WICHITA, Kan. – Newman Wrestling Alumnus and 2018 Division II National Champion, Noel Torres continues his pursuit of qualifying for the summer Olympics competing for Mexico in international competition.

Torres had his first run at qualification shut down last spring due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Due to the unfortunate events, he had just one opportunity to qualify for the 2021 Olympic Games this time around. That opportunity could come early on in May. Noel has only been training for freestyle wrestling for the last two years and has had limited competition opportunities during those two years.

In his first international competition in early May, Torres had his chance to qualify for the upcoming Olympics as he competed in the World OG Qualifier in Bulgaria. He came up short at his qualifying match in Bulgaria where only the first and second place finishers qualify for the Olympics.

With the way the international matches work, if you lose your first match and the person you lose to makes it to the championship match, you will get a chance to wrestle for third place. This is important in the sense that if one of the first two wrestlers fail a drug test or are unable to compete in the Olympics for any reason, the third place wrestler gets to advance. Unfortunately for Noel, the person he lost to Bulgaria would end up losing just one match shy of the championship match.

Torres had his second taste of international competition at the Pan-American Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala on May 27-30. Noel would drop his first match to American David Taylor III, the eventual champion. Since the person he lost to made it to the championship bout, Torres was able to wrestle back for a chance to take third place. In the third place bout, Torres would face off with Colombia's Rivera Garcia. Noel would walk away with a 10-0 victory to earn his first podium spot in just his second international competition.

Despite not qualifying for the upcoming Olympic Games, Torres said he's not done yet and has moved his eyes to the 2024 Olympics. "For now, I plan on wrestling in those big international tournaments," Torres said. "I plan on doing another cycle and qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in either the World Tournament in 2023 or the Pan-American Championships in 2024."

Next up for Noel is the World Championships in Oslo, Norway from October 2-10.