Four Weight Classes to Watch in Men's Freestyle at the 2025 US Open

The US Open is upon us! The men’s freestyle tournament starts Friday and will feature its finals on Saturday evening. The field is always tough at this event; however, it seems even more imposing in 2025. There are four weight classes in particular that we’re going to focus on, as they feature the most loaded weight classes and could present some interesting storylines. Remember, all Open winners will clinch a spot in Final X 2025 - only two wins away from a world team berth. 61 kg This weight is a complete hodgepodge of different generations of lightweight stars. The top seed is high school senior Marcus Blaze. In the sixth slot is high school junior Jax Forrest. Mixed in are two national champions from 2016 (Nico Megaludis and Nahshon Garrett) along with one from 2015 (Nathan Tomasello). Regardless of age, from one through eight, you have a group of wrestlers who have or are fully capable of making world teams and bringing home medals. Let’s start with the potential quarterfinal matchups. #1 Marcus Blaze vs. #8 Nathan Tomasello. Despite Blaze’s high finish at the 2024 Olympic Trials and the 2024 Non-Olympic World Team Trials, these two haven’t met. It’ll be a great test for the young Blaze against a physically dominating presence like Tomasello. #4 Seth Gross vs. Austin DeSanto We’ve seen this matchup before in college and a couple years ago at the Open semifinals. It’s always an intriguing stylistic matchup. Gross’ creativity and scrambling against DeSanto’s pace and non-stop attack. In that last meeting, the former Hawkeye, DeSanto, prevailed 5-4. #3 Nahshon Garrett vs. #6 Jax Forrest Garrett has been very close to making world teams in the past but hasn’t gotten to suit up at the World Championships. He made the 2018 team but was injured and replaced by Joe Colon, who went on to medal. Forrest is mature beyond his years and capable of competing with anyone in this bracket. The pair were slated to hit at the 2024 World Team Trials; however, Garrett did not compete in the consi’s. #2 Daton Fix vs. #7 Nico Megaludis A meeting between a pair of past US Open champions. I don’t believe these two have squared off before. I’d expect this match to be very tactical as both wrestlers are pragmatic about their offensive attacks. So, those are just the potential quarterfinals! You have some spoilers like Nic Bouzakis, Ben Davino, and Michael McGee scattered throughout the bracket, as well. This is one of those brackets that could generate five different results if wrestled five different times. Or perhaps, it’s just a changing of the guard as the youth takes over. 70 kg A pair of past world finalists lead this weight with top-seeded James Green and #2 Yianni Diakomihalis. This tournament represents Diakomihalis’ return to competition after suffering an injury at the 2024 Olympic Team Trials. Green has proven time and time again that 70 kg is a perfect weight for him. He’s tried to move up and down for past Olympic Trials; however, none of those results compare to him at 70 kg. Last year, Green returned healthy from a brief retirement and earned the 70 kg spot on the world team with a pair of wins over Alec Pantaleo in the finals. You have to go back four years now to find a meeting between Diakomihalis and Green. Diakomihalis has taken all three of their prior matches, but two of them came down to criteria, so they were very competitive. Despite their credentials, this is far from a two-horse race. Pantaleo comes in as the third seed. Pantaleo is a 2022 US Open champion and has proven he can defeat top opponents on the international stage. Fellow Michigan alum Will Lewan is the fourth seed. Earlier this year, at the Albanian Rankings Series event, Lewan posted a win over Green. There’s a chance they could meet again in the semifinals. The former Cadet World Champion, Lewan, has always posted better results in freestyle, compared to folk. The same can be said for the fifth seed, Yahya Thomas, who would like to spoil a potential Green/Lewis rematch. Thomas was a 2022 U23 World Team member and was a silver medalist this year at the Henri DeGlane Ranking Series event. He downed Lewan last year in the Round of 16 at the World Team Trials. After the top five, you have U20 world medalist Bryce Andonian, Stanford All-American Daniel Cardenas, and U23 World Team member Doug Zapf. 74 kg One of the interesting subplots at 74 kg is that we might usher in a new era of competition at one of the United States’ best weights. Since 2011, either Jordan Burroughs or Kyle Dake has represented this weight at every Olympic Games or Senior World Championship event. Dake has moved up to 86 kg for this year and Burroughs is not competing in the Open. That leaves us with a potential 2024 NCAA finals rematch between David Carr and Mitchell Mesenbrink, the top two seeds, respectively. After finishing his collegiate career with his second national championship, by defeating Mesenbrink, Carr took third at the 2024 World Team Trials at 79 kg and has competed internationally twice in 2025. After the 2024 national tournament, Mesenbrink competed in the Olympic Trials and advanced to the challenge tournament semifinals before losing the much-talked-about match to Burroughs. After his loss to Burroughs, Mesenbrink posted a 12-1 tech over former NCAA runner-up Quincy Monday. Monday will be the third seed in Vegas. Monday has had a strong 2025 with a title at the Dan Kolov and a runner-up finish at the Henri DeGlane. A potential darkhorse here is Missouri alum, Jarrett Jacques. Though he never got on the NCAA podium, Jacques has proven to be excellent on the Senior level. At the Olympic Trials, Jacques notched wins over Monday, Vincenzo Joseph, and Tyler Berger. Along with veteran Elroy Perkin, this weight also has a trio of just-graduated college All-Americans - Peyton Hall, Terrell Barraclough, and Ed Scott, who are looking to prove themselves on the Senior level. 86 kg This might be my favorite weight to follow in Vegas. As mentioned earlier, Dake will be making his 86 kg debut. 74 kg was obviously very difficult for him to make and I’d imagine Dake has given this move plenty of thought. He’ll be one of two past world medalists at the weight. Zahid Valencia comes in as the second seed. Valencia made the 2024 World Team Trials, opposite David Taylor at 92 kg, but has been back down to 86 kg in 2025 with some excellent results. He racked up a ton of points in winning the Dan Kolov and the Zagreb Open. In the finals of the Kolov, Valencia teched the #3 seed Chance Marsteller. Should seeds hold up, we’ll likely see another chapter between the two. Marsteller is a past world team member at 79 kg. He wrestled at that weight in the 2024 World Team Trials, losing to Burroughs in the best-of-three finals, but has primarily competed at 86 kg for most of the last year and a half. The fourth seed at this weight is 2024 undefeated NCAA champion Parker Keckeisen. There’s no reason to think his excellent collegiate results won’t transfer into success at the Senior level. Of course, his debut will be a huge test with a potential matchup versus Dake looming in the semis. The rest of the seeded wrestlers include #5 Rocco Welsh, #6 Marcus Coleman, #7 Brayden Thompson, and #8 Dylan Fishback. While redshirting this collegiate season, Welsh gained valuable international experience and finished with a bronze medal at the Zagreb Open.

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Four Weight Classes to Watch in Men's Freestyle at the 2025 US Open

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