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Creese to represent the United States

By E. William, 04/23/18, 12:30AM CDT

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Shakopee wrestler Paxton Creese recently finished 2nd in the state during the high school wrestling season. But the season was not over for Creese, in fact the sophomore was transitioning into the off season wrestling where he continues to compete in the Olympic styles of wrestling.

In other words, Creese trains and competes year round on a national level.

This past weekend the Saber competed at the 2018 Cadet Pan American Trials in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of earning the right to represent the United States as the 51Kg wrestler.

“This has been a goal of mine as soon as I heard they were going to hold this tournament.”, said Creese.

“I have tried to make the World Team the past two years and have come up short both times. This year I want to change that. So if I could make the Pan American team first , that would be a positive step in the right direction.”

This years tournament required that competitors would need to participate in both styles to be the lone representative per weight class. Creese wrestles both styles but prefers the Greco-Roman style over Freestlye.

“Greco fits my style of wrestling and I love big throws. I have some great former Olympian Greco  competitors for coaches and they have taught me well. But it’s getting harder to not think about freestlye.”, Creese added.

That’s because Creese has been almost equally successful in Freestyle as he has in Greco-Roman. Creese has earned six All-American status the past two years with 4 in Greco-Roman and 2 in Freestlye. In addition he went 8-0 for the Minnesota Junior National Dual team last season helping them to a Team National Freestlye Championship.

So Creese and his father made the trip to Pennsylvania to take on some of the nation’s finest wrestlers and big step in meeting one of his goals.

However shortly before the tournament began, Creese’s father got word that his sister passed away from cancer.

“I did not want to say anything to Paxton because I did not want him to be distracted. He needed to stay focused and giving him such news abrupt news may have stole that focus.”, stated Eric Creese.

Creese started the first in the Freestlye portion of the tournament against Garry Steen of Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Creese ahead 9-2 pinned Steen with three seconds left in the match.

In the second round of action Creese scored a 10-0 Technical Fall over Owen Cline of Puyallup, Washington thus matching him in the finals against Parker Decker of Keller, Texas

After some early scoreless action, Creese was able to open up the scoring with and build up an 8-0 lead over Decker before ending the match with a 10-0 technical fall.

The next day the Greco portion of the tournament commenced and Creese knew that if he could perform as he did the previous day he would score his team spot.

First up for Creese was Emory Taylor of Knoxville, Tennessee. Creese quickly dispatched Taylor with a  forty-two second pin.

In the second round Creese faced Gary Steen and pinned him in one minute and six seconds of the first period. Which place Creese against a revenge seeking Parker Decker once again in the finals.

In the tightly contested match Creese held very good position and was able to stymie Decker’s offense while posting six points for a 6-3 win over the Texas native.

Creese had secured the wins in both styles thus earning him a spot on the United States team.

"I am honored and excited to be representing Shakopee but also the United States. This is a dream come true."

The 2018 Cadet Pan American Championships are scheduled for May 25-27, 2018 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The 2018 Pan American Championships is the Cadet qualifier for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina, thus Creese will have an opportunity to also compete for the US Youth Olympic team if  he is selected.