In Class By Themselves Osu Senior Gutches Instructs Gold Medalist

Looks like Les Gutches can forget about summer school. He has an Olympic dream to chase.

The Oregon State senior - two classes short of a degree if he passes finals next week - schooled 1992 gold medalist Kevin Jackson twice on Saturday at the Arena, earning one of 10 spots on the U.S. freestyle team.

“I’ve been going 100 miles an hour,” said Gutches, who swept Jackson 5-1 and 3-0 in the best-of-three 180.5-pound final. “I’ve had school - I’m taking finals next week. And I’m moving out of my place. So I’ve had a lot on my mind and actually felt like I was concentrating on a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t have been.

“But I feel like I did pretty good in spite of the lack of focus.”

A physical anthropology major, Gutches will join an Olympic team that includes acclaimed freestyle professors Bruce Baumgartner and Kenny Monday, who also swept their way to next month’s Atlanta Games.

“It’s a strong team,” Olympic coach Joe Seay said. “We have just a strong pool to choose from with these guys. When you have two former world champions that don’t make the lineup (Jackson and Terry Brands), somebody had to wrestle pretty hard to put those two out of the lineup.”

The two-day Olympic trials, sponsored by Windermere, drew 24,578 to the Arena over four sessions. For their money, the 8,083 in attendance for Saturday night’s finals witnessed uncommon drama.

While each of the 10 top seeds advanced, Lou Rosselli (114.5), Kendall Cross (125.5) and Townsend Saunders (149.5) were pushed into nerve-wracking third matches.

“I think that’ll carry me on to an Olympic gold,” said Cross, who beat Terry Brands 2-7, 7-6 and 8-7.

Rosselli held off fourth-seeded Eric Akin with a 3-2 overtime win in the third match; Cross, sixth at the ‘92 Games, won two straight thrillers that left Brands in tears; and Saunders scored 19 seconds into OT of his final match when he took Pat Santoro down.

Brands was attempting to make the Olympic team with twin brother Tom, who handled John Fisher 4-1 and 7-1 despite surrendering the first point of each match. Sports Illustrated recently highlighted the brashness of the Brands brothers, and Cross made the issue an issue.

“I got motivated by it,” he said. “Just the idea behind the article. The very person that I had to defeat to make this team was in the article, and I was just motivated by it all.

“My vanity carries me a long way, too,” Cross added, sarcasm included.

Like Terry, Tom Brands is also long on confidence. And after making his first Olympics, he wasn’t about to apologize.

“I guarantee you, right now, if you took a vote on who would be on the Olympic team, the Brands boys would not win,” Tom said. “And that doesn’t bother me. If (U.S. fans) aren’t behind me (in Atlanta), then they can move to Iran.”

Baumgartner, a two-time gold medalist at 286 pounds, posted 10-0 and 6-3 victories over a courageous Tom Erikson, whose left elbow was injured early in the first match.

Erikson’s only moment came early in the second match, when he scored three points by throwing Baumgartner to the mat.

“I anticipated that he’d come out real hard (in the second match),” said Baumgartner, who hasn’t lost to an American since 1981. “The move he hit on me shocked me a little bit. He’s tried that on me in practice before. He had my arm pretty tight, so I figured it’d be better to go over than get hurt.”

Baumgartner, 35, quickly regained control, although he didn’t go out of his way to capitalize on Erickson’s ailing elbow.

“I would never do a move that would intentionally hurt somebody or intentionally attempt to pick on or beat on somebody’s injured body part,” said Baumgartner, a silver medalist in 1988.

With the victory, the Edinboro (Pa.) University coach joined Mark Fuller as the only U.S. wrestlers to make four Olympic teams. “Being on four teams is great,” Baumgartner said, “but I want four medals, and three of them gold.”

Erikson, second to Baumgartner at the last three trials, vowed to press on. “I’m not going to go out like this,” the 29-year-old said. “I’m going to go out on my own terms.”

Monday, meanwhile, is headed to his third Olympiad. Wrestling at 163 pounds, the 34-year-old Monday continued his comeback after a two-year layoff by breezing past four-time NCAA champ Pat Smith 7-0 and 5-1.

“I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep the gold medal in this country,” said Monday, who won gold in 1988 and silver in ‘92.

Monday, with wife Sabrina nearby and 2-year-old daughter Sydnee in his lap, put his latest Olympic experience in perspective.

“It’s a lot more fun,” he said. “In ‘92, I got to the point where it wasn’t as fun - I was just trying to get through it. I was like, ‘Man, I’ll be glad when I can get through this and I can go and take some time off.’ “But now, I’ve got a new outlook on it, and some new goals and some new perspectives. I’ve got my wife and my kid and my family to share these things with. Before, it was just me and a few friends.”

At 105.5, Rob Eiter swept Kanamti Solomon 5-0 and 8-5. He sustained a nasty gash over his left eye during the second match, but managed to hold on after squandering an 8-1 lead.

Melvin Douglas, the 198-pound representative, may have been the most fortunate qualifier.

“I came within 30 seconds of not making weight (on Thursday),” Douglas revealed, shortly after sweeping Mike Van Arsdale 3-0 and 3-1 (OT). “Thoughts just started going through my head. My main thought was that, my wife is going to kill me. My mom, my dad - oh God, they all came down here for nothing.

“Then I said, ‘Gosh, I’m glad I work at Home Depot.”’ At 220, Kurt Angle shut out Dan Chaid 7-0 and 3-0. “After 3 minutes (of the second match), I felt he wore down,” Angle said. “That’s where I scored two of my points.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON TO ATLANTA Members of the U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team, based on winning the competition at Saturday’s trials (All weights in pounds): Wrestler Weight class Rob Eiter, Clarion, Pa. 105.5 Lou Rosselli, Edinboro, Pa. 114.5 Kendall Cross, Durham, N.C., 125.5 Tom Brands, Iowa City, Iowa 136.5 Townsend Saunders, Phoenix 149.5 Kenny Monday, Tulsa, Okla. 163 Les Gutches, Corvallis, Ore. 180.5 Melvin Douglas, Mesa, Ariz. 198 Kurt Angle, Pittsburgh 220 Bruce Baumgartner, Cambridge Springs, Pa. 286