Fix, Pantaleo, Valencia, Wood receive men's freestyle draws at Junior Worlds

U.S. Junior World Team member Zahid Valenica at the Beat the Streets exhibition in Times Square. Photo: John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com.

VIDEO: U.S. coach Brandon Slay discusses day two men’s freestyle draws


MACON, France – The final four U.S. men’s freestyle wrestlers have weighed in and received their draws for Sunday’s competition at the 2016 Junior World Championships.


Rounding out the men’s freestyle tournament for the U.S. are Daton Fix (Sand Springs, Okla./Team BIG), Alec Pantaleo (Canton, Mich./Michigan RTC), Zahid Valencia (Pico Rivera, Calif./Sunkist Kids) and Jordan Wood (Gilbertsville, Pa./Lehigh Valley WC).


“I’m thankful for these four guys that we’ve got some pretty solid momentum going into tomorrow having two guys in the finals,” U.S. men’s freestyle coach Brandon Slay said. “Just looked at their draws, and we’re at the World Championships, and these guys, they’ve got a bunch of foreigners they have to wrestle.”


Fix, a 2015 Cadet World bronze medalist, will kick things off at 55 kg/121 lbs. against well-versed Russian Khasankhusein Badrudinov who won the Junior Worlds in 2014 and finished with a bronze last year. Fix was a silver medalist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and is quite experienced on the international stage as just a senior in high school.


In his first Junior World Championships, Pantaleo is set to face 2016 Junior European bronze medalist Giorgi Sulava of Georgia in his first match at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. Pantaleo was a NCAA All-American for Michigan as a sophomore last season.


Valencia has drawn Mark Markarian of Ukraine in the first round at 84 kg/185 lbs. to begin his second run at the Junior World Championships. Valencia attends Arizona State where he will wrestle as a redshirt freshman this fall.


2014 Cadet World silver medalist Wood is slated to wrestle 2014 Junior World bronze medalist Kamil Kosciolek of Poland in his opener at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. Wood will compete in his first collegiate season for Lehigh this year.


“After we wrestle these finals matches tonight we’ll get back, get our hard drives out, we’ll start studying video of these guys just to make sure that each and every one of these guys is prepared to wrestle to the best of their ability tomorrow,” said Slay.


The final day of action from France will begin tomorrow at 4 a.m. (ET) with the qualification rounds and repechage followed by the medal matches at 12 p.m. (ET).


Flowrestling is providing a live stream of the Junior World Championships at flowrestling.org. Viewers must purchase a FloPro membership to watch the competition live. 


For complete brackets and match-by-match results visit unitedworldwrestling.org.

2016 JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Aug. 30 – Sept. 4 in Macon, France

U.S. men’s freestyle draws for Sunday

55 kg/121 lbs. – Daton Fix, Sand Springs, Okla. (Team BIG)

Vs. Khasankhusein Badrudinov (Russia), 2016 Stepan Sargsyan International silver medalist, 2015 Junior World bronze medalist, 2014 Junior World champion


66 kg/145.5 lbs. – Alec Pantaleo, Canton, Mich. (Michigan RTC)

Vs. Giorgi Sulava (Georgia), 2016 Junior European bronze medalist


84 kg/185 lbs. – Zahid Valencia, Pico Rivera, Calif. (Sunkist Kids)

Vs. Mark Markarian (Ukraine), 2014 Cadet World Team member


120 kg/264.5 lbs. – Jordan Wood, Gilbertsville, Pa. (Lehigh Valley WC)

Vs. Kamil Kosciolek (Poland), 2014 Junior World bronze medalist, 2016 Dimitry Korkin International champion, 2016 Grand Prix of Spain bronze medalist