U.S. women's freestyle in position to win nine medals at Junior Pan Ams

FORTALEZA, Brazil – The U.S. women’s freestyle team wrapped up the morning session of the 2018 Junior Pan American Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Saturday.

All nine of USA’s entrants will wrestle for medals in tonight’s session.

Three wrestlers put together undefeated performances this morning, including Cameron Guerin at 55 kg, Brenda Reyna at 59 kg and Bri Csontos at 62 kg.

Guerin dominated with a first-period pin over Carla Acosta of Mexico to open her tournament before scoring a 10-0 tech against Becky Cornejo from Ecuador.

At 59 kg, Reyna went 3-0 in the first half of the day, picking up a 27-second pin, a shutout tech fall and a forfeit. Tonight, Reyna will wrestle Katherine Cuero of Colombia for gold.

Opening her tournament with back-to-back falls against opponents from Brazil and Peru, Csontos put herself in to gold-medal position with a 6-2 win over Xioa Liu of Canada. Csontos will wrestle Paula Montoya of Colombia for the title tonight.

Wrestling for silver medals tonight are Michaela Beck at 57 kg and Kayla Marano at 68 kg.

Beck will wrestle 2017 Cadet Pan Am silver medalist Susana Lozano of Mexico, while Marano will face Grabriela Pedro of Brazil.

At 50 kg, the only eight-woman bracket in the field, Felicity Taylor dropped her first match against Greidy Estupinan of Colombia in a 2-1 battle. However, Estupinan advanced to the finals, pulling Taylor into the bronze-medal bout. She will face Evelyn Matos of Brazil tonight.

Placement for two wrestlers will be determined after the final round of their round-robin brackets.

Ashlynn Ortega, the representative at 65 kg, went 2-1 this morning, which included wins over Nikeli Ferreira of Brazil and Atzimba Landaverde of Mexico.

At 72 kg, Andrea Sennett bounced back after a first-round loss with a pin in 16 seconds against Adaljiza Sanchez from Mexico.

The medal matches are set for 6 p.m. ET live on Trackwrestling.

2018 JUNIOR PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

at Fortaleza, Brazil

50 kg: Felicity Taylor (Spillville, Iowa/Sebolt Wrestling Academy)
LOSS Greidy ESTUPINAN PEREZ (COL), 2-1

53 kg: Vayle Baker (Benton, Pa./Minnesota Storm/Wyoming Seminary)
WIN Flaviana SILVA (BRAZ), 10-0
WIN Rita ROJAS CHAVEZ (MEX), 5-5
LOSS Jayd DAVIS (CAN), 12-2

55 kg: Cameron Guerin (Yakima, Wash./Team Takedown)
WIN Carla ACOSTA (MEX), 1:47
WIN Becky CORNEJO (ECU), 10-0

57 kg: Michaela Beck (New York, N.Y./New York AC)
LOSS Hannah TAYLOR (CAN), fall 6:00
WIN Susana LOZANO VEYTIA (MEX), 10-0

59 kg: Brenda Reyna (Mount Vernon, Wash./New York AC/Bearcat WC)
WIN Maria SILVA (BRA), forfeit
WIN Karina OLVERA ORTEGA (MEX), fall 0:27
WIN Sara BRINKAC (CAN), 10-0

62 kg: Brianna Csontos (Amissville, Va./New York RTC)
WIN Meirele CHARAMBA (BRA), fall 2:28
WIN Diana ECHEGARAY PRIETO (PER), fall 0:43
WIN Xiao LIU (CAN), 6-2

65 kg: Ashlynn Ortega (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo West WC)
WIN Nikeli FERREIRA (BRA), injury default
WIN Atzimba LANDAVERDE (MEX), fall 5:59
LOSS Andrea GARCIA MUNOZ (COL), 7-6

68 kg: Kayla Marano (Jefferson, Ga./Lion WC)
LOSS Dejah SLATER (CAN), 15-4

72 kg: Andrea Sennett (Wheeling, Ill./Bearcat WC)
LOSS Thais DE LUCAS (BRA), fall 1:09
WIN Adaljiza SANCHEZ (MEX), fall 0:16