Fernandez Wins Back-to-Back U17 Titles; Mills and Kikiniou Advance to Men's Freestyle Finals

Friday at the U17 World Championships was the best so far from an American perspective. The women’s freestyle team finished their tournament, while the men’s freestyle action got underway.

All four of the women who wrestled on Friday will leave Athens with world medals. Two had already clinched their medals heading into the day, while the other two had to post wins to earn their hardware.

In yesterday’s recap, we mentioned how Morgan Turner had become the first American woman to win multiple U17 world championships. As expected, Turner has company and the exclusive club has grown to two. Taina Fernandez put her own spin on the accomplishment by going back-to-back (Turner’s first title came in 2023).

Fernandez and India’s Yashita nearly battled to a stalemate in the opening stanza. A snap down and go-behind, quickly followed by a shot-clock violation, accounted for a 3-0 lead for Fernandez after one period. In the second, she opened up as we’ve been accustomed to seeing from her. Shortly after wrestling resumed, Fernandez got in on a single leg and switched to a double for a takedown. She immediately transitioned into a leg lace and turned Yashita multiple times. The officials ruled that it had only occurred twice, and the match resumed with the American holding a 9-0 lead. No worries for Fernandez, who used a similar attack to seal her win at 11-0.

In her second U17 world title run, Fernandez only surrendered points in one of her four victories.

The other finalist for the women’s squad was Epenesa Elison at 53 kg. She faced China’s Jiaqing Jiang in the gold medal matchup. Jiang ended up prevailing 7-4; however, Elison was on the wrong side of three different calls where she might have earned takedown(s). She’ll settle for silver in her first actual U17 world tournament. Elison qualified for the 2024 tournament but did not wrestle.

Maisie Elliott (40 kg) and Jaclyn Bouzakis (46 kg) both finished up with bronze medals. Both had relatively one-sided wins to clinch their medals. Elliott won with a 6-0 shutout, while Bouzakis managed to wrap up a 12-2 tech in the final seconds of the first period.

The women’s freestyle team finished in second place behind India. Even though they finished with a lower point total, the American squad was the only one with seven medalists.

In men’s freestyle, two Americans pushed through to Saturday’s gold medal matches and one other is in a bronze medal match.

Arseni Kikiniou made some history of his own as he became the first American to earn U17 world medals in both styles at the same World Championship event. He earned a bronze medal in Greco earlier this week. On Friday, Kikiniou advanced to the 65 kg gold medal match after edging Iran’s Morteza Haj Mollamohammadi, 3-2. Trailing 2-1, with under :30 remaining in the bout, Kikiniou won a scramble to get the go-ahead takedown. He’ll face Azerbaijan’s Huseyn Ismayilov in tomorrow’s championship match.

Before Kikiniou earned a finals berth, Ariah Mills had become the first American in men’s freestyle to do so in the 2025 tournament. Late in the first period, against Azerbaijan’s Ravan Hasanzade, Mills drove Hasanzade out of bounds to his back for four points. That gave him a 4-1 lead he’d never relinquish. Mills added more late in the second for a 7-2 win.

The third American in the semifinals was Grey Burnett at 55 kg, who suffered an 8-2 loss to Japan’s Jinnosuke Okonogi. The pair were tied at the break, with Burnett holding criteria; however, Okonogi had a big second period to take the lead. Burnett will wait for an opponent to advance to tomorrow’s bronze medal match.

Aaron Stewart (80 kg) and Alex Taylor (110 kg) were both in action as well - both were eliminated from medal contention on Friday. 

American Results

Women’s freestyle

40 kg

Bronze medal match: Maisie Elliott over Finja Strauch (Germany)  6-0

46 kg

Bronze medal match: Jaclyn Bouzakis over Irina Tsydeeva (Russia)  12-2
 

53 kg

Gold medal match: Jiaqing Jiang (China) over Epenesa Elison  7-4
 

61 kg

Gold medal match: Taina Fernandez over Yashita (India)  11-0
 

Men’s freestyle

48 kg

Round of 16: Ariah Mills over Islam Rabadanov (Russia)  11-0

Quarterfinals: Ariah Mills over Giorgi Narimindze (Georgia)  12-1

Semifinals: Ariah Mills over Ravan Hasanzade (Azerbaijan)  7-2
 

55 kg

Round of 16: Grey Burnett over Armen Papikyan (Armenia)  3-2

Quarterfinals: Grey Burnett over Jaiveer Singh (India)  3-0

Semifinals: Jinnosuke Okonogi (Japan) over Grey Burnett  8-2
 

65 kg

Round of 32: Arseni Kikiniou over Nikita Kozich (Israel)  10-0

Round of 16: Arseni Kikiniou over Michal Michniewicz (Poland)  9-0

Quarterfinals: Arseni Kikiniou over Gourav Punia (India)  5-4

Semifinals: Arseni Kikiniou over Morteza Haj Mollamohammadi (Iran)  3-2
 

80 kg

Round of 16: Aaron Stewart over Marshall Jones (Great Britain)  11-0

Quarterfinals: Issa Zangiev (Russia) over Aaron Stewart  10-4
 

110 kg

Round of 16: Hakim Taghiyev (Azerbaijan) over Alex Taylor  7-6
 

Saturday’s Gold Medal Matches

48 kg: Ariah Mills (USA) vs. Sina Boustani Kalateh Abbasabad (Iran)

55 kg: Jinnosuke Okonogi (Japan) vs. Abdumalik Jaloldinov (Uzbekistan) 

65 kg: Arseni Kikiniou (USA) vs. Huseyn Ismayilov (Azerbaijan)

80 kg: Artur Kostiuk (Ukraine) vs. Mohammadparsa Karami (Iran)

110 kg: Lacky (India) vs. Magomedrasul Omarov (Russia)
 

Final Medal Round Matches

Women’s Freestyle

40 kg

Gold medal match: Shokhista Shonazarova (Uzbekistan) over An Nakanishi (Japan)  11-0

Bronze medal match: Maisie Elliott (USA) over Finja Strauch (Germany)  6-0

Bronze medal match: Asema Asangaryeva (Kyrgyzstan) over Valia Harsan (Romania)  2-0
 

46 kg

Gold medal match: Hanano Oya (Japan) over Janka Sillei (Hungary)  3-0

Bronze medal match: Jaclyn Bouzakis (USA) over Irina Tsydeeva (Russia)  12-2

Bronze medal match: Maria Gkika (Greece) over Kamila Kuchma (Ukraine)  4-3
 

53 kg

Gold medal match: Jiaqing Jiang (China) over Epenesa Elison (USA)  7-4

Bronze medal match: Rion Ogawa (Japan) over Margarita Iarygina (Belarus)  8-0

Bronze medal match: Mariia Zhytovoz (Hungary) over Farida Abdrakhmanova (Kazakhstan)  10-0
 

61 kg

Gold medal match: Taina Fernandez (USA) over Yashita (India)  11-0

Bronze medal match: Barbara Bager (Hungary) over Varvara Aliseyenka (Russia)  2-0

Bronze medal match: Zalina Totrova (Belarus) over Miranda Kapanadze (Georgia)  8-0
 

69 kg 

Gold medal match: Min Zhao (China) over Ayla Sahin (Germany)  13-2

Bronze medal match: Solomiia Petriv (Ukraine) over Manisha (India)  5-2

Bronze medal match: Shakhizada Dauletzhan (Kazakhstan) over Linda Martinez Armenta (Mexico)  4-1