Having defended his U20 freestyle title at the U.S. Open Wrestling Championships, Teays Valley graduate Camden McDanel has his sights set on higher goals.
McDanel repeated as champion at 97 kilograms (213.848 pounds), going 4-0 in the event held Wednesday-Sunday in Las Vegas. He beat Penn State recruit Cole Mirasola 5-1 in the final Saturday night.
McDanel, who outscored his opponents 39-2, earned a bye into the best-of-three finals of the U20 World Team Trials for the second consecutive year. The event is May 31-June 2 at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, about 50 miles northeast of Cleveland.
“The same thing happened last year,” McDanel said. “I won (in Las Vegas) and then had a bye into the finals. It’s super helpful. It worked out for me last year, so why not do it again?”
McDanel secured a spot on the world team a year ago by winning the title in Geneva. He went on to earn a bronze medal in the World Freestyle Championships in Amman, Jordan .
This year’s world championships are Sept. 2-8 in Pontevedra, Spain.
“Winning this U.S. Open again was really great and I love the opportunity to compete with other good wrestlers, but where my mind is at is making another world team because I really want to get the gold medal,” McDanel said. “That’s where my mindset has been all year and will be until September. I want to give it all I’ve got, and I think I have a really good shot this year. I’ve been training super hard.”
The win in Las Vegas also earned McDanel the opportunity to compete in the Pan-American Games, which are July 11-13 in Lima, Peru. He won the U20 title at the event last year .
McDanel, a 2023 Teays Valley graduate, took a gap year before starting his college wrestling career at Nebraska so he could train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is now training at Nebraska and said he will begin classes in June.
“It’s a really great program for especially younger kids to spend a year with (world) senior wrestlers who are top-level guys (to) learn their lifestyle and learn how they work out,” McDanel said. “It’s been a long year, but it’s been a really great year. I learned a lot from it.”
McDanel finished second in the last-chance Olympic trials qualifier held April 6 and 7 in Fairfax, Virginia, falling shy of earning a berth.
In high school, he won the Division I state title at 190 as a senior.
“We’re so proud of him,” Teays Valley coach Todd Nace said. “He’s doing his thing. He’s worked really hard this year at the Olympic Training Center and got a lot of good coaching and had a lot of good (wrestling) partners come in there at the senior level.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Teays Valley graduate Camden McDanel defends title at U.S. Open Wrestling Championships
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