U20 and U23 champion Michael Altomer (photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)On the first day of the U20 and U23 World Team Trials, 20 champions were crowned. Actually, that’s not accurate, 19 different wrestlers won titles because Michael Altomer won both the U20 and U23 divisions.
Altomer did not need to wrestle in the challenge tournament portion of U20’s due to his tournament title at the U20 Open. Even when he was on the mat in the best-of-three finals, it was very brief. In his first match against Brayden Gautreau in the U20 82 kg finals, Altomer only needed :36 seconds to rack up the eight points needed for a tech. Match two was longer, but not by much. There he spent :51 seconds on the match to put up a 9-0 tech.
In the U23 finals, Altomer moved up to 87 kg and faced some stronger competition. He had to grind out a pair of wins against Keenan Wyatt, 9-4, 5-4.
The rest of the U20 World Team was settled and features a pair of 2022 team members in Max Black and Aden Attao. A world bronze medalist last year, Attao was the only wrestler from the 2022 squad that came back with any hardware. That doesn’t mean he’s the only medalist on the team as 2022 U17 world champion Joel Adams moves up and captured a spot on the team. To do so, Adams knocked off 2021 U17 world team member Jadon Skellenger.
Because of true-third place matches at Final X, the full U23 team won’t be established until after next week. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of great action at the U23 level.
U23 saw two matches go the full three bouts. At 55 kg, Yusief Lillie lost the first match to Davian Guanajuanto, then rallied to win 5-1 and 5-2. The final contest of the evening was at 97 kg as Fort Hays State’s Tereus Henry stepped over a gut-wrench attempt from Thomas Godbee to earn the fall and the series. A captured a win in the first round in a similar circumstance.
The only member of the U23 world team that was victorious on Friday afternoon was Phillip Moomey at 60 kg. Moomey cruised to 7-2 and 3-1 wins over Jonathan Gurule.
2023 U20 Greco-Roman World Team Trials
55 kg - Zachary Silvis (Pinnacle) over Kenneth Crosby (Northern Michigan) 0-9, 7-6, 4-1
60 kg - Max Black (Northern Michigan) over Rhett Peak (Cowboy WC) 9-0, 8-0
63 kg - Landon Drury (Betterman Elite) over Rhett Koenig (Combat WC) 10-0, 11-0
67 kg - Joel Adams (The Best Wrestler) over Jadon Skellenger (Team Idaho) 4-3, 9-0
72 kg - Braden Stauffenberg (Michigan WC) over Richard Fedalen (NYC RTC) 8-5, 12-9
77 kg - Derek Matthews (Northern Colorado WC) over Aydin Rix McElhinney (Northern Colorado WC) 10-0, 10-0
82 kg - Michael Altomer (Curby 3 Style WC) over Brayden Gautreau (Northern Exposure WC) 8-0, 9-0
87 kg - Wyatt Voelker (Panther WC RTC) over Tate Naaktgeboren (Big Game WC) 10-1, 8-0
97 kg - Sawyer Bartelt (Gladiator Wrestling) over Jack Darrah (Missouri) 2-1, 9-0
130 kg - Aden Attao (Suples WC) over Alex Semenenko (Brown RTC) 10-2, 8-0
2023 U23 Greco-Roman World Team Trials
55 kg - Yusief Lillie (Brunson UVRTC) over Davian Guanajuato (Southern Illinois RTC) 1-4, 5-1, 5-2
60 kg - Phillip Moomey (Spartan Combat RTC) over Jonathan Gurule (Northern Michigan) 7-2, 3-1
63 kg - Jordan Hamdan (Michigan WC) over Kyle Rowan (Ohio) 6-5, 11-0
67 kg - David Stepanian (NYAC) over Max Schierl (Northern Michigan) 11-0, 11-0
72 kg - Hunter Lewis (Wolfpack WC) over Jack Ervien (Viking WC) 16-11, Fall :43
77 kg - Payton Jacobson (Sunkist Kids) over Caleb Fish (Michigan WC) 10-0, 8-0
82 kg - Tyler Eichens (California RTC) over Tyler Dow (Minnesota Storm) 11-9, 10-2
87 kg - Michael Altomer (Curby 3 Style WC) over Keenan Wyatt (Knights RTC) 9-4, 5-4
97 kg - Tereus Henry (Tiger Den WC) over Thomas Godbee (West Point WC) Fall 4:05, 4-6, Fall 4:49
130 kg - Kaleb Reeves (Iowa) over Spencer Trenary (Jackrabbit WC) Fall 1:16; Fall :59
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