Kazakhstan – The U.S. men’s freestyle team put the finishing touches on arguably the best World Championships performance in the nation’s history on Sunday night at Barys Arena
Spencer Lee (57 kg) and Levi Haines (79 kg) topped the World podium for the first time in their careers, and Trent Hidlay (92 kg) earned silver, his second-straight World medal, to deliver Team USA its sixth men’s freestyle team title and its fourth in the last 10 years.
The win was especially emotional for Lee, who needed only 26 seconds to defeat Mexico’s Roman Bravo Young 10-0 in the championship bout. In the lead-up to the World Championships, Lee tore his ACL for the fourth time. You wouldn’t know it from his results—he won all five of his bouts by pin or technical fall.
A year made all the difference for Haines, who took one step up on the World podium, from silver to gold, after defeating five-time World medalist Mohammad Nokhodilarimi of Iran 4-3 in the gold medal match. His pace and physicality made all the difference as he wore the Iranian down in the second period.
The last U.S. match of the tournament took a somber turn as Hidlay dropped a 3-2 decision to Amanula Gadzhimagomedov of Russia in a rematch of last year’s World final. Hidlay controlled the match front-to-back until a 4-1 lead was reversed to a 3-2 deficit after video review of an edge sequence in which Hidlay shot Gadzhimagomedov off the mat and Gadzhimagomedov rolled Hidlay through in a chest wrap with 18 seconds left.
At 74 kg, two-time World medalist James Green finished with a 2-2 overall record, including a 1-1 mark in Sunday’s repechage round. He defeated Armenia’s Narek Harutyunyan 15-2 before falling to eventual bronze medalist Amirmohammad Yazdanicherati of Iran, 8-2.
The U.S. finished with five champions and nine medalists, both U.S. records. All ten Americans placed in the top 10, earning critical team points to fend off Russia, which also had nine medalists and had every athlete place in the top five. The U.S. won by 194 to 185 in one of the greatest team races in World history.
Kyle Snyder (97 kg) and Kyle Dake(86 kg) added to the history, becoming the third and fourth U.S. wrestlers across all Olympic disciplines to reach the five World title milestone, trailing only Jordan Burroughs and Adeline Gray, who have six each, on the all-time list. Additionally, Dake became the oldest American to win a World title at age 35.
U.S. fans can watch archive matches from the Senior World Championships on-demand at FloWrestling.org. Complete results are available at uww.org.
