Jordan Burroughs (left) Cohlton Schultz (center), Jenna Burkert (right) (photos courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhotos.com)LINCOLN, Neb. - Of course, Jordan Burroughs made another fantastic wrestling memory here, in Lincoln, the place where he's made so many fantastic wrestling memories.
Inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, home of the 2021 U.S. World Team Trials, all Burroughs saw was gold again. The 33-year-old USA Wrestling legend made his 10th world or Olympic team this weekend, this time at 79 kilograms.
Burroughs went 5-0, running through a field of some of the most talented wrestlers competing in the U.S. today. On Saturday, he beat Hayden Hidlay, 7-3; Chance Marsteller, 4-1; and Jason Nolf, 5-3, to make the finals. On Sunday, he swept Alex Dieringer by scores of 10-5 and 4-3 to secure his world team spot.
It was a stark reminder that Burroughs, after all this time and even at a new weight, has also secured his place as one of the best wrestlers in U.S. history. He's won eight medals in his previous nine trips to the world championships or Olympic Games. He was not surprised by what he accomplished this weekend. None of us should be.
Much of what we saw was vintage Jordan Burroughs, the same one that won two NCAA titles at Nebraska, then stuck around to train and won five world and Olympic gold medals. The blast double was fierce, his motion quick, his attacks explosive. He was gritty when he needed to be. He was, as always, clutch, finding ways to score late in periods against Hidlay, against Nolf, and twice against Dieringer.
In the first match of the championship finals, Burroughs opened with a vicious double out of bounds for a 4-0 lead, but Dieringer hit a lefty-dump to take a 4-4 criteria lead. Burroughs used his speed to connect on a takedown with two seconds left in the first period, and turned that 6-4 advantage into a 10-5 first-match win.
In the second match, he did it again, a takedown with two seconds left in the first period to lead 4-0 at the break. Dieringer made adjustments between both matches and scored three points in the final minute, but could not complete the rally.
What will Norway bring? Hard to say, but Burroughs is excited for the opportunities that await - less weight-cutting, more challenges, new opponents, all of it. For so long, he held off one American opponent after another, keeping some of the country's best wrestlers off the world team and forcing others to permanently switch weights.
When Kyle Dake finally upended Burroughs at the U.S. Olympic Trials in April, Burroughs was calm in his immediate response. He called the loss "part of the process" and that he needed to "dig deep, dust (himself) off, rebuild, then come back and try again."
He ended with five poignant words: "It's not over for me."
On Sunday, he showed us all that he meant it. Jordan Burroughs isn't going anywhere - not now, and perhaps, he suggested, not until after 2024. He dug deep, dusted himself off, rebuilt himself, came back, and prevailed again. The ride with one of the best ever continues.
Yianni's Time Has Arrived
At long last, Yianni Diakomihalis is headed to the Senior world championships.
Yianni defeated Joey McKenna, two matches to one, to earn the world team spot at 65 kilos. After McKenna's late-match heroics gave him an 8-7 win in match one (more on this below), Yianni won the second, 5-2, then closed the series with an emphatic 12-2 first-period technical fall in the third.
Now the two-time NCAA champion from Cornell will attempt to do something no U.S. wrestler has been able to do - win a Senior world medal at 65 kilograms.
No American wrestler has won a world medal at 65-kg since United World Wrestling expanded to 10 weight classes for the world championships in 2014. The last U.S. wrestler to win a medal at that weight or an equivalent was in 2007, when Bill Zadick won a world title at 66 kilos.
Now Zadick is USA Wrestling's men's freestyle world team coach, and he'll get the opportunity to guide Yianni in Norway next month.
Kylie Welker's Year Just Keeps Getting Better
Is anybody having a better year than Kylie Welker?
Maybe Gable Steveson or Tamyra Mensah-Stock or David Taylor, but Welker ain't far behind.
In March, she qualified for the Olympic Trials. The next week, up a weight, she made the Olympic Trials finals. A month later, she made both the Junior and U23 world teams. In July, she won a Junior national title. In August, she won a Junior world title.
Any one of those single accomplishments would make for a great year for any normal wrestler, but Kylie Welker is not a normal wrestler. She offered more evidence of that this weekend, as she went 4-0 and made her first Senior world team at 72 kilograms.
Welker dominated her way through the tournament: two pins on Saturday to make the finals, then she swept Kennedy Blades, another Junior world champ and young women's freestyle star, in the championship series, winning match one, 4-4 on criteria, and winning match two via injury default.
By the way, she is just 17 years old.
Put another way: Buckle up and enjoy this ride, too, because Kylie Welker is going to be doing this for a while.
The Cohltrain Is Headed To Norway
Much like Yianni, Cohlton Schultz is getting his long-awaited chance at the Senior world championships this year, too.
Schultz, the All-American heavyweight from Arizona State, made the Greco-Roman world team this weekend. A few months removed from falling in the finals at the Olympic Trials, Schultz flashed his mettle in defeating Jacob Mitchell, two matches to one, in the best-of-three finals at 130 kilos.
After losing the first finals match, 4-2, Schultz settled in and won the next two in convincing fashion: an 8-0 technical fall, then 6-0 in the winner-take-all third bout to secure his first Senior world team berth.
Schultz has a lengthy Greco résumé: Cadet world champion in 2017, Junior world bronze in 2018, Junior world silver in 2019, six total age-level world teams, two Senior national titles, a Final X appearance and Olympic Trials finalist. He turns 21 on September 27, and heads to Norway to try for Senior world gold that same week.
In Case You Forgot, Gwiz Is Still (Very) Good
Hopefully you didn't forget that Nick Gwiazdowski, a two-time world bronze medalist and now a four-time Senior world team member, is still very good at wrestling, but in case you did, he offered a masterclass of a reminder this weekend.
Big Gwiz stormed to first at 125 kilos, going 4-0 and outscoring his opponents 35-3. After beating both Demetrius Thomas and Jordan Wood on Saturday, Gwiazdowski dominated Michigan heavyweight Mason Parris, 8-0 and 10-3, to sweep the best-of-three championship finals.
It's probably easy to forget how good Gwiazdowski has been for the United States because of the mainstream fanfare brought on by Steveson's gold-medal run at the Olympics. Even Gwiazdowski himself gave Steveson major public kudos for his performance in Tokyo.
But the spot belongs to Gwiz again, and if he wrestles in Norway the same way he wrestled here, he should be considered a gold-medal contender.
Clutch Gene James Green
James Green is back on the Senior world team, too, after sweeping Northwestern All-American Ryan Deakin in the finals at 70 kilos. Before a Nebraska-heavy crowd, the former Husker used some last-second offense to win not one, but both matches.
In the first match, Deakin surged ahead 6-2 in the final minute of the second period. But Green scored 2 with 33 seconds left, then another 2 with eight seconds remaining for a 6-6 criteria victory.
In the second match, Deakin again led late, this time 2-2 on criteria, but Green forced a step-out with five seconds left for a 3-2 lead. Deakin's corner challenged, but the call stood, so Green won, 4-2.
The crowd broke out in a "Go Big Red" chant, and Green took in the moment with a smile. He won the spot in 2015, one year after UWW expanded to 10 weights, and has manned that weight ever since. He's now a six-time Senior world team member.
Speaking of Team Clutch …
Made for a very, very entertaining afternoon of wrestling.
Omania, Roberts Dethrone Olympians
Peyton Omania and Dalton Roberts both defeated Olympians to make this year's Greco world team.
Roberts, a decorated age-level Greco wrestler who last made the world team in 2018, beat Ildar Hafizov, two matches to one, to win the spot at 60 kilos. After dropping the first match, 3-3, Roberts scored his clutch points in the second match, then recorded a 9-0 technical fall in the winner-take-all match to knock off Ildar and win the spot.
Omania, currently a Michigan State wrestler, swept Alejandro Sancho to earn the spot at 67 kilos. Omania won twice on Saturday as the 6-seed with identical 9-0 wins over Hayden Tuma and Jesse Thielke, a 2016 Olympian, to meet Sancho in Sunday's final. There, Omania won 6-3 and 3-2 to make his first-ever Senior world team.
Daton Fix: Up A Weight, On The Team (Again)
Omania was not the only current college wrestler to make this year's world team. Daton Fix, a two-time NCAA finalist for Oklahoma State, made his second Senior world team by storming to first at 61 kilos.
Fix made his first Senior world team in 2019, but at 57 kilos. He beat Thomas Gilman, two matches to one, at Final X that year. Then Gilman made the Olympic team in April and won a medal in Tokyo, securing his spot at 57 kilos for Norway next month.
That meant Fix and every other 57-kg wrestler had to bump up. This wasn't much of a problem for Fix, who normally wrestles 133 for the Cowboys, and it showed this weekend, as he went 5-0 with wins over Carter Young, Seth Gross, Tyler Graff and twice over Nathan Tomasello, 8-3 and 7-0, to punch his ticket to Norway.
2021 U.S. Senior World Team
Men's Freestyle
57: Thomas Gilman*
61: Daton Fix
65: Yianni Diakomihalis
70: James Green
74: Kyle Dake*
79: Jordan Burroughs
86: David Taylor*
92: J'den Cox
97: Kyle Snyder*
125: Nick Gwiazdowski
Women's Freestyle
50: Sarah Hildebrandt*
53: Amy Fearnside
55: Jenna Burkert
57: Helen Maroulis*
59: Maya Nelson
62: Kayla Miracle
65: Forrest Molinari
68: Tamyra Mensah-Stock*
72: Kylie Welker
76: Adeline Gray*
Greco-Roman
55: Max Nowry
60: Dalton Roberts
63: Sam Jones
67: Peyton Omania
72: Patrick Smith
77: Jesse Porter
82: Ben Provisor
87: Alan Vera
97: G'Angelo Hancock
130: Cohlton Schultz
*Indicates 2020 Olympic medalist
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