World champion Helen Maroulis was dominant on Saturday at the 1st Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament in Mongolia (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Helen Maroulis and Haley Augello earned gold and silver medals respectively on Saturday at the 1st Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament in Mongolia to punch their tickets to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tamyra Mensah and Kelsey Campbell also competed for Team USA, but failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
Maroulis, a returning World champion, cruised to the title at 53 kilos, earning a 10-0 technical fall in the gold-medal match over 2012 World bronze medalist Maria Prevolaraki of Greece. She finished the day 4-0. Maroulis had a 28-second pin in the semifinals, and outscored her other three opponents by a combined score of 28-2.
Augello reached the finals at 48 kilos with three technical falls, outscoring her first three opponents 32-1. In the gold-medal match she was beaten 9-2 by Hyon-Gyong Kim of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim was a World bronze medalist in 2014.
Mensah, competing at 69 kilos, reached the semifinals with a pair of victories before losing a one-point match, 6-5, to Ilana Kratysh of Isreal. She would come back to earn a bronze medal with a 7-0 victory over Diana Paulina Miranda Gonzales of Mexico.
Campbell, a 2012 Olympian, dropped her first match to Emese Barka of Hungary and was eliminated from the competition.
Team USA's women's freestyle wrestling team has now qualified four of the six weight classes for the Olympic Games. Only 58 kilos and 69 kilos have not qualified. Mensah and Campbell will have one more opportunity to qualify those weight classes.
Men's freestyle wrestlers Frank Molinaro (65 kilos) and J'den Cox (86 kilos) will attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games on Sunday.
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