Rundell & Kikiniou reach Greco-Roman bronze medal bouts at U17 World Championships; Two from Group 2 awaiting repechage possibility

ATHENS, Greece — Tuesday morning’s Greco-Roman action was fierce with eight U.S. competitors on the mat. The session opened with three Americans in repechage and ended with two wrestlers advancing to bronze medal matches.

At 65 kg, Arseni Kikiniou will wrestle for bronze after securing two big wins in repechage. He opened with a fall over Huseyn Isgandarov of Azerbaijan, followed by a 5-1 victory against Kyliane Eddouh of France. Kikiniou looked solid in all positions and now sets his sights on Yehor Tarasenko of Ukraine in the medal round.

In the 48 kg bracket, Michael (MJ) Rundell also earned a shot at bronze after a 7-3 decision over Gurban Majnunov of Azerbaijan. Rundell will face Kaisei Yamamoto of Japan in the medal match.

Alexander Pierce at 55 kg was eliminated following a narrow 4-3 loss to Lavozier Maruso of Brazil in repechage.

Five U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers in Group 2 started their preliminary competition on Tuesday morning.

David Calkins Jr. had a strong showing at 92 kg, finishing the morning with a record of 2-1. He began with a dominant technical fall over Zong Han Wu of Taipei, collecting four gut wrenches to end the bout. In Round 2, he posted a solid 3-1 win over his Croatian opponent Andrija Mikulic before dropping a hard-fought 7-5 quarterfinal match against Kanstantsin Kasyan, representing UWW. He now waits to see if Kasyan can reach the finals to pull him back into repechage.

Thales Silva (45 kg) was defeated by U17 European Champion Abdurrahman Huseynli of Azerbaijan. He was up 3-2 in the break but in the end was defeated 6-3.  He awaits repechage, pending Huseynli’s result in the semifinals.

At 60 kg, Will Detar came from behind in his opening bout against Vlad Duminica of Moldova, erasing a 3-0 deficit with a passivity point and 6 points on top. He held on to win 8-7 after a failed challenge. He was defeated 7-1 by Humoyun Erkinov of Uzbekistan in round 2 and was eliminated from competition when Erkinov was defeated and could not reach the finals.

Others in action were Dominic Wilson (71 kg) who lost 4-1 to Vinit of India and Carter Shin (51 kg) who dropped a heartbreaking 4-2 decision at the buzzer to Pavlos Tsentidis of Greece. Both have been eliminated and are not eligible for repechage.

The competition resumes at 5:00 p.m. local time with semifinals for the competitors in group two (45 kg, 51 kg, 60 kg, 71 kg, and 92 kg). Championship finals and medal matches begin at 6:00 p.m. for the weights that began yesterday.

Updated brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena, with live streaming coverage for viewers in the U.S at FloWrestling.com.  Continue to follow all the coverage throughout. 

U17 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

At Athens, Greece, July 29, 2025

U.S. Greco-Roman Group One Results

48g – Michael (MJ) Rundell (Oak Park, Ill./The Wrestling Academy), wrestling for Bronze

WIN - Artem KOLOS (UKR), 10-0

LOSS - Nurdaulet KUMARULY (KAZ), 8-0

WIN - Gurban MAJNUNOV (AZE), 7-3

Bronze Bout – Vs. Kaisei Yamamoto (JPN)

55 kg – Alexander Pierce (Iowa City, Iowa/Big Game WC), eliminated

LOSS - Nurali ASKAR (KAZ), 8-4

LOSS - Lavozier MARUSO (BRA), 4-3

65 kg – Arseni Kikiniou (Escondido, Calif./Poway Wrestling), wrestling for Bronze

LOSS - Janes NAZARYAN (ARM), 4-1

WIN - Huseyn ISGANDAROV (AZE), Fall

WIN - Kyliane EDDOUH (FRA), 5-1

Bronze Bout – Vs. Yehor Tarasenko (UKR)

80 g – Isai Fernandez (Sylmar, Calif./Titan Mercury WC), eliminated

WIN - Valentin Biserov VALENTINOV (BUL), 10-0

LOSS - Nurislam OSKONBAEV (KGZ), 8-0

110 kg – Alex Taylor (Howard, Ohio/Beast Mode Wrestling), eliminated

WIN - Essam Ibrahim Ramadan Anwar HUSSEIN (EGY), 10-1

LOSS - Denis Svetlozar LAZAROV (BUL), 3-3

Greco-Roman Group Two Semi-Final Match-ups:

45 kg    (KAZ) Kuanyshbek ZHANGAZHOL vs. (IRI) Benyamin Neamatollah KHEZLI 

45 kg    (AZE) Abdurrahman HUSEYNLI vs. (KGZ) Nurkerim KUMARBEKOV

51 kg    (TUR) Polat Can KARADENIZ vs. (UZB) Otabek TURSUNOV

51 kg    (AZE) Hikmat HAGVERDIYEV vs. (KGZ) Islam Rustamovich KURBANOV

60 kg    (AZE) Ali NAZAROV vs. (IRI) Abolfazl Mashaallah ZARE ESHAGHI

60 kg    (KGZ) Amangeldi YSAKBAEV vs. (UKR) Denys SEREDIN

71 kg    (KAZ) Marlen MEIRBEKULY  vs. (GRE) Dimitrios Panteleimon SOULIS

71 kg    (AZE) Yusif AHMADLI vs. (UZB) Behruzbek VALIEV

92 kg    (ROU) Ionut Erick PATRU vs. (UWW) Kanstantsin KASYAN

92 kg    (IRI) Amirsam Behnam MOHAMMADI vs. (TUR) Ahmet Enes UZUN

U.S. Greco-Roman Group Two Results

45 kg – Thales Silva (Clovis, Calif./SilvaBack Training Center) awaiting Repechage

LOSS - Abdurrahman HUSEYNLI (AZE), 6-3

51 kg – Carter Shin (Fairfax, Va./Palm Wrestling Academy) Eliminated

LOSS - Pavlos TSENTIDIS (GRE), 4-2

60 kg – Will Detar (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Team Pennsylvania) Eliminated

WIN - Vlad DUMINICA (MDA), 8-7

LOSS - Humoyun ERKINOV (UZB), 7-1

71 kg – Dominic Wilson (Rockwall, Texas/Ranger 47 WC) Eliminated

LOSS - Vinit VINIT (IND), 5-1

92 kg – David Calkins Jr. (Brentwood, Calif./Liberty HS Wrestling) awaiting Repechage

WIN - Zong Han WU (TPE), 9-0 TF

WIN - Andrija MIKULIC (CRO), 3-1

LOSS - Kanstantsin KASYAN (UWW), 7-5