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Alex Dieringer is heading back to the Midwest.
Dieringer, a four-time United States national team member, announced Tuesday on FloWrestling’s “The Bader Show” that he will move from Stillwater to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to join the Michigan Regional Training Center. The move comes after spending the past nine years in Stillwater, where he became a star at Oklahoma State with three NCAA individual championships and won the 2016 Dan Hodge Trophy.
Dieringer, a Port Washington, Wisconsin native, decided to make the move due to personal and wrestling related reasons. His girlfriend, Ella Sosenko, is from the Ann Arbor area and wants to go to graduate school for occupational therapy, which is available at the University of Michigan and not at OSU. As far as wrestling, he’ll be able to train with high-level partners around his 86-kilogram weight with Myles Amine, Logan Massa and Alec Pantaleo.
“I’m really excited. They have everything that I could imagine,” said Dieringer, who considered moving to the New Jersey RTC. “I already have a good relationship with Coach (Sean) Bormet. He coached one of the Junior World Teams I was on. My former teammate Jon Morrison also trained out there for a little while, and he told me that Coach Bormet and Coach Beloglazov are two of the best technicians that he’s ever been around, so that was a big selling point for me.”
Bormet is eager to have Dieringer in the room.
“Alex is one of the most dominant NCAA wrestlers in recent decades,” Bormet said in a release. “He is an explosive scorer and has some exceptional skillsets that have transitioned to International success. He is currently one of the top-rated wrestlers in the world, a serious gold medal contender and is a tremendous addition to our existing group of senior level wrestlers. I have always been impressed with Alex’s character and his approach to training and competing.”
After losing a special Final X best-of-three wrestle-off to eventual two-time World Champion Kyle Dake for the 79 kg. spot on Team USA’s World Championship team, Dieringer won the Bill Farrell International in November in New York City. He also claimed top three finishes at the U.S. Senior Nationals in December (bronze), Matteo Pellicone International in January (silver) and won the Pan-American Championships in March.