Mesenbrink to men’s freestyle semis at U23 World Championships

NOVI SAD, Serbia – Offensive dynamo Mitchell Mesenbrink carried the torch for Team USA on Friday morning at the 2025 U23 World Championships. The three-time age-group World medalist blitzed his three opponents en route to the 74 kg men’s freestyle semifinals.

Mesenbrink warmed up with a first period pin in 2:10 on UWW athlete Aliaksandr Hulnik. He followed it up with a pair of quick technical falls—10-0 over Parvinder of India and 12-2 over Omar Mourad of Egypt. The competition ratchets up substantially in the semifinal round. Mesenbrink stands opposite reigning 70 kg Senior World Champion Yoshinosuke Aoyagi of Japan, who won his three bouts by technical fall without surrendering a point.

Three Americans joined Mesenbrink in the quarterfinal round but were unable to notch the breakthrough win. All three need positive results in the semifinals to have a chance at bronze.

2024 U20 World runner-up Josh Barr was in command in the second period against Iran’s Mohammadmobin Azimi, a 2023 U20 World champion, before getting turned sequentially for a technical fall loss, 13-3. He finished the day with a 1-1 record at 92 kg in men’s freestyle.

On the women’s freestyle side, Senior World Team member Adaugo Nwachukwu and two-time age-group World Team member Brianna Gonzalez dropped hard-fought quarterfinals. Nwachukwu finished two points behind Venezuela’s Astrid Montero Chirinos at 62 kg after holding a 3-2 lead in the second period. At 53 kg, Gonzalez lost the one pivotal sequence of the match to Japan’s Haruna Morikawa and couldn’t make up a 6-0 deficit.

Two-time U20 World medalist Alexis Janiak battled to a 4-2 loss in the round-of-16 to Sarika of India at 59 kg. Janiak gave up the match deciding takedown with 45-seconds left, leading on criteria at the time, 2-2. Sarika advanced to the semifinals which keeps Janiak in the repechage running for the time being.

Women’s freestyle group two athlete Isabella Mir was unable to pull through in repechage at 65 kg. She was stifled by two-time age-group World champion Eniko Elekes of Hungary, 8-0.

The tournament continues at 4:45 p.m. local time on Friday with the women’s freestyle group three (53-59-62 kg) and men’s freestyle group one (74-92 kg) semifinals, followed by the women’s freestyle group two (55-57-65-68 kg) medal matches at 6 p.m. Novi Sad, Serbia, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The U23 World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results can be found on UWW Arena.