Five wrestlers from the Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team earned medals at the United World Wrestling U20 World Championships held in Samokov, Bulgaria. The group included true freshmen PJ Duke, Marcus Blaze, and William Henckel, as well as redshirt freshmen Cole and Connor Mirasola.
PJ Duke secured the U20 World Championship title at 70 kg for Team USA. He achieved three consecutive wins to reach the final match, including a technical fall over Umut Talha of Turkey, a pin against Gabriel Sanchez Zepeda of Mexico, and another technical fall over Abdullah Nakaev of France. In the semifinals, Duke edged out Iran’s Ebrahim Elahichouran in a close contest before defeating Alexandr Gaidarl of Moldova 7-5 in the final.
Marcus Blaze also won gold at 61 kg. Blaze opened with a technical fall against Sandro Hungerbuehler of Switzerland and received a disqualification victory over Armenia’s Sargis Begoyan. He continued with another technical fall over Askat Toktomatov of Kyrgyzstan and advanced through the semifinals by defeating Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov. Blaze won his gold medal match with a technical superiority win over Iran’s Ahora Khateri.
William Henckel took home silver at 79 kg after winning three matches to reach the semifinals. He defeated Maksat Tabyldyev of Kyrgyzstan, scored a technical fall against Bohdan Oleksiienko of Ukraine, and overcame Davit Tchetchelashvili of Georgia before beating Amit Amit of India in the semifinals. In the championship bout, Henckel lost to Mahdi Yousefi Hajivar from Iran.
Cole Mirasola claimed bronze at 125 kg following victories over Sertac Aksoy of Turkey and Inal Gagloev representing UWW. After falling to Yedigde Kassimbek from Kazakhstan in the semifinals, he rebounded with a win against Narantulga Darmaabazar of Mongolia.
Connor Mirasola also earned bronze at 92 kg. He began with a technical fall over China’s Zixu Yuan but lost to Kamil Kurugliyev from Kazakhstan. After Kurugliyev reached the finals, Mirasola entered repechage rounds where he beat Teimuraz Kochkiani from Georgia and then dominated Anar Jafarli from Azerbaijan for bronze.
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