This past weekend, Cedar Falls hosted the Last Chance Olympic Trials Qualifier tournaments for wrestling. Over 175 wrestlers competed in the Greco Roman, freestyle and women’s freestyle categories. Only one spot was available in each weight class to advance to the Olympic Trials.

UNI heavyweight Blaize Cabell decided to participate in the 125-kilo freestyle tournament after the inability to participate in the NCAA championships.

Cabell had a very successful collegiate career with UNI. He qualified for the NCAA tournament three times, finished top-three in MAC championships three times, went undefeated in MAC duals in two consecutive years and recently won the 2016 MAC heavyweight championship.

Cabell’s collegiate career was cut short when an illness forbade him to compete in his final NCAA tournament.

Cabell reached the finals of the heavyweight tournament thanks to two 12-2 tech falls over Kevin Christman and Ben Durbin of the Cyclone Wrestling Club.

In the final match, Cabell only needed 55 seconds to pin David Zabriskie of Lehigh Valley Athletic Club to win the tournament. Zabriskie is a former Iowa State national champion.

Cabell will join former teammate Joe Colon at the Olympic Trials. Colon punched his ticket to the trials in mid-December at the U.S. Senior Nationals and Trials Qualifier in Las Vegas.

Freshman Max Thomsen also participated in the 65-kilo tournament. Thomsen fell to Nazar Kulchytskyy, 10-2, in the quarterfinals. Thomsen notched an 18-16 decision over Elroy Perkin to advance to the third place match. Chance Pami ended Thomsen’s run with an 11-0 tech fall.

The Olympic Trials will take place at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on April 9 and April 10.