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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 18, 2011

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

184-lb. Championship

MODERATOR: We're joined by the No. 2 seed at 184 pounds Robert Hamlin from Lehigh who improves to 32-2 and into the finals tomorrow with his win in overtime tonight.
Open up with questions for Robert at this time.

Q. First of all, congratulations. Outstanding victory. It looked like you got a little emotional there.
ROBERT HAMLIN: Yeah, kind of [inaudible] up. But, I don't know, I guess if you told me the other day that I was going to be in the finals, the nationals, I wouldn't have believed you.

Q. Emotional as everybody else got, it looked like Pat Santoro was like, well, you know what? I knew. Can you talk to us about his confident you.
ROBERT HAMLIN: Well, if he's got confidence in me, it's because of everything he's taught me. I just do my best to listen to what he says. When I get in a tight spot in a match, I know I can just look in my corner and trust what he says, trust his advice if I have any questions.
The second period, the choice to choose down, I know Bosak is really good on top, and that was the choice he left up to me, and I chose bottom. Didn't seem to be the best choice. Worked out in other matches; didn't work out today.
But he trusted me to make the decisions, and that's a great thing we have on to your team, is just a lot of trust.

Q. You've got Quentin Wright in the finals tomorrow. What do you expect from him?
ROBERT HAMLIN: We wrestled at the beginning of the year. He had a slow start this year. I know he's really tough. He's got a great hitch, he's a good thrower. So I'm just going to go out and wrestle my match, just do my best, hopefully get the win, hopefully have some fun.

Q. Can you walk us through the takedown in overtime.
ROBERT HAMLIN: It's same thing that happened in my quarters match. He got in my leg, I felt like his grip was loose so I tried to spin. Got around behind, he kept scrambling. I was able to stay behind, get control, his hands were on the mat and so did the takedown.

Q. Robert, tell us what it means to be the first All-American from Vermont?
ROBERT HAMLIN: It's awesome. It feels really good. We haven't had a lot of success from Vermont. We got a lot of tough kids, a lot of hard workers.
Unfortunately we don't have the level of competition up in New England as a lot of these kids coming from PA and New Jersey do.
So it feels great. Hopefully it's a model for kids coming up through the program. I know we've got a lot of tough kids coming through the youth wrestling, and I hope some of them are here, and hopefully some of them beat any records I make.

Q. Robert, that's three times over Bosak by the narrowest margin, by very small margins. All of those could have gone the other way. What do you think tipped them all your way against him?
ROBERT HAMLIN: I really can't say. He's a really tough wrestler. He's really good on top and he does a good job of keeping fast pace. There's a lot of kids that say it in the end; that's not what Bosak says. He stays very aggressive the whole match.
I don't know, it might have something to do with styles. I've been very fortunate these last three times we've wrestled. It's early in both our careers; we're going to have to see each other a few more times. So I'm sure some of those matches are going to go his way, as much as I'm going to try to stop that.

Q. Just like to ask you a little bit about the tradition of the Lehigh program. You have an opportunity to be another national champion for them. Was the wrestling tradition there one of the reasons why you wanted to wrestle there, and since you've been there is that something that -- especially with the strong fan support and history of the people that have succeeded there before you, has that helped drive you?
ROBERT HAMLIN: Absolutely. A big part of my decision to come to Lehigh was when I found out that they have 1,400 fans at the [inaudible], their tryouts. It's pretty awesome. When I was wrestling at Vermont, we didn't have that many people at our state tournament. And at a dual meet, a dual meet on a weekday we'd have just our parents there.
So it's nice to get a lot of support, and Lehigh program has been great, the coaching staff has been amazing. But the fans, the alumni have been really supportive of us and the whole program. It's been really amazing.
MODERATOR: Congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.
Joined by Quentin Wright from Penn State, No. 9 seed at 184 pounds. Improves to 20-6 with the win. Open up for questions for Quentin.

Q. Before the Big Ten Tournament, would you have ever imagined you were going to be in the NCAA Final?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: I dreamed about it a lot.

Q. Even at that time?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: Yeah. Ever since I was young, you always dream about it, being in a big-time national finals. And the whole season I had a rough season, but I still had those dreams deep down inside that I wanted to come true. And every day I just worked towards making them come true.

Q. Can you describe the pin what you did?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: I'm going to have to look back on the tape and see what happened. But alls I know is that one thing led to another. He came up. I got the leg. My arm was on his head. I locked my hands. There was a moment in time where either he's getting pinned or I'm getting pinned.
And I'd rather he get pinned. Because we were in an awkward position. And I just gave it everything I had. And next thing you know I had him on his back and it was pretty exciting.

Q. You had a lot of special moments in your wrestling career. Where does that one rank?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: That's pretty high up there. My goodness, first time making it to semis. Now winning semis. Now winning semis. Getting a big fall like that. Who knows how many people out there -- it's so exciting. And I'd rank that up there in the top five. Definitely top five. I can't remember all of them now, but definitely. It's maybe even up there with three or two, but it's up there.

Q. Last week as a team it was a big deal for you guys to win the Big Ten. Now you guys are in the race, almost there to win a national title. What's it like for you guys as a team?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: It's taken every single one of us. One guy falls, another guy has to pick it up for him. It's just the craziest thing I've ever been through in my life. It's tense. And we're looking at how the other teams are doing.
It's just been a really crazy, fun ride. Last week it was -- a lot of it's a big deal because we're in a position to be the first Penn State team in a long, long time to win titles. Like the Big Ten title was awesome because we won by a point and it took everyone. Just wasn't just one person.
Everybody had to pitch in, do their job. And it's coming down to the same thing here where, after we won that, we realized that everybody is going to have to do their job in order for us to get a title here at the Nationals. And that's what we're working towards.

Q. Talk us through the big throw in the first period and talk about how much that made you relax and able to hit that big move in the second.
QUENTIN WRIGHT: I didn't relax too much. I was all intense, because we were playing a little bit of cat-and-mouse out there where he was doing a good job of just keeping in range but out of range at the same time.
And so I just went for it pretty much where I hit it in practice, once or twice the past few weeks and I thought, hey, I might be able to get this in whenever it needs it. And he didn't really fall into it, but I kind of went for it and ended up getting it. And it's nice to get the five points, too, when you're up five points.
You can relax a little bit. Not too much, though. (Laughter) because I do remember last year, Iowa kid that had -- I can't remember his name right now, but he was down by eight points and came back and beat Heinrich because that's in the back of my mind because you can never relax no matter how many points ahead you are.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the opponent you'll have tomorrow night? Hamlin from Lehigh, your history with him, his style, the kind of things that you have looking forward?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: Yeah. He was my first loss of the season and first match of the season. So it will be interesting to have him as my last match of the season. And so I'm excited to wrestle with him because just whenever you lose to somebody you want a second chance. They don't come around too often. I've had a lot of those this season, especially this tournament.

Q. David Taylor talked about the importance of team. You and I talked about it earlier in the hallway. Can you talk to us now about the importance of team? Seems like you guys have just gelled together and are pulling for each other something fierce.
QUENTIN WRIGHT: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's taken all of us, every guy on the team, all 10 guys, all 40 guys we have on the team. Half the guys on our team are here sitting in the stands cheering us on. And just that dedication to us and to each other. Cael has done a really good job of making us gel together.
We're not just fighting for ourselves but we're fighting for each other, because we're going for something bigger, something bigger than ourselves. And, as I said, it's probably the coolest team or coolest, the most fun atmosphere I've ever been on on a team. And it's been awesome. And I'll remember this for the rest of my life. And it's probably, wrestling-wise, this is the most fun I've ever had in my life with wrestling.

Q. We talked to you after quarters. You didn't say you thought you were a tournament wrestler yet. Are you feeling more like a tournament wrestler yet?
QUENTIN WRIGHT: I'm getting there. I'm doing good just taking it one match at a time. And if I'm a tournament wrestler, I guess that's it. But just taking it one match at a time.
MODERATOR: Anything else for Quentin? Good luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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