Jake Rundell has several mementos – and a bit of exhaustion — from his recent wrestling trip to Estonia and Russia.
“I would describe it as action packed,” said Rundell, an eighth grader at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School. “We were traveling a lot and after we were done traveling, we did a lot of wrestling. It was very adventurous.”
Rundell was among 20 U.S.A. World Tour team wrestlers at the annual Tallinn Open April 1-3 in Estonia, the largest wrestling tournament in Europe.
Rundell now owns a black traditional Russian hat, although slightly deformed from being compressed in his suitcase. At an antique shop, he purchased a gas mask from the World War II/Cold War era after he bartered the price down by about seven U.S. dollars.
There also are two medals – a gold and a bronze.
Rundell won freestyle and was third in Greco-Roman in the Schoolboy 2001-02 age division for 38 kilograms (84 pounds). Rundell went a combined 11-1 at the event, which featured 1,500 boys and girls ages 11-16 from roughly 20 countries.
“The tournament was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be at first,” Rundell said. “I learned tons of technique on how they practice out there, their culture out there – a very life-changing experience.”
Although this was Rundell’s first trip overseas, he isn’t foreign to wrestling success. On Saturday, he won his seventh consecutive Greco-Roman state championship, this time in the Schoolboy 91 division. He also has two freestyle state titles, one folkstyle state title and two folkstyle national titles, including the highly regarded Flo Tulsa Nationals in January.
Rundell trains with the Oak Park Little Huskies and The Wrestling Academy in Mount Prospect, which was started by his father, Mike Rundell.
Rundell plans to wrestle for Oak Park and River Forest, the Class 3A dual team state champion the past three seasons. Older brother Matt was a 2015 3A individual state champion as an OPRF senior and now wrestles for the University of North Carolina.
Rundell began wrestling at age 4 with Matt in the family garage.
“He’s a big influence on me,” Rundell said.
The World Tour team left March 27 and was gone 12 days. Rundell previously knew only two teammates, but they soon became a tight unit.
The group also received training sessions at Korrus3, Estonia’s national wrestling training center, and the Palace of Wrestling in Moscow.
“The thing I’m probably going to remember are the people (from my group),” Rundell said. “They were great people, very encouraging, especially when I was making weight for the tournament.”
Rundell’s victories were mostly pins and technical falls. In Greco-Roman April 2, he was 6-1 with his only loss by fall to Dimitri Khaghidze, the national champion of Georgia. The following day, Rundell went 5-0 in freestyle.
Rundell’s other opponents were from Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia or Sweden.
“Yeah, it was very tough,” Rundell said. “It’s probably tougher than most of my competition, probably the second hardest competition I’ve ever been in compared to Tulsa.”
There was the added pride and pressure of representing the U.S. internationally. Rundell used two singlets – a blue one with stars and a red one with stripes. Both had USA across the chest and flags on the bottom left corner by his leg.
“During my first match, I felt a lot of pressure on me and then after it, I didn’t feel anything because I was just knowing that I was going to make my country proud,” Rundell said.
Then there was the touring.
In Moscow, they visited the Kremlin and Red Square plaza, where several wrestlers purchased Russian hats and posed for a group photo.
“When we were in Russia, we saw tons of artwork and it was just beautiful. It was some of the best artwork I’ve seen. St. Basil’s (Cathedral) was just very beautiful,” Rundell said.
“We were able to go inside some buildings. It was inspiring just to look at it, much more impressive in person.”
Rundell said many people in Russia “gave us mean looks,” but that the people of Estonia were a lot friendlier. Several also spoke English.
“That made communicating a lot easier as well,” Rundell said.
The trip also was challenging for his parents. The cost of the trip was an early concern, but local people and groups banded together for fundraising.
“That was actually good luck for Jake. It doesn’t seem like it would be that expensive,” said Veronica Rundell, his mother.
In 2011, Matt wrestled in Budapest, Hungary at the FILA World Championships. Matt was accompanied for that trip by his since deceased grandfather.
No family went with Jake. His group also departed less than a week after terrorist attacks at the Brussels, Belgium airport March 22.
However, Jake regularly texted his parents and visited on FaceTime nearly every other day.
“We were nervous only because we were hopeful he would be able to communicate with us,” Veronica Rundell said. “Once we were able to communicate pretty regularly, that anxiety sort of went away.”