Byers in top form to defend his title

Victoria Sun

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 10:12 a.m.

WHAT: 2000 U.S. National Wrestling Championships

WHERE: Las Vegas Convention Center

WHEN: Today and tomorrow

SCHEDULE: Freestyle and Greco-Roman consolations, women's freestyle preliminaries 6 p.m. today; freestyle quarterfinals, Greco-Roman quarterfinals 7 p.m. today.

Freestyle, Greco-Roman, women's freestyle finals and deaf freestyle and awards 6 p.m. Saturday.

TICKETS: Preferred seating $30, general admission $20, students 6-17 $10.

Most of us are fortunate to be born with two working lungs.

For Dremiel Byers, four would be ideal.

Byers is a heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler competing in the U.S. National Wrestling Championships this weekend at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

At stake for all the wrestlers is an opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team trials.

To get ready for this weekend, Byers went all out. Along with the rope climbing, weight lifting and mountain climbing that are part of his usual routine, Byers incorporated one more thing.

"This time of the year, mainly I run more than anything else," he said. "I convinced myself that this year, there's no way I can come out here and walk out onto the mat without believing I've got four lungs to rely upon.

"When it's the sixth or seventh minute of the match, I've got to know that I'm in the best shape and I've got something the other guy doesn't. For me, it's having the four lungs to help me survive longer."

The championships consist of a men's Greco-Roman and freestyle competition and women's freestyle competition. The top eight men's Greco-Roman finishers in each weight class and the top six men's freestyle finishers will make it to the U.S. Olympic Team trials that will be held in Dallas June 22-24. The top eight women's freestyle finishers in each weight class will qualify for the Women's World Team Trials in Battle Creek, Mich., June 2-4.

The first-place finisher in each event has an even greater chance to make the Olympic team because each winner will only have to wrestle the winner of the mini-tournament. To put it simply, the winners that emerge from this weekend will get a bye at the Olympic trials while the rest of the place finishers and qualifiers will have to wrestle against each other for a shot at wrestling this weekend's winner.

"I want to take the stop sign (the medal in the shape of the octagon) and give it to my grandpa in North Carolina," Byers said. "He was ecstatic after I gave him my medal from the Pan Am Games. He means a lot to me; he's my best friend."

Byers, the 1999 U.S. national champion and 1999 Greco-Roman World Team Trials champion, was the silver medalist at the Pan American Games losing to 1992 Olympic champion Hector Millian of Cuba.

He and fellow American Stephen Neal are favored to defend their titles.

Neal, a heavyweight freestyle wrestler, was the 1999 world champion, Pan Am Games champion, NCAA Division I champion (Cal State Bakersfield) and Freestyle World Team Trials champion.

* Virgin Valley's Skyler Woods went 7-0 in the 123-pound class to top local wrestlers in Thursday's junior freestyle championships. Chris Harris, a three-time state champion from Cimarron-Memorial, finished with a 5-2 record at 143 pounds. Another local wrestler, state champion Billy Rosado of Rancho, was 5-2 at 123.