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The former Wabasha-Kellogg High School five-time state wrestling champion is currently wrestling for the United States in Istanbul, Turkey at the Fila-Juniors World Championships.
The freestyle tournament begins today, and Sanders will wrestle Sunday at 55 kilograms against some of the top wrestlers aged 20 and under.
“I’ve never been overseas,” Sanders said last week. “I’m excited. I’m going to have fun, but the main reason is to wrestle.”
Sanders spent just over a week before heading overseas practicing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., with some of the best in the U.S.
“We practiced once or twice a day with the Olympic team,” Sanders said. “I wrestled the guy who’s going at my weight to the Olympics (Henry Cejudo). He’s tough. He’s really slick. We would wrestle and then he’d show me what I need to work on.”
Sanders nearly qualified for the US Olympic Trials. He finished in second place at a qualifying tournament, and didn’t pursue any other qualifying tournaments.
“Looking back, I kind of wish I had,” Sanders admitted.
But at the Olympic level, the wrestlers are usually a little older and more experienced.
“The Olympics are more for the senior level,” said Ron Sanders, Zach’s father and high school wrestling coach. “This (the Fila tournament) is like the Olympics for 20-and-under wrestlers.“
After being one of only three wrestlers in the state of Minnesota to win five state championships — his brother Eric Sanders was also one of those three — Zach went on to redshirt last year at the University of Minnesota.
The 125-pounder wrestled unattached, and went 23-1, including a win over Seth Flodeen, who won the Division III 125 National Championship.
“I wrestled a lot of pretty good DII and DIII guys,” Zach said. “Not a lot of DI guys.“
His first year as a Gopher was very challenging, wrestling every day against teammates Jason Ness and Mack Reiter.
“Ness was ranked second in DI and Reiter is a three time All-American,” Zach said. “I just kept battling with them and maybe next year I’ll make the new kid hurt a little bit.
“I knew (my freshman year) was going to be really hard, but I didn’t worry about it too much. I knew it would make me better.”
Ideally, the plan for the upcoming season will allow Sanders to step in at 125, while Ness goes to 133 to take Reiter’s spot — he graduated.
But, of course, first things first, the Fila tournament and Sanders said the style of wrestling overseas is a lot different than U.S. wrestling.
“They’re really relaxed and then explode to a move,” Sanders said. “Americans are high paced, heavy hands and we usually wear the other countries out, but they’re really technical and sit back and wait. They try big throws and big moves, where Americans are always putting pressure on a guy and working the whole match.”
Results for the tournament should be available at http://www.fila-wrestling.com/istanbul08/. There may even be viewing possibilities online, but it was unclear whether that was possible or not.
