Bouzakis wins repechage, advances to bronze medal match at U20 Worlds
by Richard Immel, USA Wrestling
Video: U.S. athlete and coach interviews at U20 World Championships
AMMAN, JORDAN – American Nic Bouzakis gets his shot at that elusive U20 World medal after he earned a decisive repechage win during the Wednesday morning repechage round at Princess Sumaya Lounge.
Bouzakis made quick work of Moldova’s Dmitri Carastoianov, working through a single leg takedown right into four-straight leg laces to take the match 10-0 in 50 seconds. He advanced to the 61 kg bronze medal match against two-time U17 European medalist Besir Alili of North Macedonia.
It was a different story for heavyweight Christian Carroll, who was unable to muster any offense in his repechage match against Turkey’s Hakan Buyukcingil. Carroll gave up a fall at the 4:44 mark while trailing 13-0 on the scoreboard to end his run in Jordan.
The U.S. men’s freestyle team placed three competitors in tonight’s medal round. Mitchell Mesenbrink will make his second-straight U20 World finals appearance, this time at 74 kg. Bennett Berge is looking to come back from a tough semifinal loss to claim bronze at 86 kg.
The men’s freestyle division at the U20 World Championships will conclude at 6 p.m. local time with the group two medal matches. Amman, Jordan, is in the GMT +3 time zone, which is seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.
Those in the U.S. can watch all the action live on FloWrestling.com. Brackets and updated results will be provided by United World Wrestling on uww.org and the UWW mobile app.
2023 U20 World Championships
At Amman, Jordan, August 14-20
U.S. Men’s Freestyle Group Two (61-75-86-92-125 kg) Results
61 kg – Nic Bouzakis (Dallas, Pennsylvania/X-Calibur Athletics WC/Ohio RTC)
WIN Shehabeldin Mohamed (Egypt), 4-2
WIN Yahor Rudauski (Individual Neutral Athlete), 9-6
LOSS Kumar Mohit (India), 12-11
WIN Dmitri Carastoianov (Moldova), tech. fall, 10-0
BRONZE Besir Alili (North Macedonia)
74 kg – Mitchell Mesenbrink (Hartland, Wisconsin/Askren Wrestling Academy)
WIN Ion Marcu (Moldova), tech. fall, 10-0
WIN Elkhan Garayev (Azerbaijan), tech. fall, 12-1
WIN Jaideep Jaideep (India), tech. fall, 11-0
WIN Zhakshylyk Baitashov (Kyrgyzstan), tech. fall, 10-0
GOLD Hossein Mohammad Aghaei (Iran)
86 kg – Bennett Berge (Mantorville, Minnesota/Jackrabbit WC)
WIN Ivan Chornohuz (Ukraine), 9-5
WIN Slavi Stamenov (Bulgaria), tech. fall, 11-0
LOSS Rakhim Magamadov (France), 9-2
BRONZE Shakjir Bislimi (North Macedonia)
92 kg – Jack Darrah (Washington, Missouri/California RTC)
LOSS Giorgi Romelashvili (Georgia), 4-3
125 kg – Christian Carroll (Stillwater, Oklahoma/Cowboy RTC)
WIN Ksawery Kaminski (Poland), tech. fall, 14-2
LOSS Amirreza Masoumi Valadi (Iran), tech. fall, 10-0
LOSS Hakan Buyukcingil (Turkey), fall, 4:44