West Virginia Wrestling

WVU Assistants Qualify for Olympic Trials

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (February 5, 2016) – Under the direction of West Virginia University wrestling coach Sammie Henson, a trio of WVU assistants have qualified for the 2016 Freestyle U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Assistant coach Nick Marable, volunteer assistant Tyler Caldwell and operations assistant Clarissa Chun will head to Iowa City, Iowa, on April 9-10 to compete for a spot on Team U.S.A.

All three train under Henson at the Mountaineer Regional Training Center, located in Morgantown, for Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club. Henson won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

“The MRTC and Sunkist Kids look forward to Nick, Tyler and Clarissa’s quests to make the U.S. Olympic Team,” said Henson. “It shows the importance we place on the international and Olympic level here in Morgantown. With Nick wrestling for the 2014 World Team, Tyler most recently winning a University World Championship and Clarissa winning a bronze in 2012, we look to make some noise at the trials in Iowa.”

Marable, who is in his second season with the Mountaineers, qualified for the Trials with a third-place finish at 74 kilograms (163 pounds) at the 2015 Olympic Trials Qualifier in Las Vegas. He is currently ranked No. 2 in the U.S. at 70 kg (154 lbs.), but will wrestle at 74 kg as 70 kg is not an Olympic weight. Marable is the two-time defending U.S. Open Champion at 70 kg and was a member of the 2014 U.S. World Team that traveled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 2014, Marable upset Olympic gold medalist and three-time World champion Jordan Burroughs at the Yasar Dogu International, ending Burroughs’ 69-match win streak and handing him his first international loss.

The newest member of the WVU wrestling staff, Caldwell earned his bid with a seventh-place finish at 86 kg (189 lbs.) at the 2015 Olympic Trials Qualifier. A 2014 graduate of Oklahoma State, Caldwell won a University World Championship at 74 kg (163 lbs.) shortly after completing his final season with the Cowboys. In 2015, Caldwell won a gold medal at 74 kg (163 lbs.) at the Pan American Championships in Santiago, Chile, earning U.S.A. Wrestling Athlete of the Week Accolades in April. After posting a top-10 finish at the 2014 World Team Trials, Caldwell accompanied Marable to Uzbekistan as his training partner.

After winning the bronze medal at 48 kg (105.5 lbs.) at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Chun earned her spot at the 2016 Trials as a past World or Olympic Team member. Chun is a two-time U.S. Open Champion who won gold at the 2008 FILA World Championships in Tokyo. She recently took third place at the 2015 U.S. World Team Trials and won golf at the Open Cup of Russia. Chun is in her second season as the operations assistant for the Mountaineers.

Among other options, wrestlers may also earn a bid to the Olympic Trials by winning a Division I National Championship at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in New York City this March.

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games will take place Aug. 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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