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Roth: Olympic Trials Just The Beginning For Duke Wrestler
6/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
DURHAM, N.C. ? The rope that stretches across the wrestling room at the Olympic Training Center was Konrad Dudziak's demon when he first arrived in Colorado Springs last January.
Now, it's his barometer.
“It hangs across the room, and with your hands you've just got to go across,” says Dudziak. “When I got here I couldn't do it once. I was strong, but it's really hard. It rips your skin off and everything. No matter how strong you are, you've got to push through it.”
That Dudziak can now push through and cross the rope serves as a measurement of the mental toughness he has developed during his 18-month odyssey to become the best wrestler he can be ? and a testament to the rapid gains he has made the last few months at the Olympic Training Center.
Dudziak was a solid wrestler at Duke during his freshman and sophomore seasons of 2005 and 2006, but he is in a different realm now. Last weekend he was in Las Vegas battling against the best in the nation at the Olympic Trials, trying to earn the right to represent the U.S. in the 96 kilogram (211.5 pounds) freestyle weight class in Beijing.
In his first bout at the Trials, Dudziak faced Virginia star Brent Jones, whom he had beaten a few weeks ago to win the University World Team trials. Jones, the University National Freestyle champion, got his revenge on Dudziak in a close decision (3-2, 0-3, 3-3).
Dudziak then fell to Nik Fekete in the consolation bracket (1-0, 2-0), while six-time national champion and 2004 Olympian Daniel Cormier knocked off former two-time NCAA champion Damion Hahn in the final to earn a repeat Olympic berth.
A couple of years ago, Dudziak could only dream of competing in such select company. He posted a 10-7 record as a Duke freshman and went 11-6 as a sophomore, when he took third place in the ACC at 197 pounds. During the fall of his junior year, he moved up to heavyweight and won two tournaments, at UNC-Pembroke and Davidson, with a 9-0 record.
But Dudziak wasn't satisfied with his progress, so he decided it was time to devote total focus to his wrestling development. Instead of returning to Duke for the 2007 spring semester and the completion of his junior year, Dudziak headed to Poland for an entire year of total immersion in wrestling.
Dudziak was born in Poland and moved to the United States with his family when he was six years old. Every summer during his high school career, his father would send him back to the homeland to train with members of the Polish National Team. When he returned to Poland in 2007, he moved in with an aunt, worked out at a local club and traveled to various national wrestling camps across the country for further training and competition.
As a dual citizen of Poland and the U.S., his goal during the entire year abroad was to train for a spot on the Polish Olympic team. But those thoughts began to shift in another direction when he returned to the U.S. in January 2008 and took up residence at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
He hooked on as a workout partner for some of the elite American wrestlers in the heavier weight classes. When he entered the Dave Schultz Memorial Invitational in February, he had several impressive bouts and caught the eye of U.S. Olympic coach Terry Brands.
“He beat a kid who beat Damion Hahn and they were asking, ?Who are you?'” Duke coach Clar Anderson says. “They found out he was American and saw he had the potential to compete with those guys. Terry Brands saw him and said, ?Hey, why don't you train here?' So then his training and competing was all paid for by Olympic development funds.”
Training with the national coach and a group of high-caliber wrestlers began to pay further dividends in April when Dudziak went to the University Nationals in Akron, Ohio, and took second place in the heavyweight division.
Then in May, Dudziak's performance at three major tournaments led to his spot at the Olympic Trials. He took eighth place at Senior Nationals in Las Vegas ? an event at which the top seven earned automatic berths at the Trials. Confident after a strong showing, he was able to secure his automatic bid to the Trials the next week when he won the Northern Plains Regional in Waterloo, Iowa.
Dudziak followed that up by winning the University World Team trials tournament in Colorado Springs the last weekend in May. During the three events, he posted wins over such notables as Jones, Willie Parks and Sean Stender, all of whom were previously ranked ahead of him on the Olympic ladder at 96 kg.
“I'm completely surprised,” Dudziak told BDW before heading to Las Vegas for the Olympic Trials. “I don't know where it came from. When I got here I was one of those guys who was just a workout partner. No one thought I was any good. Then all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, I became one of the best in the room, and the room has a few world champs and Olympic champs. So to be the best in that room feels pretty good.
“I did work really hard. I put in a lot of work. Since I left Duke I have pretty much been completely focused on wrestling. Not only am I in the best shape of my life, but mentally I'm the toughest I've ever been. I don't give up when I'm out there. I don't break.
“I always felt that if I committed to it, I could beat the best, but I'm not sure how much I believed it until this last series when I started beating the best guys in the nation. That's when I started believing it.”
Dudziak credits Brands in particular for helping him improve his mental toughness. It was Brands, himself a two-time Olympian and two-time world champ, who essentially forced Dudziak to master the rope test, among other things.
“He's all about intensity,” explains Dudziak, who attended high school in Jersey City. “He's all about, when you're tired, that's when you've got to hit the hardest. He's all about, when you're pushing you never give up points, you never let the guy push you. He's just constantly nailed that into my head.
“Overseas in Europe, I was learning a lot of things but I wasn't breaking through. Here (in Colorado Springs) the one thing I've gotten is my mental toughness. That's what's done it for me. I was always good, I just wasn't mentally tough enough to beat the best. Training here I started to see all this improvement, and I decided it wasn't just the place to train, it was the place to be, so I decided to stay here.”
Dudziak is expected to wrestle for Team USA at the World University Games in Athens next month. He plans to return to Duke in the fall to complete his degree and his final two seasons of eligibility. He vows to compete for an NCAA championship, and indeed, his Blue Devil coaches view his recent exploits as the launching pad for a bright future in a sport where most of the leading contenders are significantly older. Cormier, the USA's top-ranked 96 kg wrestler the last five years, is 29. Dudziak may be just hitting his prime when it comes time to challenge for a spot at the 2012 Olympics ? for the U.S. or Poland.
“Freestyle is different from college wrestling,” says Anderson. “There is not 100 percent carryover. However, there's no doubt that for those who do well nationally in freestyle, you can look back and see that they had a strong collegiate career. It's somewhat different, but I expect Konrad to do very well (in college competition this year). It will take him some time to transition, because instinctively you have to act a little bit differently in freestyle than in collegiate, but it's something he should be able to handle.”
A former NCAA champion at Oklahoma State, Anderson attended the Senior Nationals and the Olympic Trials to watch Dudziak compete.
“A lot of people are saying, ?Who's Konrad? A Duke student?' A lot of coaches are coming up to me. ?Where did you get him?' It's been very rewarding,” Anderson says.
“It's very satisfying, and it authenticates what I've been talking to our athletes about. We can compete, but it takes a commitment and a desire to compete at this level, matched by your actions. It's a proud moment for myself and Duke wrestling to have a guy wearing a Duke shirt out here and stepping on to the mat at the Olympic Trials having beaten some of these guys.”
“It feels good to be good,” Dudziak admits. “When I was in college I was good, but I was losing matches and didn't know where I stood. This is like my breakout year. Now I know I'm one of the best, and it feels awesome.”
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New Duke assistant coach Tyrone Lewis was also involved in the Olympic Trials. He reached the final in the 74 kg weight class before falling to former two-time NCAA champion Ben Askren for a spot on the Olympic roster.
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