Draws Announced for Men’s Freestyle at Zagreb Open

ZAGREB, Croatia – Team USA’s 23-man freestyle squad learned their draws for the first UWW Ranking Series event of 2026 at the Zagreb Open. Highlighting the American squad in Croatia are reigning World Champions, Zahid Valencia and Trent Hidlay.

Valencia opens the 86 kg bracket against India’s Sandeep Mann, who has made three Senior World Championship appearances. In the 92 kg weight class, Hidlay will be in Group B of the round robin. The bronze medalist at last year’s Zagreb Open goes up against two-time age-group World Champion Mohammadmobin Azimi of Iran and his fellow countryman Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjaei, who is a three-time age-group World medalist.

2024 Olympic silver medalist Spencer Lee highlights the 57 kg division for the U.S. Following an opening round bye, Lee will face the winner of Serbia’s Azamat Tuskaev and Georgia’s Nikoloz Botchorishvili.

Fellow 2025 World Team members David Carr and Wyatt Hendrickson are also in the field in Croatia. Carr begins his run at 74 kg against Aliakbar Fazlikhalili of Iran. At 125 kg, Hendrickson takes on the winner of Hungary’s Vladislav Bajcajev and Iran’s Mortaza Janmohammadzadehnamarvar. Joining Hendrickson at 125 kg for the Americans is Demetrius Thomas. Thomas starts his international season against 2025 Senior World bronze medalist, Shamil Sharipov of Bahrain.

Along with Carr at 74 kg, James Green and Jarrett Jacques will represent the U.S. Green’s opening round contest comes against the reigning Senior World Champion, Yushinosuke Aoyagi of Japan. Aoyagi has a pair of Senior World medals to his name, along with five age-Group World medals. Jacques takes on the lone competitor in the tournament from Sierra Leone, Daniel Alfred, to start the tournament.

In the five-man round robin at 61 kg, Austin DeSanto rounds out his four matches with a contest against 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Aman Aman of India. DeSanto also faces Iran’s Reza Momenijoujadeh, Palestine’s Ali Aburumaila and Georgia’s Giorgi Goniashvili.

The full list of opening round draws for the U.S. is listed below.

Men’s freestyle action takes place on Wednesday and Thursday. Competition both days begins at 10:30 a.m. local time/4:30 a.m. ET.

The 2026 Zagreb Open also features women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman competition. The women’s freestyle draws will be announced on Wednesday, followed by Greco-Roman on Thursday.

The full schedule for the 2026 Zagreb Open is listed below.

Matches will be streamed live on FloWrestling. Live results and brackets are available on UWW Arena.