Sacred Heart’s Madison Sandquist, right, wrestles against Iowa’s Marlynne Deede in Friday’s U.S. Olympic Trials match at Penn State. Deede eliminated Sandquist, 12-2. More photos from the Olympic Trials
STATE COLLEGE, Penn., April 19, 2024 – It’s not often one wrestles a national champion in your first consolation round match but that is the nature of the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials.
Nearly 200 of the nation’s best wrestlers are at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center to determine the 18 berths for the U.S. Olympic wrestling team.
Sacred Heart University junior Madison Sandquist competed in the tournament at 76 kilograms (167 pounds) on Friday and faced 27-year-old wrestler Skylar Grote of New Jersey and Marlynne Deede, who won a national championship for the University of Iowa in March.
Grote pinned Sandquist in 1:15 and Deede eliminated Sandquist with a 12-2 technical fall victory.
Sandquist, who is from Humble Texas, is the first Sacred Heart wrestler to earn a spot at the U.S. Olympic trials. She earned the spot at the trials with three victories at the Last Chance qualifier earlier this month in Virginia including a win over teammate Cara Broadus of Plymouth in the championship match.
“It’s been my goal for a while to qualify for 2024 and I was able to do it as Last Chance so it feels good just to be here,” Sandquist said. “Once I got here, it was in God’s hands, not mine.
“I’m just happy to be here and know I will learn a lot from these matches on a stage I have never been on before,” she said.
Skylar Grote, right, controls Madison Sandquist at Friday’s U.S. Olympic Trials at Penn State. More photos from the Olympic Trials
Grote, who qualified for the event with a third place finish at the national championship meet, got off to a quick start with an 8-0 lead over Sandquist. A mistake and a turn in the wrong direction ended up with a loss by pin.
“It’s a different level here,” Sandquist said. “You have to bring your ‘A’ game when you show up. I feel confident I will be able to do that next time.”
Sandquist spent the season wrestling at 155 pounds for the Pioneers, finishing sixth in the country and earning All-American honors for the third time.
But for the Olympic team, Sandquist had to choose between 68 kg or 149 pounds and 76 kg or 167 pounds. There are just six weight classes at the Olympic games compared to 10 in American collegiate wrestling.
“I felt the strength difference,” she said. “I am comfortable at the collegiate level and then you jump to the senior level, you’re at the bottom again and you have to work your way up.”
In the consolation round, Sandquist faced Deede, a 5-foot-9 senior from Iowa, who won a national championship at 155 pounds and was making her second Olympic trials appearance.
Deede got an early takedown and exposure points to get a 6-0 lead but Sandquist got a takedown to cut the lead to four. But Deede picked up another quick four points with some exposures to earn a 12-2 technical fall.
“It’s not often you see a national champion on the consolation side,” Sandquist said. “That speaks to the level of competition here.”
Sandquist, Deede and Grote were all participating in the Challenge tournament – eleven wrestlers competing for the right to face Adeline Gray, a six-time world champion and two-time Olympian (2016, 2020) in a best-of-three series for the spot on the Olympic team.
It was an eye-opening experience for Sandquist, who hopes to share the experience with her teammates next season in Fairfield. Freshman Love Daley accompanied Sandquist and head coach Pauline Biega to the trials. Daley was Sandquist’s workout partner.
“There is a lot of work to do,” said Sandquist, who was 22-5 with 14 pins this past season. “We might be good in our region and some of us are good nationally. But there are levels to this. We want to wrestle the best people. We all want to get on this stage.”
