Valencia, DeSanto bag gold to kick off men’s freestyle at Pan American Championships

CORALVILLE, Iowa – The men’s freestyle portion of this year’s Senior Pan American Championships kicked off in style for the U.S. group. Reigning World champion Zahid Valencia and Zagreb Open Ranking Series champion Austin DeSanto breezed to gold medals on Saturday evening at Xtream Arena.

Valencia pitched a perfect game at 86 kg with three shutout technical falls, including a decisive 10-0 win over Christopher Foca Mejia of the Dominican Republic in the championship match. Valencia picked Foca Mejia apart with four takedowns, including a powerful double leg finish to the back to punctuate the win.

It was the third Pan American Championship gold medal for Valencia. Since topping the World podium last September, Valencia has collected gold medals at the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International and Senior Pan Ams, plus a bronze medal from the Zagreb Open Ranking Series. Up next is Final X on June 19 in Newark, N.J., against four-time World champion and two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake for the World Team spot.

DeSanto continued his stellar season with a near-perfect outing at 61 kg. He earned three 10-0 technical falls in the preliminary rounds before dominating Caleb Smith of Puerto Rico, 9-0, in the gold medal match. Both Smith and DeSanto were champions at the 2025 Bill Farrell Memorial International last November, Smith at 57 kg and DeSanto at 61 kg.

Since taking the Bill Farrell Memorial title, DeSanto has reeled off four-straight international medal performances in 2026. In addition to his gold from Coralville, DeSanto topped the podium at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix and Zagreb Open Ranking Series. He was a bronze medalist at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series. DeSanto placed fourth in the U.S. Open and is expected to compete at next week’s Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, with a spot at Final X on the line.

U.S. Open finalist Kannon Webster added a silver medal for Team USA at 74 kg. After posting three technical falls on his way to the finals, Webster was topped by 2025 U23 World bronze medalist Geannis Garzon Tamayo of Cuba in the medal round, 12-6.

For a complete match-by-match breakdown of every Team USA match from Saturday, browse our day three match notes.

Wrestling fans in the U.S. market can watch the 2026 Senior Pan American Championships live or on-demand at FloWrestling.com. Complete brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena.

The tournament concludes on Sunday with men’s freestyle group two (57-65-70-79-92-97-125 kg). The action begins at 10 a.m. (CT). Entered for the U.S. are Liam Cronin, Real Woods, Ridge Lovett, Levi Haines, Trent Hidlay, Stephen Buchanan and Wyatt Hendrickson.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com and USA Wrestling’s social media platforms for complete coverage of the Senior Pan American Championships.