The US had two wrestlers competing in the final day of the Olympic qualifying event this weekend and for one of them it will be a day to remember. J’Den Cox in the 86kg division was dominant in the first two rounds with 11-0 and 10-0 wins before the competition got a little stronger. First he defeated Zbigniew Baranowski of Poland (12th in the 2014 World Championships) 4-1 in the quarterfinals and then faced Umidjon Ismanov of Uzbekistan for a spot in the Olympics. Cox won 5-2 to grab the Olympic spot and advance to the gold medal final. Baranowski also advanced to the Olympics by finishing third. In the final Cox took on Pedro Ceballos Fuentes of Venezuela and won 6-0.

The other American competing was in the 65kg division where Frank Molinaro was victorious 12-0 in his opening match before losing 6-4 to Yakup Gor of Turkey. Gor was a tough matchup for Molinaro as he had finished third and second at the last two world championships in the non-Olympic 70kg division. He went on to finish third on Sunday and qualify for Rio.

With Cox qualifying on Sunday and Haley Augello and Helen Maroulis qualifying on Saturday the US now has qualified 12 of their 18 wrestlers for Rio. The six left to qualify (three greco-roman, two women’s freestyle, and one men’s freestyle) will have their final chance in the qualifying tournament in Istanbul on May 6th through the 8th.

Previous Wrestling Coverage:
Olympic Qualifying Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update