Greco World Team Trials finals set at 59 kg, 71 kg, 75 kg and 85 kg

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