Seras vs. Mann is the new “Bout of the Week” on USA Wrestling Members-Only website

USA Wrestling has updated its new "Bout of the Week" on USA Wrestling's Members-Only website The featured match this week is the Andy Seras vs. Mike Mann men's Greco-Roman match from the 1988 Olympic Team Trials in Pensacola, Fla. This match was the third and deciding match for the Olympic team position at 68 kg/149.5 pounds. Mann won the first match 9-5. Seras came back to capture the second match by disqualification in overtime at 9:59. Mann competed for the U.S. Marine Corps. He entered the Olympic Team Trials as the No. 1 seed, having captured the division at the event that set the ladder for the Final Trials. That event was called the Final Olympic Qualifier, and was held in Boca Raton, Fla. a month prior to the Pensacola event. Mann beat Wayland Massey, a fellow Marine, in the finals in Boca Raton. Seras was a young star who was making his move on the international level. He had competed at SUNY-Albany, a top Div. III program, whose coach Joe DeMeo was an elite Greco-Roman coach as well. Seras was among the many athletes from the ATWA club, coached by DeMeo, who started young in Greco-Roman wrestling and quickly climbed the national rankings. Seras was unable to earn a ranking in the 1988 Final Olympic Qualifier because he suffered a serious injury. Seras had a torn esophagus and lost almost 60% of his blood. Because he did not earn a ranking, Seras was placed in the "Challenge Tournament" portion of the event. His first match of the day was against 1984 Olympic bronze medalist and the No. 1 wrestler in the division, Jim Martinez, who was also coming off an elbow injury. Seras won that match 4-2, then won three more bouts to capture the Challenge Tournament. He then needed three more days of wrestling to reach his Olympic dream, having to climb a three-step "ladder." He beat No. 3 Craig Pollard 6-2 and 5-3 on the next day. Then he beat No. 2 Wayland Massey, 13-0 and 8-1 on the following day. He then had to face No. 1 Mann in the championship series. With his victory over Mann in Match Three, which is posted here, Seras qualified for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, which competed in Seoul, South Korea. He was one of three ATWA stars on the team, joined by Shawn Sheldon at 114.5 pounds and Ike Anderson at 136.5 pounds. Seras did not place in the Seoul Olympics, winning his first two matches, then losing to eventual champion Levon Djufalakian of the Soviet Union. A double disqualification against Lars Laggerborg of Sweden put Seras out of the tournament. Seras went on to dominate his weight class for a number of other years, but never made another U.S. Olympic Team. He won five U.S. Nationals titles and made the finals of the national championships for an amazing 12 straight years. He competed on five U.S. World Championships teams, with a sixth place in 1991 and a ninth place in 1989. He won some of the major events on the international circuit, including the 1991 Pan American Games and the 1994 World Cup. In 1992, Seras' Olympic dream was dashed by upstart Rodney Smith of the U.S. Army, losing in the Final Wrestle-off in two matches. Smith went on to win a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games. In 1996, Seras made another run at the Olympic Team, but was defeated in the Challenge Tournament finals by Chris Saba. Smith beat Saba and went on to compete at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Seras has remained very active in wrestling as a coach, both on the college and international levels. He was one of the 2004 Olympic Coaches in Greco-Roman, leading the U.S. team in Athens, Greece, a squad which included two-time Olympic medalist Rulon Gardner. He was head coach of the 2002 U.S. World Team, which boasted a World champion in Dremiel Byers. He also assumed head coaching duties for the 2001 U.S. World Team when the head coach was injured, and the team placed third in the Worlds, its highest finish ever, with three medalists. Seras continues to take major assignments in Greco-Roman, and will be a Junior World Team coach this summer. He also coaches with the world-famous Sunkist Kids club program. Seras is the head coach of the Div. I wrestling team at Sacred Heart Univ., where he is helping to build a strong program that competes in the Colonial Athletic Association. Mann continued wrestling, placing in four more U.S. National Championships (1990-1993), making him an eight-time All-American at the Greco-Roman Nationals. His best performance came on another Olympic year, when he placed second in the 1992 Olympic Team Trials event in Albany, N.Y., losing to Rodney Smith in the Finals Series in two straight matches. Smith went on to beat Seras for that Olympic Team spot. Mann remained involved in wrestling as well. He stayed in the Marine Corps for his career, and was involved with the wrestling team for many years, serving as one of the coaches. He also continued to wrestle competitively on the Veterans level, winning the 2003 Veterans Nationals Greco-Roman Championships at 69 kg in Div. B. He was competing at basically the same weight class as he had wrestled in the 1988 Olympic Trials, which were 15 years earlier. This popular feature will be changed on a regular basis, allowing members to enjoy many of the greatest matches in wrestling history. Posted in the archive section of the Members Only web page was 1992 Kevin Jackson vs. Rasul Khadem men's freestyle match from the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. Many other entertaining and historic matches are in the archive section for the Bout of the Week. USA Wrestling has done a complete redesign and expansion of its Members-Only website, providing all USA Wrestling members with an impressive new resource stocked with interactive learning tools and entertaining features. The web page is still available for all to view and sample for a short time. This will allow those not familiar with the site to enjoy the contents and become familiar with the features. Once the sampling period ends, this on-line resource is available free of charge only to current members of USA Wrestling, one of the most exciting benefits of joining the organization. At that time, USA Wrestling members will need to enter the number from their 2004-05 membership card into an entry form, and the exciting new Members-Only page will become available to them. RECENT BOUTS OF THE WEEK PLACED IN ARCHIVE 1992 Kevin Jackson vs. Rasul Khadem men's freestyle match 1992 Chris Campbell vs. Puntsag Sukhbat men's freestyle match 2000 Garrett Lowney vs. Gogi Koguachvili men's Greco-Roman match 1988 Randy Lewis vs. Stepan Sarkissian men's freestyle match 1996 Kurt Angle vs. Abbas Jadidi men's freestyle match 1990 Chris Wilson vs. Arsen Fadzeav men's freestyle match 1990 John Smith vs. Stepan Sarkissian men's freestyle match 2004 Sunkist Kids International Open men's Greco-Roman gold-medal matches 2004 Sunkist Kids International Open men's freestyle gold-medal matches 1990 Bill Scherr vs. Alexei Golovko men's freestyle match 2004 Cael Sanderson vs. Moon Eui Jae men's freestyle match 2004 Rulon Gardner Olympic semifinals and finals men's Greco-Roman feature 2004 Sara McMann vs. Stavroula Zygouri women's freestyle match 2004 Toccara Montgomery vs. Kristie Marano women's freestyle match 2004 Joe Williams vs. Joe Heskett men's freestyle match 2004 Eric Guerrero vs. Mike Zadick men's freestyle match 2004 Cael Sanderson vs. Lee Fullhart men's freestyle match 2004 Dennis Hall vs. Brandon Paulson men's Greco-Roman match 1996 Townsend Saunders vs. Pat Santoro men's freestyle match 1988 Mark Fuller vs. T.J. Jones men's Greco-Roman match 1988 Nate Carr vs. Andre Metzger men's freestyle match 2004 Jared Frayer vs. Eric Larkin men's freestyle match 1987 Bill Scherr vs. Greg Gibson men's freestyle match 1992 Dennis Koslowski vs. Andrzej Wronski men's Greco-Roman match 1989 Jim Scherr vs. Makharbek Khadartsev men's freestyle match 2003 Sally Roberts vs. Marianna Sastin women's freestyle match 1996 Melvin Douglas vs. Mike Van Arsdale men's freestyle match 1988 Ike Anderson vs. Buddy Lee men's G