Andrew Berreyesa celebrates after winning in the semifinals (Photo/Kadir Calinska)TRNAVA, Slovakia -- For the second year in a row the United States has a world finalist at the Junior World Championships in Greco-Roman, one day after two wrestlers fell in the semifinals.
Andrew Berreyesa reached the gold-medal match at 82 kilograms, edging Muhutdin Saricicek of Turkey 2-2 on criteria in the semifinals on Tuesday. A year ago, USA put two wrestlers in the world finals in Greco-Roman, Kamal Bey and Cevion Severado. It marks the first time since 1999-2000 that USA has had Junior world finalists in consecutive years in Greco-Roman.
"Last year as a Junior I just really told myself, 'This is your only opportunity for this Junior World Championships," Berreyesa said in his post-match interview following his semifinal victory. "You can't waste it. The last weeks I've just been building into this moment."
Berreyesa, a Nevada native who attends Cornell University, opened the scoring in the semifinals by countering a throw and securing a takedown to grab a 2-0 lead. A short time later Saricicek inched closer, scoring off a passivity to cut the deficit to 2-1. In the final period, Saricicek scored another point off a passivity to make the score 2-2, but Berryesa led on criteria and held on for the narrow victory.
Earlier in the day Berreyesa notched wins over Italy's Simone Fidelbo and Uzbekistan's Abubakr Alimov.
Berreyesa will face three-time age group world champion Aleksandr Komarov of Russia in the finals on Wednesday. The finals are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).
"He's never wrestled me," Berreyesa said of Komarov. "It's easy to win a world championship, I guess, when I've never wrestled him. It'll be fun. I've watched film on him. I've prepared for him. I'm probably going to talk with my coaches, text back to Ahad (Javansalehi) tonight. I know what he does. It's just going out there and doing it."
Berreyesa's semifinal victory was not the only highlight for Team USA in Tuesday's final session. Cohlton Schultz, a Cadet world champion in Greco-Roman last year, claimed a bronze medal at 130 kilograms, defeating Ante Milkovic of Croatia 7-1. Schultz gave up the first point of the match off a step out, but came back strong with seven unanswered points. Schultz's lone loss in the tournament came to David Ovasapyan of Armenia 2-1 in the semifinals.
Kamal Bey, a 2017 Junior world champion, finished fifth at 77 kilograms, losing in the bronze-medal match to Akzhol Makhmudov of Kyrgyzstan 8-1. It was a rematch of last year's Junior World finals match at 74 kilograms won by Bey 16-11.
At 60 kilograms, Taylor LaMont, a 2016 Junior world bronze medalist, won his opening match against Galym Kabdunassaro of Kazakhstan 5-1, but fell in his second match to Ararat Manucharyan of Armenia 7-3. He was eliminated when Manucharyan lost in the quarterinals.
Peyton Omania (67 kilograms), Tyler Dow (72 kilograms) and Chad Porter (97 kilograms) all dropped their opening matches and were not pulled back into repechage.
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