Jacobson Advances to Sunday's Repechage

Saturday was the last full day of competition at the 2025 Senior World Championships. The final three weight classes (63 kg, 67 kg, and 87 kg) got underway. The USA will have one wrestler alive in Sunday’s repechage - in search of America’s first Greco medal of the 2025 championships.

There were also a pair of wrestlers in repechage this morning, as Max Black and Alex Sancho qualified yesterday. 

Black, wrestling in his first Senior World tournament, posted a win in his first repechage bout over Israel’s Melkamu Fetene, 5-1. That set the table for a tough matchup against 2024 Olympic bronze medalist, Se Ung Ri of North Korea. Un Ri cruised to a 9-0 victory and eventually won another bronze medal.

Also in repechage was veteran Alex Sancho at 72 kg. Sancho dropped his first bout to Armenia’s Gor Khachatryan, 6-1.

Of the two wrestlers whose tournaments started on Saturday, Ellis Coleman (63 kg) and Payton Jacobson (87 kg), both notched wins. Both came via tech. Unfortunately, only Jacobson will be active tomorrow in repechage. He was beaten, 5-1 by 2021 U23 world champion Aleksandr Komarov of Serbia. Komarov advanced to the gold medal bout and pulled Jacobson back in the medal hunt.

Jacobson will need to win two matches to wrestle in a bronze medal bout. His first opponent is Japan’s Soh Sakabe, a veteran competitor who was eighth at the Asian Championships this year. 

Greco-Roman 

60 kg

Repechage: Max Black over Melkamu Fetene (Israel)  5-1

Repechage: Se Ung Ri (North Korea) over Max Black  9-0
 

63 kg

Round of 32: Ellis Coleman over Moamen Mohamed (Egypt)  10-2

Round of 16: Azatjan Achilov (Turkmenistan) over Ellis Coleman  12-1
 

67 kg

Round of 32: Dominick Etlinger (Croatia) over Alston Nutter  10-0
 

72 kg

Repechage: Gor Khachatryan (Armenia) over Alex Sancho  6-1
 

87 kg

Round of 32: Payton Jacobson over Karan Kamboj (India)  8-0

Round of 16: Aleksandr Komarov (Serbia) over Payton Jacobson  5-1