Soldier-athletes help Team USA win team title at PanAm Games

For the first time in four decades, Team USA has taken home the team title in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Pan American Games.

Capt. Jon Anderson and Sgt. Whitney Conder struck gold and Sgt. Spenser Mango won bronze helping Team USA clinch the title.

All three Soldiers are members of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, or WCAP.

"We came here to win medals and we were able to do that, so I'm just excited for the entire team," said Shon Lewis, head coach of the Army WCAP team, who also served on the U.S. Pan American Games staff.

"As we head to Las Vegas for the World Championships," Lewis said, "this is an upbeat. We still have a lot of work to do, but I'm encouraged with how we performed."

Anderson defeated Venezuela's Querys Perez by a 9-0 technical fall in the men's 85-kilogram/187-pound Greco-Roman finals at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Mississauga Sports Centre's Hershey Centre, July 15.

"We're on the warpath," said Anderson, who is working toward the 2015 World Championships and the 2016 Olympic Games. "We're on a mission, and we're not going to stop, not until we get to the top."

Anderson, who finished second in the 2015 U.S. World Team Trials, used a relentless, hard-charging attack to defeat Perez.

 http://www.army.mil/article/152497/Soldier_athletes_help_Team_USA_win_team_title_at_PanAm_Games/