Wrestling

Frayer and Lewis at the Junior World Championships: Blog No. 2

Virginia Tech assistant coach Jared Frayer traveled with redshirt freshman Mekhi Lewis to the 2018 Junior World Championships held in Trnava, Slovakia. Lewis will start competing early in the morning on Saturday for fans following in the United States but, in the meantime, Frayer will write a handful of blog posts chronicling Mekhi's experience. Here's the second installment. The first blog follows:

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 12 p.m. CEST – Friday, Sept. 21, 12 p.m. CEST

Mekhi and I finished up Wednesday with his last hard workout. We brought our speaker and Virginia Tech football to each of these workouts and the Team USA boys were happy to have some tunes. Mekhi likes to get back to his first love, or maybe my first love, FOOTBALL, when warming up and cooling down so we had to bring a ball. His weight continued to come down real nice and he hasn't skipped a meal since we got here.
 


 
Wednesday night we laid pretty low, hung out at our hotel, and Mekhi caught up on some homework. The kid is super diligent in his studies. He finished two assignments and took a test while preparing to win a world championship! I made my way to an Italian place down the street to meet up with the American University head coach Teague Moore, who's also the Junior World Team head coach to have a late dinner.
 
Thursday was a short workout and recovery day so Mekhi slept in a little bit and prepared for a workout around 2 p.m. This time we went to the venue to workout and Mekhi was able to get the feel of what it would be like to come out Saturday, the day he competes. He and I got about a 45 minute drill/spar and a short amount of live wrestling which got him sweating real good and brought his weight to a great place. After the workout, we were able to check out the first group of wrestlers' draws and we got back to our hotel to get cleaned up.
 
From there, we went to our new favorite restaurant, Buon Giorno, the place I went with Coach Moore. This place is a hole in the wall about 300 meters from our hotel. Mekhi got risotto and chicken, which he loved, and I got a margherita pizza. This is now our place to be and Mekhi plans to tear this place up come Sunday before we leave!
 


 
After that we had a team meeting with Coach Jackson, the USA developmental coach, where we talked about tactics, logistics and weight control, more specifically for the first group of guys. Mekhi then wanted to knock out some quick sightseeing. The hour or two we spent touring the town of Trnava was something else!
 
On this night, Trnava's local soccer team had a huge championship game against a rival city, so Mekhi and I decided to take a taxi to the stadium, check out some shops and hopefully find this famous sign everyone wants to take a picture in front of. The area was buzzing, just like any American town before a big game, and the stadium was super cool. After walking about a half mile and thinking we would never find this, low and behold, one or two wrong turns led us right to cobblestone street lined with shoppes and cafes, and the sign that we had been looking for.
 



So we did our tourist due diligence and got some fun pictures. It was time to make our way back (we weren't up for more walking and stopping for ice cream wasn't in the cards just yet). As we tried to finagle a taxi or two, all heck breaks loose. About 50 guys come running out of a bar and 50 more come running around the corner and it was like Westside Story. These two groups began fighting like Mekhi and I had never seen. HOOLIGANISM is alive and well!

We had seen hundreds of cops along the streets dressed in riot gear throughout the day and we both thought it was a little bit over kill. But after that we knew that things were going to get wild tonight! We finally talked a cab into bringing us home so we were out of harms way.
 
Friday was huge as the first day of freestyle started and Mekhi was super excited to be there to cheer his team on! We watched everyone's first round and then knocked out his one and only workout of the day, which got his weight down to scratch. We finished the first round watching three of our five guys advance to the semis and the other two still in the tournament fighting for third.
 
We came back to the hotel, cleaned up and hit Buon Giorno for some more chicken risotto.  From there we hustled back to the arena to watch Team USA put two through to the finals while two of the remaining three fought back for third. So it was a decent day one with U.S. second. We're excited for days two and three.
 
Right now Mekhi's weight is perfect with him weighing in tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. and most likely wrestling around 12:30pm (6:30am EST). I really like his draw, but now it's time to do the work. I couldn't be more grateful to be in his corner tomorrow representing Hokie Nation and the US of A! A special moment for a special young man!


Monday, Sept. 17, 12 p.m. EST – Wednesday, Sept. 19, 12 p.m. CEST
 
Travel for Mekhi and myself couldn't have gone any better. We left Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport at 11:30 a.m. on Monday and flew into Chicago O'Hare. In Chicago, we met up with the rest of Team USA; 10 athletes and seven coaches. We were in Chicago, changing terminals, going through security and eating lunch for about four hours, and then it was time for a quick nine-and-a-half-hour flight to Vienna.
 



On the plane we lucked out. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me and Mekhi was in the middle up front so he was able to come back and sit in the window seat next to me.  Neither of us slept much, but we were able to catch up on some movies; Deadpool 2 for Mekhi and Father Figures for me. Airplane food was delightful; chicken for Mekhi and pasta for me. We landed in Vienna at about 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and swiftly got through customs.  Both of our bags made it, with only one of our guys not getting his.  From baggage claim, we had to wait for a couple more wrestlers from around the world before catching a 90-minute bus ride to Trnava, Slovakia.
 
We're staying at a sweet tennis training facility, which is about a 10-minute walk to the venue.  Mekhi had to fight a little bit to stay awake, but once we knocked out the first workout and had dinner he was right on schedule. I went over to watch our Greco team on Tuesday night, one guy won in the semis and the other two split, taking third and fifth.
 
First night of sleep is crucial and we both were able to sleep from 8 p.m. till about 5 a.m. the next morning, which is perfect! Got up Tuesday morning to people practicing tennis outside our windows and then we had a nice European breakfast!  Last pretty hard workout was at 10:30 a.m. where we hit some areas of concentration, sparred and wrestled a little bit live.  This team is pretty impressive with two returning Junior World Champions and a slew of other studs.  This is my first time being overseas since competing at the 2012 Olympics in London so being around these high-level athletes and coaches has me fired up! It's also pretty great knowing that we are doing the right stuff in Blacksburg. Not only on the folkstyle front but also on the freestyle SERTC side of it!
 
Tonight, Mekhi and I will spar for 30-40 minutes, hit the sauna, jacuzzi and cold bath. From there, Team USA has one guy in the Greco finals, so Mekhi is adamant about cheering him on. We'll eat dinner, sleep, and from here on out, it's about Mekhi making weight, feeling great and ready to win a world title! I'll blog one more time before Saturday when Mekhi (Bro Bro) competes and then I'll conclude it all on the flight back to the States!