Vering Falls Short of Olympic Medal Hopes

Lincoln-Former Husker wrestler Brad Vering went 1-1 for an early exit from Olympic competition after losing his second match of the day in the final 10 seconds on Thursday in Beijing.

 

Wrestling in the 84 kilogram (185 pound) Greco-Roman division, Vering defeated Poland’s Artur Michalkiewicz 3-1, 1-1 in the opening round at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium.

 

Vering faced Armenia’s Denis Forov in the second round and lost the first set 4-0, but rebounded to tie the match with a 2-1 win in the second set. Vering was in a position to advance late in the final set, but Forov scored a turn in the final 10 seconds to take the win, 3-0.

 

Vering’s chances of wrestling in the consolation bracket ended when Forov lost in the next round to Sweden’s Ara Abrahamian. This was Vering’s second appearance at the Olympics, as he also wrestled for the U.S. in 2004 in Athens, Greece.

 

A native of Howells, Neb., Vering became the seventh national champion in Husker history when he defeated Iowa State’s Zack Thompson in a tiebreaker, 2-1, in the finals of the 197-pound bracket in 2000. He is fourth all-time on Nebraska’s career win chart with a 124-26 mark from 1997 to 2001. Vering was a three-time All-American and won the Big 12 Championship twice in his career.