Cristelle Rodriguez claimed a silver medal at the Cadet World Championships (Photo/Kadir Caliskan, United World Wrestling)SOFIA, Bulgaria -- A pair of American women fell in the finals of the Cadet World Championships on Thursday in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Cristelle Rodriguez and Skylar Hattendorf will leave with silver medals after both lost to Japanese wrestlers in the finals.
Rodriguez fell 5-2 in the finals at 49 kilograms to Japan's Moe Kiyooka. The 15-year-old Californian trailed 1-0 at the break but came back with a takedown early in the second period to grab a 2-1 lead. Kivooka quickly responded with a takedown of her own to retake the lead. She then added another takedown with 40 seconds remaining.
Skylar Hattendorf lost 4-0 in the finals to Japan's Ruka Natami (Photo/Kadir Caliskan, United World Wrestling)Hattendorf, a 14-year-old from New Hampshire, was blanked 4-0 by Japan's Ruka Natami in the gold-medal match at 57 kilograms. Natami scored a takedown in each of the two periods, the final one coming with 15 seconds left in the match.
Sterling Dias gets her hand raised after a semifinal win (Photo/Kadir Caliskan, United World Wrestling)Dias reaches finals
Sterling Dias, a returning world bronze medalist, secured her second straight world medal by reaching the finals at 40 kilograms. She topped Mushtariy Tolipbekova of Uzbekistan 4-1 in the semifinals.
Dias scored the first point of the match off the activity clock and led 1-0 at the break. In the second period, Dias scored off a step out to go up 2-0 before Tolipbekova scored a point off a caution for fleeing the hold. Dias came back with another step out to go up 3-1. With short time on the clock, Tolipbekova came close to scoring a takedown, but Dias fought it off and claimed the victory to earn a spot in the finals.
Dias opened her day with two straight technical superiorities before her semifinal match against Tolipbekova.
She will face 2019 Cadet Asian silver medalist Komal Komal of India for the gold medal.
Kylie Welker and Amit Elor reached the semifinals before losing. They will both wrestle for bronze medals on Friday.
Welker was dominated by returning world champion Nonoka Ozaki of Japan 10-0 in the semifinals. Ozaki scored eight of her 10 points off four takedowns en route to a first-period technical superiority. Welker had not surrendered a point prior to her semifinal match. She won by fall in 33 seconds in the quarterfinals over Russia's Tatyana Kabanova after opening with an 11-0 technical superiority over Yu Lin Lo of Taipei.
Elor dropped her semifinal match to Japan's Honoka Nakai 3-1. The 15-year-old Californian led 1-1 on criteria in the second period before giving up a takedown with 20 seconds left in the match, which proved to be the difference. Elor had a pair of technical superiorities earlier in the day over Ukraine's Karolina Povk and Hungary's Lili Ujfalvi.
Sage Mortimer and Adriana Dorado Marin dropped their opening matches. Both were eliminated when the wrestlers who defeated them failed to make the finals.
Mortimer, who became the first female to become a Fargo Greco-Roman All-American, fell 10-6 to Canada's Serena DiBenedetto.
Dorado Marin lost 12-1 to Alessia Hetmanava of Belarus.
Greco-Roman competition gets underway on Friday at the Cadet World Championships with five weight classes being contested.
Friday's medal matches are scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.
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