Vering's dream sinks in pool

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - On a day when Rulon Gardner escaped any surprises on the mat, there was one waiting for him in the stands.

Alexander Karelin, the man who lost to Gardner in wrestling's greatest upset ever, is in Athens to see if Gardner can win another Olympic gold.

Three matches and three wins into his second Olympics, the former University of Nebraska wrestler is showing Karelin that maybe his upset wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment.

Another former Nebraska grappler wasn't as fortunate.

Brad Vering, from Howells, was ousted from a three-man pool at 184 pounds (85kg) with a 4-0 loss to Egypt's Mohamed Mohamed, who won both his pool matches.

Vering won his other pool match, downing Mukhran Vakhtangadze of Georgia 6-5.

Ten members of Vering's family had traveled to Athens to see him wrestle. Back in Howells, Vering's high school coach said Vering's loss was disappointing, but he would bounce back.

"This won't be the end of him," Howells coach Lee Schroeder said.

Gardner, far more experienced in international wrestling than he was in Sydney, was patient, technically sound and just aggressive enough to hold off three successive upset attempts Tuesday and reach the semifinals.

"Nothing against the group in Sydney, but these (early) matches were more difficult than those," Gardner said. "There's more experience here now, and today was tougher."

Gardner opened a busy day in the 264 1/2-pound (120kg) competition with a workmanlike 3-0 victory over Lithuania's Mindaugas Mizgaitis, followed it with a tie-breaking decision over 1996 Olympic bronze medalist Sergei Moreyko of Bulgaria and, about five hours later, a 3-0 decision over Poland's Marek Mikulski.

"He was very smart, very calm, very relaxed and very patient," U.S. coach Steve Fraser said.