The US freestyle wresting team was dominant on day one at the Wrestling World Cup in Los Angeles. The US won 15 of the 16 individual matches in a 7-1 win over India and an 8-0 win over Azerbaijan to set up a group deciding showdown with Iran on Sunday.

All of the US wrestlers that competed on Saturday wrestled twice and only Alex Dieringer lost a match. Dieringer lost to India’s Parveen Rana 5-4.

Iran shutout India but struggled against Azerbaijan and held on for a 5-3 victory. The US and Iran met last year in the gold medal match with Iran winning 5-3. Iran has won the last four wrestling world cups and the US has not finished ahead of Iran since 2008 when Iran did not compete in the world cup event.

US Team:
57 kg – Daniel Dennis – 2-0
61 kg – Tony Ramos – 2-0
65 kg – Frank Molinaro – 2-0
70 kg – James Green – 2-0
74 kg – Alex Dieringer – 1-1
86 kg – J’Den Cox – 2-0
97 kg – Kyle Snyder – 2-0
125 kg – Jake Varner – 2-0

The US freestyle wresting team will be competing in the Wrestling World Cup starting Saturday in Los Angeles. The US will face India and Azerbaijan on the first day of competition before facing Iran on Sunday. Depending on where the USA finishes in their group they will wrestle for gold, bronze, fifth, or seventh in their second match on Sunday.

The US team has two wrestlers per weight class so it’s not certain who will wrestle for the US yet.

US Team:
57 kg – Daniel Dennis, Alan Waters
61 kg – Tony Ramos, Nahshon Garrett
65 kg – Frank Molinaro, Zain Retherford
70 kg – James Green
74 kg – Jordan Burroughs, Alex Dieringer
86 kg – J’Den Cox, David Taylor
97 kg – Kyle Snyder, Jake Varner
125 kg – Tervel Dlagnev, Zach Rey

US wrestler Frank Molinaro thought his Olympic dreams were dead on Sunday after he lost in the quarterfinals of the final Olympic qualifying tournament. With no spot left to battle for Molinaro fought hard the rest of the way to finish third and finish with his head held high. Three days later Molinaro got amazing news that after failed doping tests in some previous European and Asian competitions the United World Wrestling had redistributed some of the Olympic qualifying spots and one of those was being awarded to Molinaro.

Molinaro’s inclusion gives the US 14 athletes in Rio and competitors in all six of the men’s freestyle events. While the 14 is still a setback after having 17 in London it’s tied for second behind Russia for Rio.

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Much like the two US women who competed on Saturday Frank Molinaro came up short in his Olympic bid and ran into one of the best competitors too early. Molinaro cut it close early with an opening 3-2 win followed by a 7-6 win to reach the quarterfinals. That’s where Molinaro ran into Bulgaria’s Borislav Novachkov. Novachkov got the better of the American 5-2 to knock Molinaro out of Olympic competition. Novachkov went on to win the competition and Molinaro came as close as anyone to defeating him. Molinaro won his two remaining matches 4-1 and 5-2 to win a bronze.

With five of the six US wrestlers failing to qualify in their last bid the US will only have 13 competitors in Rio. That’s a disappointing total after qualifying 17 last time around.

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The US women were both strong competitors on Saturday but perhaps luck didn’t go their way and both Kelsey Campbell and Tamyra Mensah were eliminated before their respective finals by eventual Olympic qualifiers. Campbell started the 58kg division competition with an 8-0 win before a tight 4-2 win to reach the quarterfinals. Her Olympic dreams ended in the quarterfinals where she lost 4-1 to eventual overall winner Valeria Koblova-Zholobova of Russia. Campbell went on to reach a bronze medal match but lost it as well 4-3.  Her 4-1 loss to Koblova-Zholobova was actually the closest anyone was to defeating her on the day.

Mensah won her opening match 5-0 and was leading her second match 2-6 before suffering a fall in the quarterfinals to Alina Stadnik Makhynia of Ukraine. Despite the heartbreaker Mensah went on to finish the competition strong with a 10-0 win and a fall to wrap up a bronze medal. Stadnik Makhynia went on to advance to the Olympics and Mensah, winning on the scoreboard when she was beaten, was as close to beating her as anyone.

The final competitor looking for an Olympic spot will be Frank Molinaro on Sunday going for a spot in the men’s 65kg freestyle division.

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The two Americans who had been most impressive at the first Olympic qualifying tournament fell short on Friday as Jesse Thielke became the only one of the three Greco-Roman competitors still looking for a ticket to Rio to find it.

Thielke, competing in the 59kg division, was strong to start the day winning 8-0 and 13-6 to open. He then recorded a fall in the quarterfinals setting up an Olympics-or-bust matchup with Donior Islamov of Modolva. Thielke seized the moment and in a high scoring match secured his Olympic spot with a 17-8 victory. Thielke was shutout in the final 8-0 but his mission to reach Rio was complete.

For RaVaughn Perkins in the 66kg division things started off well with 11-2 and 9-4 victories to reach the quarterfinals. There he ran into Ruslan Tsarev of Kyrgzstan, some real tough competition. Tsarev won the Asian Championship in this weight division two years ago and has been a medalist the last two years in heavier weight classes. Tsarev did not compete in the first Olympic qualifying tournament but got the better of Perkins in this match 4-3 to move into the semifinals. Tsarev was a 10-0 winner in the semifinals, meaning it sure seems he and Perkins were wrestling for an Olympic spot in their quarterfinal match.

The final US competitor, Joe Rau in the 98kg division, advanced in his opening match 9-0 but was shutout 8-0 by Kevin Castillo of Honduras in the next round. Castillo is a perennial World Championship competitor and one of the better wrestlers in his weight class in the Americas.

The two US women looking for a spot will compete on Saturday. Kelsey Campbell is competing for a spot at 58kg while Tamyra Mensah goes for a spot at 69kg. Mensah finished third in her weight class in the first qualifier while Campbell lost a tight early match on a tiebreaker.

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For the six winners of the US Olympic Trials who have yet to qualify for the Olympics this weekend in Istanbul is their only hope. They must finish in the top two in their weight class to qualify which means that a loss before the final will eliminate them. The good news is that the field will not contain anyone already in the Olympics, so competition is lighter than previous competitions and most of the six Americans were eliminated in previous qualification attempts by competitors who won’t be part of this event.

Friday competition begins with the Greco-Roman event and that is where the US has the most athletes still competing. Jesse Thielke, RaVaughn Perkins, and Joe Rau will all be trying to claim an Olympic spot. Perkins missed out on an Olympic spot in the last qualifying tournament by one spot while Rau lost his opening match, but to one of the Olympic qualifiers. Thielke lost a close opener but by comparing who lost to who and by how much you wouldn’t suspect he has a great shot this weekend.

The two US women looking for a spot compete on Saturday while the only US men’s freestyle wrestler yet to qualify will have his chance on Sunday.

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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.

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After the three greco-roman American competitors were unable to grab Olympic spots on Friday the attention turned the US women in the freestyle on Saturday. The women had a little more success as two of the four, Halley Augello and Helen Maroulis, claimed Olympic spots. For Maroulis this was not surprising at all. The reigning world champion at 55kg dominated the field winning 8-2, 10-0, and getting a fall to grab the Olympic spot and reach the final. In the final she shut out Maria Prevolaraki of Greece 10-0.

For Augello the Olympic berth was a little more shocking. The 21-year-old 48kg competitor had never wrestled at a senior world championship and was 15th at the junior world championships when she last appeared in 2013. Augello blitzed through the field with 12-1, 10-0, and 10-0 wins to get an Olympic berth and qualify for the final. Admittedly her opponents were not the strongest but she won’t be worried about that as she heads for Rio. In the final against Hyon Gyong Kim the result was not so favorable with Augello losing 9-2.

Coming close to qualifying in the 69kg division was Tamyra Mensah. Mensah opened with 10-0 and 10-7 wins before running into Ilana Kratysh of Israel in the semifinals. Kratysh narrowly out wrestled Mensah 6-5 to advance to the Olympics. Mensah did win her bronze medal match against Diana Miranda Gonzales of Mexico 7-0 and will have a good chance to qualify in the second Olympic qualifying event.

In the 58kg division Kelsey Campbell didn’t come close to qualifying but also lost in the tightest manner possible, on a tiebreaker at 1-1 to Emese Barka of Hungary. Barka lost in the next round so Campbell did not participate in the repechage competition at all. Campbell and Mensah will join the three greco-roman wrestlers at the second and final Olympic qualifying competition in Istanbul May 6th-8th.

Sunday on the final day of competition two American men in the freestyle category will attempt to qualify. In the 65kg division Frank Molinaro will face Vietnam’s Xuan Dinh Nguyen in the first round needing to win three times to reach the semifinals. Nguyen was 17th in the world championships in the fall. The other American competing is J’Den Cox in the 86kg division. Cox will take on Shamir Atyan of Armenia in the first round needing three wins to reach the semifinals like Molinaro. Atyan is yet to compete at a world championship on the senior level.

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Day 1 Update

The good news for RaVaughn Perkins is that if at the second Olympic qualifying tournament he finishes ahead of everyone he finished ahead of on Friday, he’ll be in the Olympics. The bad news is that he’s going to have to go out there and earn it on the mat with no margin for errors. Perkins was one of three US wrestlers trying to reach the Olympics on Friday but he was the only one who really came close. Perkins won his first two matches of the day by technical fall 8-0 over Benedikt Puffer of Austria and Mirambek Ainagulov of Kazakhstan but dropped his quarterfinal match to Tero Vaelimaeki of Finland 3-2.

In these tournaments the wrestlers eligible for the repechage for the third place are anyone who lost to one of the two finalists. Vaelimaeki reached the final so Perkins was not done yet. He won his two repechage matches easily, 8-0 over Portugal’s Hugo Da Silva and 7-0 over Belarus’ Pavel Liakh. This set up a match against Edgaras Venckaitis of Lithuania but unfortunately that match was a shutout for Venckaitis 5-0 forcing Perkins to try again from square one at the next Olympic qualifying event in early May in Istanbul.

The other two US wrestlers Jesse Thielke at 59kg and Joe Rau at 98kg lost their opening matches and did not get repechage chances. Thielke lost to Gaurav Sharma of India 6-5 while Rau lost to…. Sharma lost 12-0 in the second round, and the man who beat him lost 11-0 in the quarterfinals. That quarterfinal winner also lost badly, 11-2, in the semifinals to the eventual champion. Those scorelines do make it look like Thielke is far from qualifying as he heads to the final opportunity in Istanbul. Rau didn’t have to wrestle in round one but lost his first match to Carl Schoen of Sweden 4-1. Schoen did reach the semifinals before losing there and battling through the repechage himself to grab the third Olympic spot in the weight category. That should give Rau some confidence that with a better draw in Istanbul he stands a chance to qualify.

Four US women will compete in the freestyle on Friday where only two spots are available in each class. In the 48 kg division Halley Augello, who has never wrestled at a senior world championships, will take on Viyaleta Chyryk of Belarus. Chyryk was 25th at the world championships so it would seem Augello has a real chance to advance to start. Helen Maroulis will be one of the favorites to grab an Olympic spot in the 53kg division as she won the world championship at 55kg in September. She opens with Alma Jane Valencia Escoto of Mexico who was 12th in this weight class at the world championships and seventh the year before.

In the 58kg division Kelsey Campbell hasn’t appeared in the world championships since 2011 but was the gold medalist at the pan american championship in February. Campbell will take on Emese Barka of Hungary in her first match. Barka was eighth in the 60kg division at the world championships and was third at the worlds in 2013, certainly a tough test for Campbell to start things off. Finally Tamyra Mensah will compete at 69kg. Mensah has not competed at a world championship and this is a big stage for her. Her first round opponent of Kaur Navjot of India was fifth in the world championships in 2012 but has finished 13th or worse in the three years since. A winable match for Mesnah’s first might just ensue.

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