Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Ex-Waynesburg wrestler to train in Europe

Bonaventura
Former Waynesburg University wrestler Anthony Bonaventura left today to take part in the D3wrestle.com Cultural Exchange program. The event, which is coordinated Tim Fader, the head wrestling coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater, will take a group of Division III wrestlers through Istanbul, Turkey; Bucharest, Romania; Paris, France and throughout Bulgaria, before returning to the United States June 9.
Bonaventura was the runner-up at 174 pounds at the NCAA Division III Championships this year.
“I heard about the event through D3wrestle.com,” Bonaventura said. “While I was training at the Naval Academy, I became close with some guys from Wisconsin Whitewater and my father talked with their head coach about my desire to continue competing as a wrestler.”
During the trip, Bonaventura and the other American wrestlers will go to each country’s Olympic training center. Following training, they wrestle in tournament-style competition.
“I was super excited to hear that I was going on the trip. I’ve never been out of North America,” Bonaventura said “It’s an expensive trip, but my parents are paying my way as a graduation present. I am interested to see how some of these countries are staying head of the game in terms of international competition.”
After returning to the U.S., Bonaventura will travel to Fargo, N.D., to compete in the 2014 USA Wrestling Greco-Roman World Team Trials. The top-three finishers at each weight in the NCAA Division III championships earned automatic spots in the event, which is being held June 13-14 and July 22. Because he is entered in the 80 kg (176 pounds) weight class, Bonaventura will compete in July.
“The thought of actually qualifying for the World Team Trials just put me in a state of disbelief. I really didn’t think I could jump into the next level of my competition career,” Bonaventura said. “I would have rather jumped into freestyle, but I’m not going to pass this opportunity up. I’m just excited to go on to the senior level of competition.”

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home