Blades advances to bronze match, Raney surged to quarters at 2025 World Championships

ZAGREB, Croatia – A couple young stars carried the flag for Team USA on Thursday morning at the 2025 Senior World Championships—2024 Olympic bronze medalist Kennedy Blades won in repechage and advanced to the bronze medal round in women’s freestyle, while 2024 U17 World champion Jayden Raney got Greco-Roman off to a hot start by making the quarterfinals.

Blades came out ultra-aggressive against two-time U23 World bronze medalist Manola Skobelska of Ukraine during her only match of the morning session. Blades was all over the legs, putting up points in bunches. She took the match 9-2 with three takedowns and three step out points to her credit.

It’ll be a marquee matchup in the 68 kg bronze medal match—Blades taking on 2024 Olympic bronze medalist and 2023 World champion Buse Cavusoglu Tosun of Türkiye. A Blades win this evening would put Team USA in position to make the top three in the team ranking.

The high school prodigy Raney navigated to the 55 kg quarterfinals with a pair of gritty wins. He opened with a 2-1 decision against Ukraine’s Koriun Sahradian, in a match of strategic positioning. Raney scored the only offensive point of the bout on a step out. In the second round, Raney fell behind Asian silver medalist Sajjad Ali Albidhan of Iraq, 3-1, before exploding to an arm drag takedown and bar arm pin at 4:23.

Raney went up against four-time World champion Eldaniz Azizli of Azerbaijan in the quarterfinals. Azizli built an early 5-0 lead with a savvy front headlock, go-behind takedown and added gutwrench. Raney was put down in forced par terre but held off any additional points. In the second period, Raney put forth a strong fight. He earned a chance on top but couldn’t find home. Azizli advanced with a 5-1 decision and needs a win in the semifinals to pull Raney into repechage.

Three U.S. entrants started the tournament 0-1 in Greco-Roman—Kamal Bey at 77 kg, Beka Melelashvili at 87 kg and Cohlton Schultz at 130 kg. Bey is still in the running for a repechage opportunity pending tonight’s semifinal results. The road has ended for Melelashvili and Schultz.

For a complete match-by-match breakdown of the morning session for Team USA in Zagreb, browse our day six match notes.

The tournament resumes at 4:30 p.m. local time on Thursday with the Greco-Roman group one (55-77-82-130 kg) semifinals, followed by the women’s freestyle group three (53-62-68-72 kg) medal matches at 6 p.m. Zagreb, Croatia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The Senior World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.