Black, Sancho miss medal match, Jacobson in repechage hunt entering Greco-Roman semis

ZAGREB, Croatia – Five U.S. Greco-Roman athletes took the mats on Saturday morning at Arena Zagreb in the final wave for Team USA at the 2025 World Championships. 2024 Olympian Payton Jacobson is the last American standing entering tonight’s semifinal round.

It was a strong morning for Jacobson, who posted a 1-1 record at 87 kg. He earned a dynamic 8-0 technical fall win over India’s Karan Kamboj to get things started. In the second round, he put up a gritty 5-1 fight against five-time age-group World champion Aleksandr Komarov of Serbia.

The Komarov showdown was a rematch Jacobson has been eyeing since Paris. Komarov ended Jacobson’s Olympic run in the first round by 10-0 technical fall. It was a much closer contest this time around, speaking to the gains Jacobson has made. In fact, Jacobson held a 1-0 lead in the second period and controlled the pummel for the better part of the match. Komarov advanced to the semifinals and is one win away from pulling Jacobson into repechage.

The two other Greco-Roman group three athletes—Ellis Coleman at 63 kg and Alston Nutter at 67 kg—were eliminated from medal contention during the session. Coleman posted a 1-1 record with a first-round technical fall over Moamen Mohamed of Egypt before falling to Azatjan Achilov of Turkmenistan, 12-1. Nutter dropped his opener 10-0 to Croatia’s Dominik Etlinger, who had the strength of the home country crowd behind him. Both Achilov and Etlinger were defeated in the quarterfinals, dashing repechage hopes of the Army WCAP teammates.

The U.S. had two athletes qualify for repechage in Greco-Roman group two—Max Black at 60 kg and Alejandro Sancho at 72 kg. Neither were able to advance through to a bronze medal match on Saturday.

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

The tournament resumes at 4:45 p.m. local time on Saturday with the Greco-Roman group three (63-67-87 kg) semifinals, followed by the Greco-Roman group two (60-72-97 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.