Three U.S. freestyle wrestlers win medals at the Acropolis Tournament in Athens, Greece

Athens, Greece - Mike Mena (Bloomington, Ind./New York AC), Eric Larkin (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids) and Reggie Wright (Bloomington, Ind./Gator WC) captured medals at the Acropolis Tournament on Sunday. Mena placed second at 55 kg/121 lbs. He won his first three matches by easy margins to advance to the finals, where he lost to 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Amiran Kardanov of Greece, 7-1. Larkin won by technical fall in his two pool matches before defeating Wright 5-2 in the semifinals at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. Larkin then dropped an 8-6 decision to Evan MacDonald of Canada in the gold-medal bout. MacDonald placed eighth in the 2003 World Championships. Wright pinned his first two opponents before his semifinal loss to Larkin. He then came back to pin Medi Mohrampoor of Iran in just 26 seconds to earn a bronze medal. Tolly Thompson (Waterloo, Iowa/Sunkist Kids) placed fourth at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. Thompson won his first three matches before dropping a 7-1 decision to 2000 Olympic gold medalist and two-time World champion David Moussoulbes of Russia. In the bronze medal match, Thompson then lost 4-1 in overtime to 2003 Junior World silver medalist Chintoan Rares of Romania. Also placing for the U.S., but not making it out of their pools, were Yero Washington (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), who placed sixth at 60 kg/132 lbs., and Markus Mollica (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), who placed 5th at 84 kg/185 lbs.