Article taken from themat.com
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Dustin Schlatter crashed the party.
Fans clad in bright red “Paulson Power” shirts were ready to celebrate hometown boy Travis Paulson making his first U.S. World Team on Saturday night, but the 23-year-old Schlatter had other ideas.
Schlatter won four straight ball draws and four straight leg clinches to sweep Paulson in two straight matches in the freestyle finals at 74 kg/163 lbs.
Schlatter redshirted this past season at Minnesota while shifting his focus to freestyle.
“My goal from the start of this season was to make the World Team this year,” Schlatter said. “I had planned on going to a couple of international tournaments and this is what I was training for. Winning this was definitely a goal from the start.”
Paulson, whose twin brother Trent is favored to win the freestyle title at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. on Sunday, was competing in his hometown of Council Bluffs on Saturday.
“You can’t let it go to the clinch every time,” Travis Paulson said. “I gave it everything I had to score a takedown. I put it all on the line, but it didn’t happen. I need to get better. My goal is to be a World champion. If I want to be a World champion, I need to be able to get a takedown in two minutes.”
The fans in the Mid-America crowd sat stunned when Schlatter, an NCAA champion who will be a senior at Minnesota next season, made his first World Team on the Senior level.
Travis Paulson, 26, won the U.S. Nationals in April and was favored to win the World Team Trials title.
“This is very frustrating,” Paulson said. “It was bad luck (with the ball draws), but I can’t let it go to the clinch.”
Prior to this season, Schlatter hadn’t competed in freestyle since finishing high school.
“I wanted to take him down and score, and not have it come down to the clinch,” Schlatter said. “He has real strong defense and real good positioning, kind of similar to me in that respect. I knew if somebody got a takedown it was going to decide that period because defense is where both of us are strong.
“I never like going to the clinch, but I felt like I was prepared for it. You have to be prepared when you wrestle freestyle.”
Chas Betts pulled out a gritty match over 2008 Olympian T.C. Dantzler in the Greco-Roman finals at 84 kg/185 lbs. Dantzler had made the previous five U.S. World Teams. Betts is a past World University silver medalist.