Going for gold

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 7, 2016 - A1

Going for gold

Germantown’s Thielke qualifies for Summer Olympics

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Trevor Pruett knew when he did it, he was in trouble.

“I poked the lion,” the 2011 West Bend East graduate joked.

The lion? Germantown’s Jesse Thielke, who, as of Friday, is an Olympian.

Thielke went 4-1 in the final Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament on Friday in Istanbul to qualify for this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thielke, 23, a Germantown graduate, will wrestle at 59 kilograms (130 pounds) in Greco-Roman.

The Rio Olympic Games start Aug. 5 and end Aug. 21.

Thielke joins a celebrated list of Washington County Olympians, including two medalists. That list includes Dennis Hall (Hartford, wrestling), Lynn Roethke (West Bend, judo) and Laurie Finley (nee Fellner), (West Bend, handball).

Hall was a three-time Olympian, while Roethke and Fellner were each twotime qualifiers. Roethke was a silver medalist in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Hall was a silver medalist in the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Because of the time difference, Thielke couldn’t be reached for comment.

“I am super-happy to see Jesse get his weight qualified for the Rio Olympic Games,” U.S. National Greco-Roman coach Matt Lindland said in a statement released by USA Wrestling. “He had a rough start in the Mongolia qualifier, and for him to bounce back and get it done here in Istanbul was fun to watch.”

There are plenty more smiles from the local wrestling community, starting with representatives from the West Bend Wildcats Youth Wrestling Program — a program Thielke once competed with.

“Even though Jesse was a West Bend Wildcat years ago, we are extremely excited as a club to watch him grow and achieve the highest level of wrestling,” said Nate Gish, Wildcats president.

Gish’s son, Kasey, 10, attended one of Thielke’s camps three years ago.

“It’s pretty cool,” Kasey said. “He taught us some real cool moves that he uses in Greco.”

One of those moves was a double-leg takedown. It’s a move Kasey uses frequently, which he estimated helps him win about 80 percent of his matches, including the sixth-place match at the recent state tournament.

“He’s a big role model,” Kasey said.

Pruett was especially thrilled for Thielke, his friend and former teammate with the Wildcats.

“I’m beyond excited,” Pruett said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”

Pruett, who wrestled for the Suns and later at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and a current assistant wrestling coach at UW-La Crosse, faced off against Thielke in the 2011 Travis Wichlacz Wrestling Invitational in West Bend.

Thielke went 185-1 and won four state titles at Germantown. He didn’t get tested often in high school matches and opposing coaches tried to avoid him whenever possible.

Pruett couldn’t avoid him. He didn’t want to.

“I knew he was going to come after me,” Pruett said. “So I said, ‘What the hell? Why not wrestle with him?’” Thielke didn’t expect it, but Pruett took down Thielke, something rarely done.

“I was lucky enough to score a point against him,” Pruett said.

And Pruett paid for it.

“He pinned me about 30 seconds later,” he said.

After they shook hands, Thielke leaned closer to Pruett and made a request.

“‘Please don’t put this on Facebook,’” Pruett recalled the eventual Olympian telling him.

“He’s a great guy,” he added. “He’s a guy that I have no problem rooting for.”

When Pruett learned Thielke qualified for the Olympics, he was elated.

“Jesse embodies the definition of wrestling,” Pruett said. “You can beat me one day. ... He’ll come back fighting tooth and nail. It doesn’t matter how you did before against me.”

Thielke won the U.S. Olympic Trials tournament April 9 in Iowa City, Iowa. However, his weight class hadn’t qualified for the Olympics so he had to compete in a qualifying tournament April 22-24 in Mongolia.

Thielke didn’t finish in the top three at the tournament, which would’ve qualified him for the Olympics. So, given a last chance, Thielke didn’t waste it. He didn’t flinch at the competition, either.

Thielke’s first opponent was Hungary’s Peter Modos, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist. Thielke won by technical fall, 8-0. Then he beat Georgia’s Revaz Lashkhi, 13-6, and Sweden’s Frunze Harutyunyan.

Against Harutyunyan, Thielke trailed 4-2 before pinning him.

In the semifinal, Thielke defeated Moldova’s Donior Islamov, the 2012 World University Games gold medalist and 2014 bronze medalist, in a tech fall, 17-8, to clinch his spot at Rio.

Pruett wasn’t at all shocked that Thielke bounced back the way that he did.

“He just makes it look natural,” Pruett said. “He looks like water, flows so effortlessly. He knows what he’s doing.”

Thielke lost the goldmedal match to six-time world champion and reigning Olympic gold medalist Hamid Soryan of Iran, 8-0.

The first thought that ran through Pruett’s mind upon hearing Thielke’s achievement?

“I wrestled that guy in high school and youth,” Pruett said. “I was elated and proud. He’s one of the guys that I call my extended family through the sport.”