Greco World Team Trials finals set at 59 kg, 71 kg, 75 kg and 85 kg
by Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling
Ildar Hafizov and Taylor LaMont in the 59 kg semifinals. Photo: John Sachs, tech-fall.com
VIDEO: Greco-Roman World Team Trials interviews
LAS VEGAS – The remaining four Greco-Roman World Team spots will be determined with 59 kg/130 lbs., 71 kg/156 lbs., 75 kg/165 lbs. and 85 kg/187 lbs. finals set for tonight at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas.
We’ll have an all-U.S. Army WCAP match at 59 kg with teammates Hayden Tuma (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) and Ildar Hafizov (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) going head-to-head for the World Team Spot.
Winning U.S. Senior Nationals in December, Tuma earned the No. 1 seed and blazed his way to the finals with an 8-0 tech fall in the quarters over Michael Hollingsworth (Lorain, Ohio/U.S. Navy) and a tough 2-1 win over Max Nowry (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) in the semifinals.
Back from injury, 2016 Olympic Team Trials runner-up Hafizov continued his winning ways, dominating Andrew Ibarra (Santa Maria, Calif./NMU-OTS) in a 10-2 tech before edging out Taylor LaMont (Mapleton, Utah/Champions WC) with an 8-8 win on criteria.
At 71 kg, reigning World Team member Chris Gonzalez (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) looks to solidify another year as USA’s top guy. Standing in his way is National Team member Patrick Smith (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm).
The two met in November in the semifinals of the World Team Trials in New York City. Gonzalez came out on top in a 4-1 decision.
Today, Gonzalez locked up an 11-3 technical fall in his quarterfinals match against Brandon Mueller (Albuquerque, N.M./U.S. Air Force). He cruised to the finals, defeating Cody Pack (Colorado Springs, Colo./Legends of Gold), 7-0.
2017 U.S. Senior Nationals champion Smith has looked solid as well, opening his tournament with a 12-7 decision over Colin Schubert (Brussel, Wis./NMU-OTS). In the semifinals, Smith avenged losses to RaVaughn Perkins (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) from the 2016 Olympic Trials finals. This time, Smith topped Perkins, 6-0.
“That was a big match for me. I’ve been thinking about it all year,” Smith said. “He took the Olympic Team away from me, so it was pretty exciting to get a shot at wrestling him again and see how far I’ve come. Excited to come out on top.”
2016 Junior World Team member Kamal Bey (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) and Cadet freestyle World champion Mason Manville (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) will fight it out tonight for their first Senior World Team spot.
Bey picked up a 6-2 victory over Michael Hooker (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) in the quarterfinals and then squeezed by Jon Jay Chavez (Ithaca, N.Y./New York AC) in a wild 16-13 match to earn a spot in the finals.
Manville flexed his skill, taking out No. 2 seed Jesse Porter (Clifton Park, N.Y./New York AC/NMU-OTS) with a solid 5-2 win.
“I’ve beat him before and I just wanted to do the same thing,” Manville said. “I have to take it one second at a time and wrestle in the moment. I wasn’t worried about anything. I just went out there to have fun.”
He followed it up with a 10-2 tech fall in the semis against Dillon Cowan (Marquette, Mich./U.S. Army WCAP).
Fighting through an exciting 85 kg bracket, 2016 Olympic Trials champion Joe Rau (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm) and two-time Olympian Ben Provisor landed themselves in the finals.
Rau went head-to-head with four-time World Team Trials runner-up Jon Anderson (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) in his first match and grinded out a 2-2 win on criteria. He then defeated 2017 U.S. Nationals champion and top-seeded Kevin Radford (Fayetteville, N.C./Sunkist Kids) in the semis with a sound 13-8 win to head to the finals.
Rau moved down from 98 kg for the tournament.
“I’m feeling great. I feel like a kid again. I like cutting weight. I don’t know why everybody complains about it. It’s fun. I got my abs back. I didn’t think I had them anymore,” Rau joked.
Provisor collected a 5-0 shutout over Lucas Sheridan (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) in the quarterfinals, before edging out two-time World Team member Patrick Martinez in the semifinals.
Tonight, Provisor looks to make his first Senior World Team.
The finals are a best-of-three series and are scheduled to start tonight at 6 p.m. P.T. The finals will be streamed live on FloWrestling.org.
2017 GRECO-ROMAN WORLD TEAM TRIALS
April 29 at South Point Hotel in Las Vegas
Finals matchups
59 kg: Hayden Tuma (U.S. Army WCAP) vs. Ildar Hafizov (U.S. Army WCAP)
71 kg: Chris Gonzalez (New York AC) vs. Pat Smith (Minnesota Storm)
75 kg: Kamal Bey (Sunkist Kids) vs. Mason Manville (U.S. Army WCAP)
85 kg: Joe Rau (Minnesota Storm) dec. Ben Provisor (New York AC)
Semifinals results
59 kg
Hayden Tuma (U.S. Army WCAP) dec. Max Nowry (U.S. Army WCAP), 2-1
Ildar Hafizov (U.S. Army WCAP) dec. Taylor LaMont (Sunkist Kids), 8-8
71 kg
Chris Gonzalez (New York AC) dec. Cody Pack (Legends of Gold), 7-0
Pat Smith (Minnesota Storm) dec. RaVaughn Perkins (New York AC), 6-0
75 kg
Kamal Bey (Sunkist Kids) dec. Jon Jay Chavez (NYAC), 16-13
Mason Manville (U.S. Army WCAP) tech. fall Dillon Cowan (U.S. Army WCAP), 10-2
85 kg
Joe Rau (Minnesota Storm) dec. Kevin Radford (Sunkist Kids), 13-8
Ben Provisor (New York AC) dec. Patrick Martinez (New York AC), 2-1
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