Facundo advances to bronze match at 2019 Cadet Worlds

Photo of Alex Facundo by Kadir Caliskan of UWW.

SOFIA, Bulgaria – 2018 Cadet World bronze medalist Alex Facundo won two repechage matches at 71 kg on Wednesday afternoon to earn a chance at another World medal.

In his first repechage match, Facundo produced several points on step outs and multiple takedowns en route to an 11-0 win over Francesco Masotti of Italy. Masotti was 17th at the 2019 Cadet European Championships.

To advance to the bronze-medal match, Facundo outlasted 2019 Cadet Asian champion Vijay Vijay from India. Vijay scored an early takedown in the match and held onto the lead for most of the bout. Late in the second period, Facundo scored a single-leg takedown and held on for a 2-2 win on criteria.

For bronze, Facundo will face 2019 Cadet European silver medalist Davit Kutchuashvili of Georgia.

Also wrestling for a medal tonight for USA is Marc-Anthony McGowan, who is in the gold-medal match at 45 kg.

Medal matches will take place Wednesday at 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) live on Trackwrestling.com.

2019 CADET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

at Sofia, Bulgaria, July 29-Aug. 4

Men’s freestyle results

71 kg: Alex Facundo (Davison, Mich./Team Donahue)
WIN Shokhrukh Juraev (Uzbekistan), 9-0
LOSS Soslan Tigiev (Russia), 5-4
WIN Francesco Masotti (Italy), 11-0
WIN Vijay Vijay (India), 2-2
vs. Davit Kutchuashvili (Georgia)