Zahid Valencia Does Not Plan To Take An Olympic Redshirt

Zahid Valencia Does Not Plan To Take An Olympic Redshirt

Zahid Valencia does not plan on taking an Olympic Redshirt, but will mix some freestyle tournaments in during his senior season at Arizona State

Aug 21, 2019 by Wrestling Nomad
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Zahid Valencia is entering his final season at Arizona State right as we are entering an Olympic year.

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Zahid Valencia is entering his final season at Arizona State right as we are entering an Olympic year.

The two-time NCAA champ has qualified for an Olympic Redshirt, but based on the short interview posted on ASU's twitter he does not plan on taking it.

While Valencia is eligible for an Olympic Redshirt, he has not yet qualified for the Olympic Trials in April. As he said during the interview, this next few months will be a hybrid of both folk and free.

Since he is not yet qualified for the Trials, he would have to go to one or more of the following tournaments: Bill Farrell in November, Senior Nationals in December, or the Dave Schultz in January. While being a 2020 NCAA champion also qualifies you, that puts him right down to the wire as the national tournament is just two weeks before Trials.

I'm doing some freestyle tournaments throughout the folkstyle season, try to make a run for the Olympics.

The Bill Farrell is November 15-16 in New York City, Senior Nationals is slated for December 20-22 in Fort Worth, and the Dave Schultz is typically the last weekend in January, but the dates have not yet been finalized.

While he did not mention a weight class in the short interview, his freestyle aspirations would likely point to him bumping up to 184 this year, since he will be going 86kg (about 189lbs) in freestyle.

That would allow his brother Anthony to be worked back into the lineup, along with All-American Josh Shields. The Sun Devils will also probably bump up one of Josh Maruca or Jacori Teemer from 149 to fit all their talent into the lineup. Kordell Norfleet and Cade Belshay both have a redshirt available, so one can go 197 and the other can redshirt while Zahid finishes out his final year.

Zahid is a three-time Junior world team member, getting silver in 2017. The past two years he has made the national team at 79kg, wrestling in Final X last year and finishing third on the ladder behind Kyle Dake and Alex Dieringer this May.

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