Lamer, Ramos and Facundo land spots in semifinals at Cadet Worlds

ZAGREB, Croatia – An electric morning session pushed three Americans into tonight’s men’s freestyle semifinals in the 2018 Cadet World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Advancing to Tuesday night’s session is Chance Lamer at 45 kg, Matthew Ramos at 51 kg and Alex Facundo at 71 kg.

At 45 kg, Lamer claimed a pair of dominant wins over opponents from Russia and Japan.

In his opening match, Lamer led 10-6 Pavel Sagdy of Russia before picking up the pin with one second remaining in the bout.

In the quarterfinals, Lamer stormed back from a 3-0 deficit, scoring 12 unanswered points against Japan’s Shusei Yamashita to earn a spot in the 48 kg semifinals.

Tonight, Lamer will face Rafael Harutyunyan of Armenia.

Overcoming deficits was a theme for the U.S. today.

At 51 kg, Ramos, a native of Illinois, trailed in his two matches on the day.

To begin his tournament, Ramos only fell behind 1-0, before an early second-period takedown gave him the lead over Greece’s Ioannis Martidis, who finished fifth at the 2018 Cadet European Championships. Ramos held on to the lead, pulling away with a takedown in the final 15 seconds for a 5-3 decision.

In the quarterfinals, Dashsteren Purvee of Mongolia jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Ramos closed in, 5-4, with a four-pointer to close the period. Six more points from Ramos resulted in a 10-4 win for the American.

Ramos will battle 2018 Cadet Asian bronze medalist Seyedfran Jafariangelyerd of Iran on Tuesday night.

Making the semifinals at 71 kg was Facundo, who looked sharp in the morning session of competition.

Facundo piled on the points in his first match, defeating Damian Korbus of Poland with a 16-6 tech fall. In the quarterfinals, the Michigan product bested Ukraine’s Vadym Kurylenko with a 9-3 win.

Tonight Facundo will face Baliyan Gourav of India in the semifinals.

In addition to the three U.S. wrestlers in the semifinals, three others will compete for medals tonight, including Richard Figueroa (48 kg) and 2017 Cadet World champion Daniel Kerkvliet (110 kg) going for gold and Abe Assad (80 kg) wrestling for bronze.

The semifinals are set to begin at 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET), followed by the medal matches at 6 p.m. (12 p.m. ET) live on Trackwrestling.com.

2018 CADET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

at Zagreb, Croatia, July 2-8

Semifinal pairings
48 kg
Ahmet YUCEL (TUR) vs. Rahman AMOUZADKHALILI (IRI)
Rafayel HARUTYUNYAN (ARM) vs. Chance LAMER (USA)

51 kg
Matthew RAMOS (USA) vs. Seyedfran JAFARIANGELYERD (IRI)
Adem UZUN (TUR) vs. Kota TAKAHASHI (JPN)

60 kg
Sabir JAFAROV (AZE) vs. Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE)
Shamil MAMEDOV (RUS) vs. Hamza ALACA (TUR)

71 kg
Bagrati GAGNIDZE (GEO) vs. Dominik MEZEI (HUN)
Alex FACUNDO (USA) vs. Baliyan GOURAV (IND)

92 kg
Omer AGTAS (TUR) vs. Giorgi CHANKSELIANI (GEO)
Johannes MAYER (GER) vs. Ali Reza ABDOLLAHI (IRI)

U.S. men’s freestyle results

45 kg/99 lbs. – Chance Lamer, Corvallis, Ore. (Orange Crush WC)
WIN Pavel Sagdy (Russia), fall 3:59
WIN Shusei Yamashita (Japan), 12-3
vs. Rafayel Harutyunyan (Armenia)

48 kg/106 lbs. – Richard Figueroa, Sanger, Calif. (Sunkist Kids/Monster Garage)
WIN Xiaolong Ye (China), fall 0:54
WIN Valerii Androsov (Russia), 10-0
WIN Mykyta Abramov (Ukraine), 10-4
vs. Alihasan Amirli (Azerbaijan)

51 kg/112 lbs. – Matthew Ramos Lockport, Ill. (Colt Wrestling)
WIN Ioannis Martidis (Greece), 5-3
WIN Dashtseren Purvee (Mongolia), 10-5
vs. Seyedfran Jafariangelyerd (Iran)

55 kg/121 lbs. – Robert Howard, Cranford, N.J. (Titan Mercury/Bitetto Trained)
WIN Aliaksei Kukharchyk (Belarus), 14-3
LOSS Simone Piroddu (Italy), 9-3

60 kg/132 lbs. – Joshua Saunders, St. Louis, Mo. (Titan Mercury)
WIN Benedikt Huber (Austria), 10-0
LOSS Ravinder Ravinder (India), 6-1

65 kg/143 lbs. – Carson Manville, Shakopee, Minn. (Banditos WC)
WIN Deividas Peciulis (Lithuania) , 13-2
LOSS Masaki Sato (Japan), 11-0

71 kg/157 lbs. – Alex Facundo, Davison, Mich. (Team Donahue)
WIN Damian Korbus (Poland), 16-6
WIN Vadym Kurylenko (Ukraine), 9-3
vs. Baliyan Gourav (India)

80 kg/176 lbs. – Abe Assad, Carol Stream, Ill. (Izzy Style WC)
WIN Medet Biliciturk (Turkey), 2-1
LOSS Mohammadreza Ghiyasi (Iran), 10-0
WIN Batmagnai Enkhtuvshin (Mongolia), 10-4
WIN Joshua Morodion (Germany), 12-0
vs. Sagadulla Agaev (Azerbaijan)

92 kg/202 lbs. – Albert “AJ” Ferrari, Allen, Texas (Best Trained WC)
WIN Banzragch Munkhbat (Mongolia), forfeit
LOSS Alireza Abdollahi (Iran), 2-0

110 kg/242 lbs. – Daniel “Greg” Kerkvliet, Inver Grove, Minn. (Titan Mercury/Pinnacle)
WIN Filip Jires (Czech Republic), 10-0
WIN Vasyl Sova (Ukraine), 10-0
WIN Kumar Anirudh (India), 10-0
WIN Sergey Kozyrev (Russia), 2-2
vs. Amir Zare (Iran)