Takedown Report

FINAL X MEN’S FREESTYLE PREVIEW: OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS BURROUGHS, TAYLOR, SNYDER, STEVESON HIGHLIGHT INCREDIBLY DEEP FIELD SET FOR NEWARK

By Richard Immel, USA Wrestling

The men’s freestyle pairings at Final X feature some serious star power, perhaps more than we’ve ever seen at this stage of the U.S. World Team qualification process.

Eight competitors earned a medal at the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. Seven Olympic medalists, including four Olympic champions, will grace the Final X mats at Prudential Center. 16-of-20 competitors are past NCAA champions, six of whom were awarded the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation’s top college wrestler.

The June 10 lineup has the potential to be one of the greatest set of matches in a single night in U.S. wrestling history.

We will summarize each pairing in weight order, which is how the matches will be conducted at Final X.

57 kg – Thomas Gilman (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC) vs. Zane Richards (Champaign, Ill./Illinois RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

The 57 kg men’s freestyle weight class has been owned by Thomas Gilman in recent years. Gilman has represented the U.S. in five of the previous six World Championships or Olympic Games, earning four total medals during that stretch. Most notably, he was a World champion in 2021 and an Olympic bronze medalist in 2020.

Last year, Gilman came up one win short of his second-straight World title, falling to Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov, a Russian transplant, in the World finals. The silver medal performance earned Gilman an automatic berth to this year’s Final X. He bounced back with a dominant gold medal outing at the Pan-American Championships held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, earlier this month, and is primed to make another run at the 57 kg U.S. World Team spot.

Standing in Gilman’s way at Final X is U.S. Open champion Zane Richards, who has been in the upper echelon at 57 kg for the U.S. this quad. He was most impressive in Las Vegas, particularly in the finals against two-time NCAA champion Nick Suriano, where he scored the winning takedown at the buzzer. Richards is currently No. 3 on U.S. National Team ladder and does boast some valuable Final X experience having wrestled and won a true third match in Stillwater, Okla., last year.

Gilman and Richards have wrestled two matches against each other on the Senior level dating back to 2019, Gilman winning both convincingly.

Most recent match – 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gilman tech. fall Richards, 11-0

61 kg – Vitali Arujau (Ithaca, N.Y./Spartan Combat RTC/Titan Mercury WC) vs. Nahshon Garrett (Bethlehem, Pa./Titan Mercury WC/Lehigh Valley WC)

With no returning World medalist, the 61 kg weight class was wide open as far as who would qualify for Final X. … rest of story at Teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2023/May/29/Final-X-mens-freestyle-preview

June 9, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized