Bassett Wins U20 World Title; Three More Make Sunday's Finals

The incredible showing for the United States men’s U20 freestyle team continued on Saturday. Another American earned a gold medal, while three of the four wrestlers whose tournament started this morning have locked up a place in the finals.

Facing Japan’s Takuto Osedo in the 65 kg gold medal match, Bo Bassett blew the match open in the second period, as he tends to do. The only point scored in the opening period was by Bassett on a shot clock violation. In the final period, Bassett got in on a leg attack but was exposed by Osedo. He ended up on top in the sequence and earned a point as well. Bassett took advantage of the sequence and turned Osedo once with a trapped-arm gut wrench twice before going out of bounds.

On the ensuing restart, Bassett was close to a takedown, but exposed Osedo and nearly had a fall. For the remaining minute plus, Bassett held position and hand fought, never letting his Japanese opponent come close to scoring. The final score ended up 8-2 in Bassett’s favor.

This was the only match of the tournament for Bassett that went into the second period. In his run-up to the finals, Bassett had two first-period falls and two first-period techs.

The win gives Bassett his second U20 world medal - he earned a bronze in 2024. It’s his second age group world title after winning U17’s in 2021.

Also in the finals for the Americans on Saturday was Isaiah Cortez at 57 kg. Cortez fell 8-4 to Russia’s Magomed Magomedov. Cortez settled for silver. It is his second U20 world medal; he also took silver in 2024 in Greco.

At 92 kg, Jimmy Mastny, an Iowa State recruit who is a senior in high school, won a pair of odd matches in contrasting fashion. His repechage win came via tech, but he compiled 22 points in the process. For the bronze medal, Mastny found himself trailing Beibarys Yergali (Kazakhstan) 2-1 with under :20 remaining in the bout. In that time, Mastny was able to get a single leg and convert for a takedown with less than five seconds to spare.

Also claiming a bronze medal on Saturday was Virginia Tech’s Ryan Burton at 79 kg. In the early stages of his medal round match with Azerbaijan’s Eljan Ismayilzada, Burton found himself trailing after Ismayilzada hit an arm throw for four points.

That was the only offense that the Azeri wrestler was able to muster as Burton pulled away in the second period. Burton ended the scoring with four points of his own, as he hit a Metzger out of bounds. That made the score 10-4, which is how the match ended.

With Bassett and Burton’s wins, it gives Virginia Tech two world champions (along with Aaron Seidel) and a bronze medalist.

Of the final group of Americans who started the tournaments on Saturday, three of the four are in the finals tomorrow. Jayden James (74 kg), Michael Boyle (97 kg), and Dreshaun Ross (125 kg) will all wrestle for gold. Landon Robideau advanced to the semifinals but suffered a loss and drops into a bronze medal match. Should Robideau win, it would mean that the entire men’s freestyle team earned a medal.

Heading into Sunday’s repechage and medal round matches, the US team has already clinched the team title. They hold a 69-point advantage over second-place Russia (195 to 126).