Mitch Finesilver (left), Justina DiStasio (center), Darian Cruz(photos courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)by Richard Mann
The freestyle side of this Saturday's Bout at the Ballpark event took a big hit when Iran pulled out of the event. Despite this last-minute change, the organizers were able to put together an International All-Star team in order to face off against Team USA. While the Iran match was set to feature several toss-up bouts, the American freestyle side should be heavily favored in all 10 weights against this international squad. Let's get to know the assembled team that will be facing off against the likes of Daton Fix, Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Snyder.
57 kg: Darian Cruz (Puerto Rico)
Cruz was a three-time All-American for Lehigh and won the NCAA title at 125-pounds in 2017. Along the way, he scored an upset over Saturday's opponent Thomas Gilman, then of Iowa. After finishing college, Cruz made the transition to freestyle and initially represented the U.S. In 2020, he won a bronze medal at the Pan American Championships after falling to the eventual champion and U23 World champion Reineri Andreu (Cuba). Cruz attempted to qualify for the Olympic Trials, but ended up finishing fourth at the Last Chance Qualifier. This past December, he won a spot on the Puerto Rican national team and will represent the country going forward.
Gilman and Cruz have wrestled multiple times on the freestyle circuit following their historic NCAA tournament match. Their most recent meeting came in 2020 on the first Nittany Lion Wrestling Club show. While Cruz held his own early, Gilman took the match over and finished with a 14-4 match-termination victory.
NLWC Event
61 kg: Giusseppe Rea (Ecuador)
Rea wrestled collegiately at Wilkes, where he finished with a 121-29 record and was a Division III All-American. He is currently an assistant coach for Muhlenberg. Rea represented Ecuador at both the 2021 Pan American Championships and World Championships in the 57 kg weight class. At the 2021 World Championships, he won his first match over Gamal Al-Sabri (Yemin) before falling against eventual silver medalist No. 9 Alireza Sarlak (Iran) to make the repechage. His bid for a bronze medal came up short against Aryan Tsiutryn (Belarus).
Earlier this week, Rea had a dominant performance at Penn RTC's Summit 3 event. He scored a combined 27 points on the way to picking up a pair of match termination victories over Thomas Fischer (Switzerland) and Harvey Ridings (Great Britain)
Penn RTC
65 kg: Kamol Begakov (Tajikistan)
The Tajikistan representative finished fifth at the 2012 Cadet Asian Championship and currently trains at the Scarlet Knights Wrestling Club. In 2019, he wrestled in both the Bill Farrell and Dave Schultz tournaments. At the Schultz, he went 2-2 with victories over Ben Whitford and Earl Hall. Begakov recently tried his hand at some folkstyle as he entered the 2021 Shorty Hitchcock Memorial Open back in November. He made the finals with an impressive victory over recent Army starter Thomas Deck before coming up short against Clarion's Seth Koleno in the finals.
Begakov was also in action earlier this week on the Penn RTC show. In his only bout, he scored an 11-1 victory over Valentin Damour (France).
Penn RTC
70 kg: Dillon Williams (Canada)
Williams is a two-time bronze medalist at the Pan American Championships for Canada. In 2020, he added another bronze at the Pan American Olympic Qualification tournament but failed to qualify the weight. Williams represented Canada at both the 2017 and 2018 editions of the U23 World Championships as well as the 2019 World Championships, but he failed to bring home a medal from either competition.
Pan-American Championships
74 kg: Mitch Finesilver (Israel)
Finesilver was a four-time NCAA qualifier for Duke, who finally broke through and finished fourth as a senior to become an All-American. At that tournament, he picked up victories over Parker Kropman, Cole Martin, Jared Prince, Matt Kolodzik and Pat Lugo. Finesilver then chose to represent Israel on the international scene. In 2021 he won a bronze medal at the European Championships with victories over Davud Alizalau (Belarus), Malik Amine (San Marino), and Valentin Borzin (Moldova). He also entered the 2021 World Championships, but dropped his first match against Azamat Nurykau (Belarus) and failed to medal.
On Monday, Finesilver split a pair of matches on the Penn RTC show. He dropped an 8-2 match against former Missouri wrestler Joey Lavallee but defeated Iman Kang (Canada) via a 10-0 match termination victory.
Penn RTC
79 kg: Nestor Taffur (Colombia)
Taffur wrestled collegiately for Boston University, where he was a two-time NCAA qualifier and EIWA champion. As a senior, he finished with a 37-4 record, and he ended his career as the program's leader in wins with 119. Taffur represents Colombia on the international circuit and recently picked up a silver medal at the 2021 Pan American Championships. He faced off against Team USA's Thomas Gantt in the finals and dropped an 8-0 match. At the 2021 World Championships, Taffur won his first match over Jasmit Phulka (Canada) before falling against former world champion Khetag Tsabolov (Serbia).
Taffur was also in action on the Penn RTC show as he dropped a pair of matches against Lavallee and former Virginia Tech wrestler David McFadden.
Penn RTC
86 kg: Noel Torres (Mexico)
In 2018 Torres became the first national champion in any sport for Newman University as he won the Division II title at 184 pounds. He finished the season with a 46-5 record, including a decision victory over Division I qualifier Keegan Moore then of Oklahoma State. He has since wrestled for Mexico on the international scene. At the 2021 Pan American Championships, he dropped his first match against David Taylor, but bounced back to defeat Juan Garcia (Colombia) to take bronze. Torres also competed at the recent World Championships. He won his first match over Mark Onguyesi (Kenya) before falling against Taimuraz Friev (Spain).
2021 Pan-American Championships
92 kg: Evan Ramos (Puerto Rico)
Ramos was a two-time Division II All-American for Shippensburg who finished fourth at 197 in 2018. He won a bronze medal at the 2019 Pan American Championships after dropping his first match 11-1 against Kyle Snyder and rebounding with an 8-5 win over Canada's Jordan Steen.
2019 Pan-American Championships
97 kg Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland)
Baranowski is probably most experienced member of the international team. He wrestled in his first senior-level World Championships back in 2014. In 2019, he won a silver medal at the European Championships and followed that up with another silver at the 2020 Individual World Cup. At the most recent World Championships, he defeated Erhan Yaylaci (Turkey) before being eliminated by eventual bronze medalist Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijani). While Saturday's match against Snyder takes place a 97 kg, Baranowski's best results have come down at 92 kg or even 86 kg.
At the Penn RTC event, Baranowski wrestled twice. He defeated Scottie Boykin via a 7-3 score and dropped a 7-0 match against Hayden Zillmer.
Penn RTC
125 kg: Zach Merrill (Puerto Rico)
Merrill began his college wrestling career at Cal Baptist, where he was a two-time NCWA national champion. He then transferred to Oklahoma, where he was never really able to crack the starting lineup, but he did go 38-6 in two seasons with the Sooners. As a senior in 2015, he finished second at the Reno Tournament of Champions after losing to teammate Ross Larson in the finals. Merrill tried to qualify for the Olympics through both the Pan American Olympic Qualifier and the World Qualification tournament. He came the closest at the continental event, where he finished third with wins over Angel Pacheco (Cuba) and Luis Vivenes (Venezuela).
Pan-American Olympic Qualifier
Women's Freestyle
by Earl Smith
Like the men's freestyle portion of the card, the women's card took a big hit this week when the Mongolian team backed out of the competition. Event organizers scrambled and were able to come up with a strong squad composed mainly of either Canadian or former Simon Fraser wrestlers to oppose our women's team.
50 kg - Madison Parks (Canada)
Parks is a veteran that has been pushing to make the Canadian Senior team for almost a decade, before breaking through last year and making the world team. She went 1-1 in Oslo, with a fall over Miglena Selishka (Bulgaria) in the Round of 16 before falling to Emilia Vuc (Romania) in the quarters. Parks would finish seventh. In each of the last two years, Parks has competed at the Pan-American Championships, taking eighth in 2020 and fifth in 2021. She'll face American Victoria Anthony.
53 kg - Dom Parrish (USA)
It will be a Final X 2019 rematch at 53 kg between Jacarra Winchester and Dom Parrish. In that series, Winchester took both bouts from Parrish (10-0 and 8-3), and went on to capture a world title just a few months later. Parrish was a two-time WCWA champion for Simon Fraser and has a ton of international experience. She has competed at the U23 World Championships on three occasions and fell in the bronze medal match in 2018. Parrish finished third at the 2020 Olympic Trials in the 53 kg weight class won by Winchester.
57 kg - Karla Godinez Gonzalez (Canada)
Current Simon Fraser senior Karla Godinez Gonzalez is ranked number one in the latest NCAA women's national rankings. Recently Godinez Gonzalez captured a title at the Menlo Open without surrendering a point in four matches to maintain her unbeaten record. Last year, Godinez Gonzalez claimed silver medals at both the City of Sassari Tournament and the Yasar Dogu. In 2019, she wrestled for a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships. Godinez Gonzalez will get a significant step up in competition, from the college ranks, as 2016 Olympic Gold medalist Helen Maroulis is her opponent tonight.
62 kg - Ana Godinez Gonzalez (Canada)
Perhaps the best match of this entire event could be the 62 kg clash between Ana Godinez Gonzalez and 2021 World bronze medalist Kayla Miracle. Miracle's Canadian counterpart has some hardware of her own from 2021, as she captured a gold medal at the U23 World Championships in a weight class that featured American Emma Bruntil. Godinez Gonzalez also has a Junior World bronze medal from 2019. These two have a history as they met on a standalone card last year and Miracle got her hand raised after an 8-0 win.
76 kg - Justina DiStasio (Canada)
This could be the weight class where the Canadians are favored as they will send out 2018 72 kg world champion Justina DiStasio. The three-time Pan-American champion has a long track record for success, including another Senior world medal (bronze) in 2017. Injuries and the presence of 2016 Olympic champion Erica Wiebe have prevented DiStasio from having even more of an impact internationally over the last few years. DiStasio and Victoria Francis are no strangers, as Francis was in the 2017 weight class where DiStasio took world bronze. The Canadian has also won their most recent matchups.
Greco-Roman
97 kg - Ahmed Hassan (Egypt)
The lone Greco-Roman bout will feature 2021 World bronze medalist (that has a good sound to it) G'Angelo Hancock versus 2017 Egyptian world team member Ahmed Hassan. Since that time, Hassan has put on significant size to be able to compete with Hancock at 97 kg. That world team appearance came at 75 kg.
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