Brent Metcalf believes he is the best 65 kg wrestler in the United States.
He wasn’t, however, on Saturday afternoon — something he readily admitted to.
Metcalf was the seed No. 1 and favorite to earn a trip to the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics, but after two quick losses in both of his matches of the day, he did not even lock up a spot on the U.S. National team.
Instead, some surprising things happened in the 65 kg bracket. No. 2 seed Jordan Oliver was also knocked off right away, and the four next-best seeds were downed by the time the second round was over.
In a weight class chock-full of NCAA champions – eight, which combined for 14 titles – the two wrestlers left in the championship bracket at the end of the first session were No. 7 seed Aaron Pico and No. 9 seed Frank Molinaro.
Pico, just 19 and still a high school senior, worked his way though Jayson Ness, Jordan Oliver, and Reece Humphrey before ultimately facing Molinaro. After going to a third match and winning with criteria, Molinaro is the one heading to Rio.
Molinaro was also an unlikely winner. He was a bottom half seed and had to fight through three fellow NCAA champions – Kellen Russell, Metcalf, and Logan Stieber – who combined for eight titles during their illustrious college careers.
“I was just really focused on doing exactly what I’ve done for the last six months to prepare for this. Same routine waking up, same routine warming up, same routine out on the wrestling mat and executing and just having fun,” Molinaro said. “Something in my heart told me I was going to win. I felt like it was my destiny and I had no choice but to believe it.”
Although he cannot add “Olympic Wrestler” to his resume this year, Metcalf has a long list of accolades throughout his wrestling career. He was a two-time NCAA champion during his three seasons at Iowa. For the past six years, since finishing up his college career, he has been a part of Team USA.
This was his second U.S. Olympic Team trial. The first also had an unsavory result – Metcalf took second to now-retired Olympian Jared Frayer.
At 29 years old, Metcalf is not completely sure where the future will take him. By the time the next Olympic Trials rolls around, he will be 33, which is old by most wrestling standards.
“Certainly there is still a lot of fight in me, my body is strong, I tell people I feel like a 24 year old, I really do,” Metcalf said in an emotional press conference. “I have to figure out why the guy who wrestled today wasn’t really the guy who I am. If I can… just tighten it up, go win, then I can certainly have what I want. Or maybe it’s just not in the cards and that’s something I will have to come to face with.”
Unfortunately for Metcalf, history is not in his favor. The only five freestyle Team USA members who were older than 30 to have ever earned a medal at the Olympics. Four of which – Charles Johnson, Chris Campbell, Bruce Baumgartner, and Metcalf’s former coach at Iowa, Terry Brands – took home a bronze. The only exception was Henry Wittenberg, who earned silver.
However, no one can predict the future and no one can say where Metcalf will be four years from now. It’ll be a personal decision on his part and something that he’ll have to take some time and decide.