U20 Men's Freestyle Team Puts Five in Semi's after Perfect Morning Session

Expectations couldn’t be higher for the 2024 U20 men’s freestyle team. Just a few days after its team members secured a spot on the team, InterMat wrote an article comparing this year’s squad to great U20 teams of the past. 

As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons for such high expectations. The kids are good. They’re really good!

Friday morning the U20 men’s freestyle team took the mat for the first time in Pontevedra, Spain, and the team got off to a blazing start. All five of the wrestlers who started on Friday won their quarterfinal matches and will wrestle in the semifinals in a few hours. 

There were different types of performances - as some of the Americans crushed their competition, while others had to grind out their wins. Either way, the US men went 14-0 during the morning session. 

Two that blew through their opposition were PJ Duke and Zach Ryder. Ryder, an incoming freshman at Penn State, did not surrender a point in his three matches and posted three wins via tech. The deepest he needed to go in one single match was in the Round of 16 - a bout that made it :40 seconds in the second period. 

In the semifinals, Ryder will face Russia Said Saidulov. Saidulov was a gold medalist at the 2024 European U20 Championships. 

Duke, the #1 overall recruit in the Class of 2025, showed why he is so highly thought of as he also teched all three of his opponents. Mongolia’s Ankh Erdene Altangerel was the only wrestler to score on him and that came in the second period of a 12-1 match. 

Duke’s semifinal opponent is also a European U20 gold medalist in Magomed Baitukaev. Baitukaev might be familiar as he was the foe that Meyer Shapiro defeated last year (8-0) at this tournament in the 70 kg quarterfinals. The Russian eventually rebounded for a bronze medal. 

One of two returning U20 world medalists on the team, Luke Lilledahl, needed to use his grit to move into the semifinals. Trailing on criteria in the second period of his quarterfinal match, Lilledahl secured a go-ahead takedown on U20 Asian champion Ankush of India. Lilledahl held off Ankush’s late attacks and was penalized with a caution, but still held on to win, 4-3. 

Lilledahl will face Hayko Gasparyan (Armenia) in the semifinals. Gasparyan blitzed one of the tournament favorites, Iranian Milad Valizadeh in a 10-0 tech barely made it to the second period. 

At 65 kg, Bo Bassett was deadlocked with India’s Nikhil Pilanagoila at four, though he trailed on criteria, early in the second period. During a scramble, Bassett found a cradle and took Pilanagoila to his back for the lead, but more importantly, it would result in a match-ending fall. 

Bassett moves on to face Japan’s Makoto Hosokawa in the semifinals. This is the first world-level event for Hosokawa, but he has claimed Asian U20 silver and bronze medals in the past. 

The largest member of the American contingent to compete today was Oregon State’s Justin Rademacher at 97 kg. Rademacher’s stout defense came into play repeatedly on Friday. In a Round of 16 match that was closer than the score may indicate, Radmacher continually stuffed Japan’s Genki Hoki and scored off of his counterattacks. 

In the quarterfinals against an opponent that didn’t offer much in the way of offense, Rademacher played the tactical game against Ramini Gulitashvili (Georgia) and earned the first two points of the contest after shot clock violations. He put an emphatic exclamation point on the win with a big double leg late in the contest - sealing a 4-0 win. 

Rademacher has perhaps the toughest semifinal match of the crew. He’ll face 2023 world champion Rizabek Aitmukhan (Kazakhstan). Aitmukhan won his Senior world title at 92 kg and was a U20 silver medalist last year. In 2024, Aitmukhan made the Asian Senior finals. 

Action from Pontevedra resumes at 10:45 am Eastern.