By Brad Morris
SportingPumpkin.com
Camden McDanel was soaking in the aftermath of shutting out his fourth opponent on Saturday in Santiago, Chile to win the Under-20 Pan-American Championship at 97 kilograms (213.85 pounds).
And then the Stars and Stripes were wrapped around his shoulders.
“That’s always going to be something that I am going to remember, and it was a little emotional to be representing my country and to have the flag around my shoulders,” McDanel said. “It was an incredible experience to be wrestling for the United States for the first time and competing internationally.”
McDanel represented Old Glory in dominating fashion by outscoring his four opponents 41-0 in two minutes and 39 minutes of mat time.
The quick pace that McDanel dictates on the mat came in handy considering the temperature in the national capital of Chile.
“It was in the 40s during the morning down there in Santiago and it felt like it didn’t warm up that much during the day,” said McDanel of the southern hemisphere city that is going through winter. “And, somehow, it actually felt colder in the arena we were wrestling in than it felt outside.
“I thought I warmed up pretty hard in my gear to get ready to go, but as soon as I took off my gear and started to wrestle, it was cold immediately and it kinda shocked the opponent I was wrestling and myself at the same time. We adapted the best we could in the first match, and then I made sure I went really hard after that in warmups so it wouldn’t happen again.”
McDanel advanced to the championship match with technical fall wins of 10-0 against Puerto Rico’s Alex Ortiz, 11-0 versus Peru’s Kleydder Vasquez and 10-0 over Brazil’s Kyle Santana.
“The United States normally dominates this tournament, so I knew that coming in and I also knew that I would be a pretty solid favorite in all of my matches,” McDanel said. “I didn’t allow that to change my approach, at all. I respected every opponent that I wrestled. I put in all the preparation for a match that I normally put in and more due to how chilly it was and then I wrestled my style.”
McDanel met Ortiz again in a championship match that lasted just 23 seconds.
The recent Teays Valley graduate landed a quick takedown, a pair of gut wrenches, scored another takedown and wrapped up his fourth technical fall of the day with another gut wrench to win the championship match 10-0.
“I wrestled the way I wanted to, and I controlled the match from the get-go,” McDanel said. “I got a couple of early scores in and I just kept on going.”
The Star-Spangled Banner played nine times following the Pan-American Championships in honor of McDanel and eight teammates who won gold medals in the 10 weight classes.
As a team, the United States ran away with the freestyle title with 245 points. Canada followed in second with 154 points, 91 behind the Americans, and Puerto Rico was third with 130 points.
McDanel, a Nebraska signee, noted the trip to Santiago was the first time he had traveled aboard.
“I was really excited for it, because I’ve never been out of the country before and I was interested in experiencing a different culture,” he said. “It was fun going out to eat in different restaurants with my teammates and talking to people in the restaurants or around the city. We knew a little Spanish and some of them knew English or a little bit of English, so we made it work.”
McDanel moved to Colorado Springs in mid-June to spend the next year primarily training at the United States Olympic Training Center, although he will make some trips to the University of Nebraska campus to work out at camps and prepare for the day when he becomes a Cornhusker.
“I came out here to take my training to the next level and I am getting a lot of great work in to become a better wrestler, both mentally and physically,” McDanel said. “I’ve been getting a lot of great reps in to work on my technique, my muscle memory and some other things, along with weightlifting and a lot of training.”
McDanel is slated to join five other Pan-American gold medalists in competing for the United States at the Grappling World Championships in Warsaw, Poland from Aug. 14-20.
“It was a great experience going to Santiago, because getting to experience a different culture with different foods, people that speak a different language and officials that speak a different language was good preparation for me when I go over to Poland next month,” McDanel said. “A few of my teammates knew each other, but most of us had heard of one another before and it was cool hanging out with those guys and getting to know each other a little bit.
“It’ll be cool getting on the plane next month, flying to Poland and getting to hang out some more with those guys and get to wrestle folks from around the world.”
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