Takedown Report

2023 USA Wrestling Men’s Freestyle Awards: Vito Arujau (Wrestler), Jake Varner (Coach)

USA Wrestling announced its 2023 Athlete and Coach of the Year award winners during the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling at Penn State, April 19-20. We have posted the winners of these awards this week, one day for each Olympic discipline. Greco-Roman awards were announced Wednesday, women’s freestyle on Thursday and men’s freestyle today.

Vito Arujau named 2022 John Smith Award winner, as USA Wrestling’s Men’s Freestyle Wrestler of the Year

Vito Arujau (Syosset, N.Y., Titan Mercury WC/Spartan Combat WC) has been named the winner of the 2023 John Smith Award as the Freestyle Wrestler of the Year by USA Wrestling. It is the first time that he has won this prestigious award.

The award is named in honor of two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion John Smith.

Competing in his first Senior World Championships, Arujau won the World gold medal at 61 kg in Belgrade, Serbia in September. He opened with technical falls over Ossimzhan Dastanbek of Kazakhstan and Stilyan Iliev of Bulgaria. In the quarterfinals, he stopped Kodei Ogawa of Japan, 8-2. His semifinal victory was another technical fall over Tairybek Zhumashbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan. In the gold medal finals, Arujau defeated 2021 World champion Abasgadzhi Magomedov, an Individual Neutral Athlete from Russia, 10-9.

He also won a bronze medal at the Imre Polyak & Janos Varga Memorial in Budapest, Hungary in July. He lost his

opening match to 2022 World champion Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania, then wrestled back to win a bronze medal.

Arujau qualified for the Senior World Team with his victory in 2023 Final X in Newark, N.J. in June, defeating Nahshon Garrett in two straight matches, 6-5 in bout one and 13-10 in bout two. … more at … Themat.com/USA-wrestling-men-s-freestyle-awards-vito-arujau-wrestler-jake-varner-coach

May 15, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized