STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The U.S. Olympic wrestling team is set. The Olympic Trials concluded Saturday night at the Bryce Jordan Center on the Penn State University campus.
On the men's side, the United States has already qualified for the Olympics in four of the six freestyle weight classes. He has qualified in three of the six Greco-Roman weight classes. American women qualified in all six weight classes.
Spencer Lee and Zane Retherford, both Olympic Trials champions, will qualify for their weight class by finishing in the top three at the World Olympic Games Qualifiers, which will be held in Istanbul from May 9th to 12th. need to be acquired.
men's freestyle
57kg: In this competition featuring four-time Iowa All-America honorees, it was Lee who defeated Thomas Gilman in two straight matches. Lee won 6-3, nailing 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Gilman in the second match in 5 minutes, 58 seconds. In order to wrestle in Paris, Lee will need to qualify for his weight.
65kg: Retherford defeated training partner and former Penn State teammate Nick Lee 2-1, 5-0. He called the win “bittersweet” because it required him to beat his best friend. Retherford said he wasn't sure he was even going to tackle this cycle, as he looks to the future working with financial firms in New York. In January, Retherford decided he wasn't ready to retire just yet and had a chance to gain weight by finishing in the top three in Istanbul.
74kg: Kyle Dake defeated Jason Nolf in two straight matches, 4-1, 3-1. Both are members of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. Dake wrestled for the first time since his father Doug passed away. His emotions flooded out minutes after the game as he was forced to play without the man who got him into the sport.
“This has been a journey for both of us,” Dake said. “I'm still holding on to the torch. I want to give myself another chance.”
Dake, a four-time NCAA champion at Cornell University, won the bronze medal in Tokyo.
86 kg: In an explosive match of the night, it was four-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks of Penn State who defeated fellow former Nittany Lion and 2020 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor. Brooks accomplished that by winning two consecutive matches against Taylor, who had automatically qualified for the finals. Brooks won his first match 4-1 and returned for the evening session, recording a 3-1 victory. Taylor, 33, was candid this week that he wants to live in the moment, and he said he feels better than ever going into a game. Brooks, 23, regularly wrestles with Taylor in the same room at Penn State.
“He was one of the first guys to make this (Penn State) program what it is today,” Brooks said. “It was a blessing to be around him and watch him in action. He definitely changed Olympic wrestling.”
97kg: Kyle Snyder will be competing in his third Olympics. Snyder, 28, has represented the United States at every Olympics and World Championships since 2016, with Snyder defeating Isaac Trumbull 5-0, 4-0. Snyder joined the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club in 2019, coached by Cael Sanderson and Jake Varner. Snyder is the 11th American wrestler to qualify for three Olympic Games.
125kg: Mason Paris defeated Hayden Zillmer 7-0 in back-to-back matches. Parris is the 2023 Hodge Trophy Award recipient and he is a four-time recipient of his NCAA All-America award at the University of Michigan.
Paris was the 2023 NCAA Heavyweight Champion. (Photo: Brett Rojo/USA Today)
greco roman
60kg: Dalton Roberts defeated Ildar Hafizov in three matches. Roberts, who has defeated Hafizov 10 times in 17 matches at senior level, will have to make a class decision in Istanbul.
67kg: Ellis Coleman, also a member of the 2012 Olympic team, defeated Alejandro Sancho 3-2 in the third match to win the best-of-three series. This will be the Chicago native's first return to the Olympics since he was 20 years old. Coleman must obtain a metrology qualification in Istanbul.
77kg: Kamal Bey dominated Aliaksandr Kikiniu with a 9-1 tech fall to win 6-0. At 44 years old, Kikiniou was the oldest contestant at the trials. Bey must now obtain his weighing qualification in Istanbul.
87kg: Peyton Jacobson entered the trials as the No. 7 seed. He defeated Spencer Woods 8-2 in his first match and won again 3-1 in his third match.
97 kg: Joe Lau came close to qualifying for the Olympics in the previous two cycles, but he broke through this time. Ray defeated Alan Vera 2-1. Lau won the trials but failed to qualify for weigh-in in 2016, then qualified to weigh-in but lost at the trials the next cycle.
130kg: Adam Kuhn defeated Coulton Schultz 2-1. Kuhn earned his three All-America honors at the University of Michigan.
women's freestyle
50kg; Sarah Hildebrandt is competing in her second Olympics. The 2020 bronze medalist defeated Audrey Jimenez 10-0 with two technical falls. When Hildebrandt got off the mat, she yelled, “I'm going back to the Olympics!”
53kg: Dominic Parrish defeated Hayley Augello 2-1, 5-2 to qualify. Parrish, the 2022 world champion, will make her Olympic debut in Paris.
57 kg: Helen Maroulis is a three-time Olympian and the first American woman to do so. She Maroulis won a gold medal at the Olympics in 2016 and a bronze medal in 2020. Maroulis won the best-of-three match, defeating Jakara Winchester by fall, 6-0.
Maroulis has won a total of seven medals at the World Championships, three of which are gold. (Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
62kg: Kayla Miracle defeated Macy Quilty 8-5, 3-1. The 27-year-old is a 2022 world silver medalist and made the Olympic team for the second year in a row.
68kg: Amit Arrow makes his Olympic debut. The 20-year-old sensation defeated Forrest Molinari 6-0, 2-1. Alor is already a two-time senior world champion.
76kg: Kennedy Blaze makes his Olympic debut in Paris. Blaze defeated two-time Olympian and six-time world champion Adeline Gray 11-6, 8-3. Blades, 20, has wanted to make the team since he was a child. Ms Gray, who is 33 and the mother of her twins, said she plans to take time to think about her future. She hopes that part of her own legacy in this sport is to show other female wrestlers that they don't have to sacrifice their lives for their careers. There is.
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(Photo: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
