Zahid Valencia, Joey McKenna headline five-man U.S. roster for Stepan Sargsyan Cup

The U.S. will send five men’s freestyle wrestlers to Yerevan, Armenia, to compete in the 26th Stepan Sargsyan Cup, Sept. 11-13. The U.S. contingent will compete in four weight classes.

The U.S. men’s freestyle roster includes five athletes, four from the Cowboy Regional Training Center — Zahid Valencia and Izzak Olejnik at 86 kg, Cameron Amine at 74 kg, and Joey McKenna at 65 kg. Killian Delaney of the Lehigh Valley Regional Training Center is entered in the 57 kg bracket.

Valencia, the reigning 86 kg World champion, has won three international medals in 2026, including two gold medals and one bronze. After winning bronze at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event in February, he captured gold in March at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov International and again in May at the Pan American Championships. He returns to competition following a runner-up finish at Final X in June.

McKenna is a two-time age-group World medalist and a two-time Pan American champion. He began 2026 with back-to-back bronze medals at the Zagreb Open and the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series events — a run that included victories over 2025 Asian champion Takara Suda of Japan and 2025 World bronze medalist Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan. McKenna will return to action in Armenia after finishing second at 65 kg at the U.S. Open in April.

Olejnik and Amine each enter the tournament after capping their collegiate careers at Oklahoma State in 2024. Olejnik, a two-time NCAA All-American, will make his international debut, while Amine, a four-time NCAA All-American, returns to international competition after placing fifth at the 2026 Muhamet Malo Ranking Series event in February.

Rounding out the roster is Delaney, who trains out of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Training Center as a member of the USA Wrestling Elite Accelerator Program. Delaney earned a bronze medal at the 2025 Henri Deglane Grand Prix, where he registered a 3-1 record with two technical falls and a pin.

All five U.S. wrestlers will begin competition on Sept. 11, when the qualification and semifinal rounds for the 57 kg, 65 kg, 74 kg, 86 kg and 92 kg brackets will be held. All repechage and medal matches for the U.S. entries will be held on Sept. 12.

The complete U.S. roster for the men’s freestyle team and the full U.S. delegation list are available below.

More information about the 2026 Stepan Sargsyan Cup is available at UWW.org.