramie Mohlman. Born with congenital heart disease and out of competitive wrestling for 20 years until resuming his career last year, the 42-year-old Mohlman lost 11-0 in just 35 seconds to Joseph Betterman.