Pat Smith pulled into repechage at Kolov-Petrov Cup in Bulgaria

SOFIA, Bulgaria – 2017 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team member Pat Smith will wrestle in Friday’s repechage at 72 kg/158 lbs. at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Smith, a two-time Pan-American champion and a 2014 University World silver medalist, is slated to take on Japan’s Tomohiro Inoue, who finished fifth at the 2016 Olympics and won the Dave Schultz Memorial International in November, in his first repechage match on Friday.

Should the American win, he’ll advance to the bronze-medal match against two-time Junior World champion Ramaz Zoidze of Georgia.

Smith fell in his opening round to 2017 Arvo Haavisto Cup champion and 2018 Grand Prix of Zagreb bronze medalist Evrik Nikoghosyan of France in a 9-0 bout. Nikoghosyan went on to make the finals, pulling Smith back into the repechage.

Two-time National Team member Ryan Mango competed at 63 kg/139 lbs., where he won his first bout, picking off 2016 Junior World champion Dato Chkhartishvili of Gerogia with a pin in 4:58. In his second match of the day, Mango fell to 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shinobu Ota from Japan. Ota was unable to advance to the finals, ending Mango’s tournament.

Repechage matches are expected to begin at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) on Friday with the medal matches set for at 5 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET).

DAN KOLOV-NIKOLA PETROV CUP

at Sofia, Bulgaria (March 22-25)

U.S. Greco-Roman results
63 kg/139 lbs. – Ryan Mango (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP)
WIN Dato Chkhartishvili (Georgia), fall 4:58
LOSS Shinobu Ota (Japan), 12-2

72 kg/158 lbs. – Pat Smith (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm)
LOSS Evrik Nikoghosyan (France), 9-0
vs. Tomohiro Inoue (Japan)