Pallone Takes Silver; Wax Advances to U17 Greco World Finals

The first medals were awarded on Tuesday at the U17 World Championships and the American Greco-Roman squad came away with a silver medal, put another wrestler in the finals, and has one more in Wednesday’s repechage.

The lone American in a gold medal match on Tuesday, Bruno Pallone, fell in the 110 kg finals. Pallone fell via a 14-5 tech to Ukraine’s Tymofii Prykhodko. The American trailed 6-1 after one period; however, he pulled within one point early in the second period after bear-hugging Prykhodko to his back for four points.

While Pallone was working to take the lead, it was Prykhodko who scored next with a four-point throw from an over/under lock. Pallone continued to fight; however, Prykhodko squeezed him to his back for another four-point move, which pushed the bout into technical superiority territory.

Pallone had to settle for the silver medal, but is the first American heavyweight since Cohlton Schultz in 2017 to medal in Greco at the U17 World Championships.

The American team locked up a second medal as Pallone’s bookend, 45 kg’er Rylen Wax, made the finals at 45 kg. The key sequence in Wax’s semifinal matchup versus Uzbekistan’s Afruzbek Ibragimov took place in the first period after Wax was deemed to be passive and Ibragimov was allowed to work from par terre. As Ibragimov was looking to score with a gut wrench, Wax deftly stepped over the hold for a reverse, tying the match at one.

In the second period, Ibragimov was called for passivity, giving Wax a 2-1 advantage. The pair fought for position for the remainder of the bout to no avail, giving Wax the win.

Wax will face Azerbaijan’s Ali Javadli in tomorrow’s gold medal match. Javadli advanced to the finals with 9-0 techs in each of his first two matches, before getting a forfeit in the semis.

The other American who will wrestle for a medal on Wednesday is Virginia recruit Will Etu at 92 kg. Etu posted a :24 second fall in the Round of 16 before falling to Ukraine’s Hlib Yevsieiev in the quarterfinals. Yevsieiev won via tech in the semifinals, pulling Etu into repechage. He’ll face the winner between Iran’s Amirreza Mehritalarposhti and Azerbaijan’s Zohrab Safarov. Etu will have to win two matches to come home with hardware.

From the first group of Greco participants, Ivan Ivanov competed in a bronze medal match at 80 kg on Tuesday and came up short. Though he held a 4-3 lead at the end of the first period, Ivanov fell to Uzbekistan’s Abdulaziz Kholmirzaev, 12-4.

Ivanov got in position to wrestle for a bronze medal after winning two repechage bouts, one via tech and another by fall.

Arav Pandey (48 kg) and Corey Brown (55 kg) both qualified for repechage, but neither was able to advance to a bronze medal match. Brown did earn a fall in his first match but was defeated in the second repechage round by Romania’s Vlad Trip, 3-1.

However tomorrow’s matches play out, this is a very positive sign for the Greco program. The American squad will come away with multiple medals for the third straight year and they have multiple finalists for the first time since the tournament was reinstated in 2011.

Tuesday’s Results

45 kg

Round of 16: Rylen Wax over Vazgen Vardanyan (Armenia)  4-1

Quarterfinals: Rylen Wax over Arsan Aliev (Russia)  11-2

Semifinals: Rylen Wax over Afruzbek Ibragimov (Uzbekistan)  2-1

Gold Medal Matchup: Rylen Wax vs. Ali Javadli (Azerbaijan)

48 kg

Repechage #1: Giorgi Chkhikvadze (Georgia) over Arav Pandey  6-3

Gold Medal Match:  Soltan Iusupov (Russia) over Ali Almas (Kazakhstan)  8-3

Bronze Medal Match: Omar Salmanov (Azerbaijan) over Giorgi Chkhikvadze (Georgia)  7-1

Bronze Medal Match: Ararat Avetisyan (Armenia) over Benedek Tombor (Hungary)  8-0

51 kg

Round of 16: Vadim Tarelunga (Moldova) over Wyatt Dannegger  9-4

Gold Medal Matchup: Bunyod Hasanov (Uzbekistan) vs. Abdurrahman Huseynli (Azerbaijan)

55 kg

Repechage #1: Corey Brown over Lavozier Wadik Marubo (Brazil)  Fall 1:30

Repechage #2: Vlad Trip (Romania) over Corey Brown  3-1

Gold Medal Match:  Diyar Amanali (Kazakhstan) over Keve Kovacs (Hungary)  1-1

Bronze Medal Match: Vlad Trip (Romania) over Tsemafei Semianenka (Belarus)  6-2

Bronze Medal Match: Edem Paiziev (Russia) over Danimir Yordanov (Bulgaria)  8-0

60 kg

Round of 32: Cooper Mathews over Artush Petrosyan (Armenia)  12-4

Round of 16: Hinata Hanamori (Japan) over Cooper Mathews   9-4

Gold Medal Matchup: Amirreza Tahmasbpourm (Iran) vs. Makhdi Barotov (Tajikistan)

65 kg

Gold Medal Match:  Shamil Labazanov (Russia) over Ibrahim Nasibov (Ukraine)  7-5

Bronze Medal Match: Orkhan Habibli (Azerbaijan) over Kunal Dagar (India)  7-5

Bronze Medal Match: Imre Juhasz (Hungary) over Vazgen Mnatsakanyan (Armenia)  3-2

71 kg

Round of 32: Aiden Arnett over Albert Deacu (Romania)  7-2

Round of 16: Baiel Nuraliev (Kyrgyzstan) over Aiden Arnett  8-0

Gold Medal Matchup: Janes Nazaryan (Armenia) vs. Aslan Dzuev (Russia)

 

80 kg

Repechage #1: Ivan Ivanov over Nurluutan Kubatov (Kyrgyzstan)  9-0

Repechage #2: Ivan Ivanov over Ilias Gadaborshev (Russia)  Fall 1:50

Bronze Medal Match: Abdulaziz Kholmirzaev (Uzbekistan) over Ivan Ivanov  12-4

Gold Medal Match:  Alireza Rezaei (Iran) over Isfahan Hasanov (Azerbaijan)  2-1

Bronze Medal Match: Abdulaziz Kholmirzaev (Uzbekistan) over Ivan Ivanov  12-4

Bronze Medal Match: Benediktas Bubelevicius (Lithuania) over Abdulhalik Bal (Turkiye)  5-2

92 kg

Round of 16: Will Etu over Polykarpos Servetas (Greece)  Fall :24

Quarterfinals: Hlib Yevsieiev (Ukraine) over Will Etu  Fall 2:18

Gold Medal Matchup: Hlib Yevsieiev (Ukraine) vs. Tomasz Mital (Poland) 

110 kg

Gold Medal Match: Tymofii Prykhodko (Ukraine) over Bruno Pallone  14-5

Bronze Medal Match: Aliakbar Akoo (Iran) over Fedor Sukharev (Russia)  1-1

Bronze Medal Match: Andrej Simic (Serbia) over Yahor Savich (Belarus)  5-1