Stanich Wins Gold at U20 World Championships

It was another day and another gold medal for the United States at the U20 World Championships. Yesterday, PJ Duke and Justin Rademacher struck gold for the men’s freestyle team. Today, that distinction went to Luke Stanich at 65 kg. Additionally, two other Americans wrapped up their tournaments on Tuesday, bringing home some hardware. Will Henckel earned the silver medal at 79 kg and Connor Mirasola won bronze at 92 kg.

Stanich finished his tournament with a 4-3 win over Japan’s Reiji Uchida in the gold medal match. It was a fitting end for a wrestler who had to grind out every one of his victories. Though he ultimately won in the opening round via tech, Stanich was down to Turkiye’s Abdullah Toprak 8-0, before gassing him out and putting together a remarkable comeback. In the quarterfinals, Stanich needed a second-period takedown to defeat Rutgers’ Alex Nini (representing Italy), 3-3 on criteria. In the semis, Stanich also used some second-period heroics to get back Russia’s Amal Dzhandubaev, 3-1.

It was more of the same in the gold medal contest against Uchida. Stanich struck first with a perfectly timed leg attack in the opening stanza, which gave him a 2-0 lead at the break. In the second, a step out point in favor of Uchida brought the score to 2-1. Stanich extended his lead to 4-1 with an excellent reshot within the first minute of the period. Shortly after, Uchida got a takedown of his own, to pull the score to 4-3. That’s how the match would end, as Uchida was never close to scoring again on the Lehigh All-American.

With more wrestling left tomorrow, the US men’s freestyle team already has three gold medals, a benchmark that they’ve hit only twice within the last 20+ years (2017, 2021).

There will be two opportunities for the American men to add to that total tomorrow as Marcus Blaze (61 kg) and Max McEnelly (86 kg) both advanced to gold medal matches Tuesday morning.

Blaze and Russian Maghomedkhan Magomedkhanov both exchanged scores early in the bout for a 2-2 score. Blaze added another takedown and Magomedkhanov was cautioned for not opening up on the bottom. That led to a sequence that blew open the contest in Blaze’s favor. On the par terre restart, Blaze turned Magomedkhanov twice in a gut-wrench for a commanding 9-2 lead. After a failed challenge, it grew to 10-2. From that point, Blaze cruised to a 15-4 tech and a berth in the world finals.

With a bronze medal for the 2024 U20 World Championships, Blaze is guaranteed his second career U20 medal.

McEnelly had much more of a struggle in his semifinal bout with Iran’s Abolfazl Rahmani. A pair of second period step out points gave the Iranian a 4-3 lead. Never deterred, McEnelly continued to push and eventually got in on a leg attack and secured the go-ahead points and 5-4 advantage. During the closing seconds of the bout, McEnelly was called on a questionable fleeing caution, knotting the score at five; however, he still held the advantage on criteria. The bout ended 5-5 in McEnelly’s favor.

The Minnesota All-American is a past U17 world medalist, but this is his first U20 team (and therefore first medal).

Henckel also faced off with an Iranian in a pivotal bout, the 79 kg gold medal match. He did not fare as well as McEnelly. A sequence early on in the second period ended up changing the complexion of the bout. Trailing 3-2, Henckel forced a shot and gave up a takedown and was turned, which put his deficit to 7-2. As the second period progressed, Mahdi Yousefi was visibly tired and Henckel was able to inch closer with a handful of push-out points. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough and Yousefi prevailed, 8-6. Henckel settled for a silver medal.

The final American to take the mat on Tuesday was Connor Mirasola in a bronze medal bout against Azerbaijan’s Anar Jafarli. It took a bit before Mirasola was able to break through the defense of his stout Azeri foe; however, once he did it opened the floodgates. Mirasola went into the second period up 4-0 and never let up - resulting in a 10-0 tech.

Also, on Tuesday was the first set of women’s freestyle matches. Three weight classes got underway.

At 59 kg, Aubre Krazer was the only American woman to advance to the semifinals. There, she met the defending U20 world champion Sakura Onishi. Onishi only needed 2:30 to rack up a tech fall and advance to Wednesday’s finals. With the loss, Krazer will drop down to a bronze medal match against an opponent that will be determined through the repechage process.

Speaking of repechage, one other American woman has medal hopes alive as Jordyn Fouse was pulled into repechage at 68 kg. Fouse dropped her first match of the tournament, 13-2, to Japan’s Ray Hoshino. Fouse will start Wednesday with a repechage bout against Turkiye’s Ayse Erkan, a U20 world silver medalist in 2024.

In addition to medal matches and repechage, tomorrow will feature four women’s freestyle brackets getting underway (55, 62, 65, 76kg). 
 

Men’s freestyle 

61 kg

Round of 32: Marcus Blaze over Sandro Hungerbuehler (Switzerland)  10-0

Round of 16: Marcus Blaze over Sargis Begoyan (Armenia)  Cautions

Quarterfinals: Marcus Blaze over Askat Toktomatov (Kyrgyzstan)  11-1

Semifinals: Marcus Blaze over Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov (Russia)  15-4

Gold Medal Matchup: Marcus Blaze vs. Ahora Khateri (Iran)
 

65 kg

Gold Medal Match: Luke Stanich over Reiji Uchida (Japan)  4-3
 

79 kg

Gold Medal Match: Mahdi Yousefihajiver (Iran) over Will Henckel  8-6
 

86 kg

Round of 16: Max McEnelly over Razmik Yepremyan (Armenia)  10-0

Quarterfinals: Max McEnelly over Dachi Papinashvili (Georgia)  10-0

Semifinals: Max McEnelly over Abolfazl Rahmani (Iran)  5-5

Gold Medal Matchup: Max McEnelly vs. Bozigit Islamgereev (Russia)
 

Women’s Freestyle

57 kg

Round of 16: Carissa Qureshi over Csilla Van Os (Netherlands)  15-2

Quarterfinals: Anna Stratan (Kazakhstan) over Carissa Qureshi  9-2
 

59 kg

Round of 32: Aubre Krazer over Anel Skokayeva (Kazakhstan)  11-1

Round of 16: Aubre Krazer over Erdenebolar Lkhagvasuren (Mongolia)  10-3

Quarterfinals: Aubre Krazer over Marta Hetmanava (Belarus)  9-1

Semifinals: Sakura Onishi (Japan) over Aubre Krazer  10-0
 

68 kg

Round of 16: Ray Hoshino (Japan) over Jordan Fouse Fall 4:05
 

Final Medal Round Matches

Men’s freestyle

57 kg

Gold Medal Match: Magomed Ozdamirov (Russia) over Sumit Malik (India)  8-5

Bronze Medal Match: Nurdanat Aitanov (Kazakhstan) over Baiaman Kerimbekov (Kyrgyzstan)  11-0

Bronze Medal Match: Vasif Baghirov (Azerbaijan) over Ion Bulgaru (Moldova)  8-2
 

65 kg

Gold Medal Match: Luke Stanich (USA) over Reiji Uchida (Japan)  4-3

Bronze Medal Match: Abdullah Toprak (Turkiye) over Amal Dzhandubaev (Russia)  14-10

Bronze Medal Match: Arman Muskiyan (Armenia) over Viktor Borohan (Ukraine)  4-0
 

79 kg

Gold Medal Match: Mahdi Yousefihajiver (Iran) over Will Henckel (USA)  8-6

Bronze Medal Match: Davit Tchetchelashvili (Georgia) over Amit (India)  9-6

Bronze Medal Match: Said Saidulov (Russia) over Ion Marcu (Moldova)  11-0
 

92 kg

Gold Medal Match: Sherzod Poyonov (Uzbekistan) over Kamil Kurugliyev (Kazakhstan)  3-2

Bronze Medal Match: Gadzhimurad Gadzhibatyrov (Russia) over Sorato Kanazawa (Japan)  15-5

Bronze Medal Match: Connor Mirasola (USA) over Anar Jafarli (Azerbaijan)  10-0
 

Wednesday’s Gold Medal Matchups

Men’s freestyle

61 kg: Marcus Blaze (USA) vs. Ahora Khateri (Iran)

86 kg: Max McEnelly (USA) vs. Bozigit Islamgereev (Russia)
 

Women’s Freestyle

57 kg: Felicitas Domajeva (Norway) vs. Tapsya (India)

59 kg: Sakura Onishi (Japan) vs. Karin Samuelsson (Sweden)

68 kg: Ray Hoshino (Japan) vs. Srishti (India)