Tracy Hancock reached repechage before losing to Seyedmosta Salehizadeh of Iran (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)PARIS -- It was a tough first day for Team USA Greco-Roman wrestlers at the World Championships in Paris, France.
Three of the four wrestlers competing on Monday secured a victory, but of the four wrestlers who competed today, none reached a medal match.
The wrestler with the best opportunity was Tracy Hancock (98 kilograms). He was the only American wrestler to receive a repechage match after Arthur Aleksanyan of Armenia, who beat Hancock, reached the finals, and eventually won the title.
To his credit, Hancock is only 20 years old and Aleksanyan won the 2016 Olympic Gold medal and is now a three-time world champion.
Hancock would go on to lose a close 3-1 match to Seyedmosta Salehizadeh of Iran in the repechage match, ending his bid for a medal. Hancock started the match strong, grabbing a 1-0 lead off a passivity. But Salehizadeh would storm back strong, scoring on a step out and multiple passivity points of his own.
Hancock was a 2016 Junior world bronze medalist, but failed to earn a medal at this year's Junior World Championships in Tampere, Finland.
The other U.S. wrestlers competing on Monday, Pat Smith (71 kilograms), Mason Manville (75 kilograms) and Ben Provisor (85 kilograms), did not receive repechage matches.
Pat Smith opened with a victory (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Smith cruised to a 5-0 victory in his first match over Matous Morbitzer of the Czech Republic. He started strong, using a pushout to get on the board and then scored a takedown to build a 3-0 lead. Smith earned a point for passivity and another pushout to complete the final score.
Smith would later suffer a devastating 8-2 defeat to Nurgazy Asangulov of Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyzstan wrestler led 4-2 at the end of the first period as Asangulov was able to capitalize on a Smith mistake for a four-point move, bringing the score to 8-2.
Smith was eliminated when Asangulov lost in the quarterfinals.
Mason Manville defeated defeated Manfred Edsberg of Sweden in his first match (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Manville also started the day on a positive note. He defeated Manfred Edsberg of Sweden in a close 4-2 bout. Manville would get on the board first with a point awarded from passivity. He would score again on passivity and a turn sequence.
He would drop his second match to Mindia Tsulukidze of Georgia by a score of 4-2. The American scored the only offensive points of the match on a takedown and gave up three points on passivity. To add to the disappointment, Manville would appear to score a takedown as time expired. USA challenged the call, only to be denied.
The 20-year-old Manville, a Cadet world champion in freestyle, was eliminated when Tsulukidze lost in the quarterfinals.
Ben Provisor dropped his opening match to Oleksandr Shyshman of Ukraine (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Provisor, a two-time Olympian, had another particularly tough loss. He was beating Oleksandr Shyshman of Ukraine 2-2 on criteria with 12 seconds left before getting tossed in a four-point throw, which proved to be the difference in the match.
Provisor's day ended when Shyshman fell prior to the finals. .
The Greco-Roman competition continues on Tuesday as team USA will have wrestlers compete at 59 kilograms, 66 kilograms, 80 kilograms and 130 kilograms.
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