FORT WORTH, Tex. - Former Iowa Central wrestling national champions Joe Colon and Patrick Downey III are set to compete in the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials beginning here on Friday.
The event will feature a series of matches over the next two days, airing on both Peacock and NBC Sports Network.
Action starts on Friday with challenge tournaments at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6:30 p.m. tonight. Consolations take place Saturday at noon with the championship series going down Saturday night at 6:30 p.m.
"It is pretty rare, if not totally unprecedented, that a junior college has two wrestlers competing at the same time for spots on the United States Olympic team," Iowa Central head coach Luke Moffitt said. "Joe and Patrick were both incredible wrestlers while at Iowa Central and I am so excited to see them continue to reach for their dream of wrestling for Olympic gold."
The challenge matches will determine who advances to the championship series that will finalize the U.S. teams in men's freestyle, women's freestyle and Greco-Roman. The U.S. has currently qualified Olympic spots in 15 of the 18 classes, with the three remaining needing to be secured at an international tournament later this spring.
Colon was a 2010 NJCAA national champion for the Tritons where he was named the NJCAA Tournament Outstanding Wrestler and helped Iowa Central claim the team title. He later placed third at the NCAA Championships for the University of Northern Iowa.
In 2018, Colon made the U.S. World Team and earned bronze. He also won gold at the Pan-American Championships, the U.S. Open and was a member of the men's Freestyle World Cup team that won the title.
Downey claimed a title for the Tritons in 2015 before wrestling for Iowa State University where he won bronze at the 2016 Big 12 Championships. During the 2019 season, Downey won titles at the Dave Schultz Memorial International, U.S. open and made the World Team.
That led him to the Pan-American games where Downey captured a medal and went 2-1 at the World Championships. He won bronze at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Italy in 2020.
Along with Colon and Downey, Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Snyder, J'den Cox, Kyle Dake and Adeline Gray will all be competing.
-By Dana Becker