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After stint in Sydney, Lowney back on home turf
Brian Stensaas
- Staff Reporter
Garrett Lowney's first competition outside his home state of Wisconsin was in Springfield, Illinois.
He was just a young man -- no more than 14 years old -- with something to prove. He had won in Wisconsin, now it was on to test his strength in other states.
Oh, how six years can change one's expectations.
He received letters from colleges after his freshman year of high school. As soon as his junior year came, college coaches began visiting him at matches.
They took notice. Notice of his three state titles and of his domination.
In addition to the state championships, Lowney also has three freestyle and two Greco-Roman National Junior titles to his credit, thus the only person in history with five junior titles.
But forget Illinois, forget Wisconsin and forget the borders of the United States. Lowney became a world traveler.
The redshirt freshman heavyweight for Minnesota's top-ranked wrestling program has had more world traveling experience than Magellan. His most recent expedition was Sydney, Australia, home of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
The youngest member of the U.S. team, Lowney was certainly an underdog. Wrestling at 213-pounds in the Greco-Roman competitions, Lowney raised eyebrows as he sifted his way through the world's strongmen before ultimately throwing Grecian Konstantinos Thanos in overtime to gain two points and the Olympic bronze medal.
Lowney returned home to Freedom, Wisconsin, to scores of supporters.
"It was crazy," Lowney said. "I was amazed at how everybody followed it so close."
The amazement has now shifted back home. The world traveling has halted for now. But it was a positive run.
"I sort of steamrolled this summer," Lowney said. "One thing led to another and it just kept going my way. And it has carried over to my college wrestling, school and life in general."
Following his success in Sydney, Lowney turned down the $7,500 the U.S. Olympic Committee offered bronze medalists and the possible thousands more from USA Wrestling so he could trek on for four years of Gopher Wrestling.
Indeed, Lowney is back on his national soil. Though he was forced to sit out the first semester's matches due to his Olympic competition, Lowney has been on the mat since January.
He boasts an unscathed record of 12-0 (6-0 against Big Ten foes). He is ranked second in the nation behind Ohio State's Tommy Rawlands, whom Lowney could face in the Big Ten tournament in March.
Though he is technically a freshman, Lowney has quickly fallen into a leadership role on the team.
Senior Brad Pike said he is confident Lowney's leadership will continue.
"I am so glad we got him back in the lineup," Pike said. "(Opponents) are scared of him. When he goes on to the mat, you can kind of tell. To have someone of this caliber so young with so much time left in the program is great."
Former Minnesota wrestler Tim Hartung, a two-time NCAA champion at 197, said he believes Lowney's success is largely due to his strength and confidence, which leads to intimidation.
"He is an unbelievably strong and confident wrestler," Hartung said. "He told me at the Olympic trials in Texas, `I'm going to make it.' That's a pretty bold statement, but Garrett comes through when he says something like that."
Hartung compared Lowney to 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, also an alumnus of Minnesota.
"I've wrestled around with Brock a little bit, too. And I think Brock can lift more but Garrett has such great position that he feels strong all the time."
Friday night in Madison, Lowney will wrestle in his home state for the first time as a member of Minnesota's varsity squad. Several fans from Freedom are expected to attend the match between the Gophers and the Badgers. And they will all be looking for their Olympic hero to come through.
And even if he does come through, Lowney won't have total satisfaction -- until he proves he is what he believes: The best.
"After the national tournament, I'll hopefully have done all the proving I need to do," he said.
Brian Stensaas covers wrestling and welcomes comments at bstensaas@daily.umn.edu.
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