Melelashvili, Jacobson, Black are U.S. Greco-Roman headliners at 2025 U23 World Championships

Three Senior World Team members return to lead the charge for Team USA in Greco-Roman at the upcoming U23 World Championships being held at SPENS in Novi Sad, Serbia, October 20-27.

Returning U23 World silver medalist Beka Melelashvili (82 kg), Paris Olympian Payton Jacobson (87 kg) and reigning Senior Pan American champion Max Black (60 kg), all of whom competed at the Senior World Championships last month in Zagreb, Croatia, headline the U.S. Greco-Roman team. All three competed at the U23 Worlds last fall in Tirana, Albania, and are the only returning team members from 2024.

An additional three Senior National Team members will take the mats in Novi Sad—Kaden Ercanbrack at 63 kg, Aliaksandr Kikiniou at 72 kg and Aden Attao at 130 kg. An athlete must place top three in his weight class of the World Team selection process to qualify for the U.S. National Team.

Attao is a two-time age-group World medalist, bagging U20 World bronze in 2022 and 2024. Another age-group World medalist comes at 67 kg with Otto Black, Max’s brother, entering the lineup. He was a silver medalist at the 2024 U20 World Championships and has wrestled on three age-group World Teams.

The remaining U.S. Greco-Roman entrants include Kenneth Crosby at 55 kg, Aydin Rix McElhinney at 77 kg and Max Ramberg at 97 kg. All three will be competing in their first World Championships event.

Half of the team—Jacobson, Ercanbrack, Crosby and both Black’s—is rooted at Northern Michigan at its National Training Center. Attao, Rix McElhinney and Ramberg all have college experience at NCAA institutions—Attao at Oregon State, Rix McElhinney at Northern Colorado and Ramberg at Augustana.

First selection to the U23 World Team comes from the Senior National Team pool in each weight class. The highest ranked U23 eligible athlete on the Senior National Team gets first choice on accepting a bid to the U23 Worlds. If no Senior National Team athlete meets the selection criteria or accepts the bid, next choice goes to the champion from the U23 Nationals held at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio.

The U.S. finished in 10^th place as a team in the Greco-Roman division at the 2024 U23 World Championships with 40 total team points which included Melelashvili’s silver medal performance and fifth-place efforts from Jacobson and William Sullivan.

Greco-Roman is the first style up in Novi Sad. Athletes will compete in three waves over the course of the event—group one (63-77-87-130 kg) starting October 20, group two (55-67-72-97 kg) on October 21 and group three (60-82 kg) on October 22. Each bracket will be contested over a two-day stretch, running through semifinals on day one, followed by repechage and medal matches on day two.

Those seeking to follow along in real time can reference the event schedule below. Novi Sad, Serbia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.

The U23 World Championships will be live streamed on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results will be provided by United World Wrestling on UWW Arena.