'The job's not done yet': Fowlerville wrestler Dalton Roberts one step from Olympic dream

There was a caveat when former Fowlerville wrestler Dalton Roberts won his weight class at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last Saturday at Penn State.

Winning a championship in any sport at the Olympic Trials is a massive accomplishment, but securing the 60-kilogram Greco-Roman championship didn’t come with an automatic ticket to the Summer Games in Paris.

Roberts, like high school teammate Adam Coon three years earlier, will have to finish in the top three at the World Olympic Qualifier May 9-12 in Istanbul, Turkey. Roberts’ weight class hasn’t had enough recent success for the United States in international competition to automatically qualify.

Rather than take some down time to recover before ramping up his training for Paris, Roberts quickly shifted his focus toward checking off the final box to achieving his Olympic dream in a few weeks.

“It’s like celebrating a half marathon; the job’s only halfway done,” said Roberts, who has dabbled in some longer trail races. “Certainly, you can celebrate a half marathon; it’s a big deal. I’m here for the full race.

“I did celebrate that night, then it’s back to work. We practiced (Tuesday) morning and my eyes are set on Turkey. The job’s not done yet.”

Roberts has already started to scout potential opponents who aren’t automatically qualified for the Olympics. He received his itinerary Tuesday and will fly to Turkey May 4.

“It’s a quick turnaround, but with this momentum I’m excited for the tournament and the challenge,” said Roberts, a 2014 Fowlerville graduate. “I’ll just bring the same energy. I don’t think I’ll have any problems.”

Three years ago, Coon won the 130-kilogram Greco-Roman championship at the Trials, but lost in the quarterfinals at the final qualifier. This year, Coon is automatically qualified after winning at the Trials because of his opponent’s runner-up finish at the Pan American Games.

The former high school teammates kept their interactions to a minimum during the Trials until both were done competing.

“We’re both pretty serious guys,” Roberts said. “I saw him in the warmup area prior to the finals matches. I gave him a high five, told him ‘Let’s get this done.’ We talked a little bit after. It’s the kind of thing that brings me back to 2018 when we both made the senior world team. It was just a great feeling. It’s crazy two guys from the same small hometown got the job done. It’s all thanks to our upbringing, our coaches, our family, our support system. That midwestern small-town grit is what I believe we both have.”

At the Trials, Roberts won 9-1 over Taylor Lamont and 5-2 over Max Black in the qualifying round. In the best-of-three championship round against current teammate and two-time Olympian Ildar Hafizov, Roberts won 2-0 in the first match and lost 10-1 in the second.

That created a winner-takes-all scenario, which Roberts won 3-2 by scoring a two-point takedown in the final period.

“I was down going into the second period,” Roberts said. “He just kind of pushed into me a little too hard. I snapped him down and went behind him. Something I’ve been getting better at is my relentless pressure. When they go to match it, I try to disappear. It’s like breaking a leg, then having a crutch as a support. You learn to use that crutch. The second that crutch isn’t there, you fall over.”

There were no secrets when Roberts and Hafizov took the mat. They have a long history against one another and are part of the same training group with the Army World Class Athlete Program in Colorado Springs.

Roberts estimates he’s wrestled Hafizov in five championship series and at least 18 matches.

“The rivalry is just on the mat really,” Roberts said. “Off the mat, we’re trying to help each other and we’re both pursuing the same goal. It’s unfortunate only one of us can attain this spot, and so someone’s goal has to be crushed. We’re friends. The rivalry, for the most part, just stays on the mat. We do have a pretty nice rivalry in handball, though. We play a lot of handball. I’ve kind of been off my game lately with handball.”

Wrestlers in the Army program play handball as part of their warmup routine before practice.

“It keeps us agile and you get to use different types of athleticism in handball than in wrestling,” Roberts said. “At the end of the day, it’s fun. The sport can be draining if you’re serious 24/7.”

It was the second trip to the Olympic Trials for Roberts, who lost in the semifinals in 2021. His experience in that event, plus multiple national and international tournaments, kept him from getting rattled with his Olympic dream at stake.

“It certainly helps having been to the Trials before,” he said. “Everything’s on the line, but if you get caught up in the moment and get sucked into it, you can get easily distracted. So, I was just trying to take one match at a time. All it was was a wrestling tournament. I’ve been to plenty of wrestling tournaments. I know there was more weight to it than any other tournament, but when I put it in that perspective it helped me calm down and relax.

“Certainly, everything’s kind of culminated to this point. I just felt once I got there, I locked in the second we flew into Pittsburgh. Then I kind of zoned in. Even after losing that second match of the series, I just kind of tried to relax and remained focused. Despite everything going on around you, I just tunneled in and got the job done.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Fowlerville wrestler Dalton Roberts one step from Olympic dream