The Nebraska wrestling team has a pair of wrestlers set to compete at the U20 World Championships this weekend in Bulgaria — LJ Araujo at 79 kg and Omar Ayoub at 61 kg.
Both redshirt freshmen this season, Araujo competes for Brazil while Ayoub competes for Puerto Rico — Araujo will take the mat early Monday morning with Ayoub going on Tuesday.
A returning U20 world medalist, Araujo looks to make it back-to-back age-level medals in freestyle. Ayoub will be competing at his first world championships.
Araujo was a five-time state champion from North Dakota in high school, while Ayoub was a four-time state finalist and two-time champion in Ohio.
The presumed starter this season at 174 pounds for Nebraska, Araujo dropped his first match last year at Worlds to Team USA’s Zach Ryder, but he came back through the repachage to earn his bronze medal with three wins in a row.
After his setback to Ryder — a former Penn State wrestler who has since transferred to Oklahoma State — Araujo earned 11-0 and 14-4 wins via technical superiority over China and Lithuania, respectively. In the bronze-medal match, Araujo beat top-seeded Russian Said Saidulov in a hard-fought 5-4 decision to earn his medal.
Araujo has also earned both bronze (2024) and silver (2025) medals at the U20 Pan American Championships, losing only to Team USA reps Ryder and William Henckel along the way.
Looking at Araujo’s road back to a world medal, things will be tough — as you’d expect at the world championships. In the field, there will be two senior-level Asian gold medalists, a U20 World Champion, and a senior-level European silver medalist.
Last year’s champion at the weight Alp Arslan Begenjov of Turkmenistan will be on the opposite side of the bracket from Araujo — Begenjoy beat U20 silver medalist Zach Ryder of Team USA 5-0 in the final — Ryder beat Araujo 11-0 in the opening round before Araujo went on his run on the back side. Begenjov won a silver medal at the Senior-level Asian Championships this year and is a real threat to repeat.
Also opposite Araujo will be Mahdi Yousefi of Iran, a Senior-level gold medalist at the Asian Championships this year — he also earned gold at the U23 World Championships and bronze at U20 s in 2024. He’s one of the favorites as well.
Also on the other side of the bracket will be Russia’s Saidulov — he earned European Senior-level gold last year and bronze this year.
On the top half of the bracket, Araujo’s two biggest challenges will likely be India’s Amit Amit and Team USA’s William Henckel. Amit won U20 Asian gold this year already, while Henckel — a Penn State signee who beat Araujo 9-0 in the Pan-Am final — outscored his opponents 31-0 in that tournament.
After an opening match against either Kazakhstan’s Yerkhan Abil or Israel’s Daniel Simonian, Araujo will likely have to go through Amit in the quarters before facing Henckel in the semifinal round. If he makes it to the final, he’ll likely see either Begenjov, Saidulov or Yousefi there.
At 61 kg, Ayoub will also face a really deep bracket that will include Penn State recruit Marcus Blaze, a U17 World Champion and U20 bronze medalist — he’s the favorite to win this weight class. Also in the field will be Senior-level European Champion Sargis Begoyan of Armenia, Senior-level Asian Champion Askat Toktomatov of Kyrgyzstan, and 2023 U17 World gold medalist Ahora Khateri of Iran.
After a first-round matchup against Canada’s Karson Brown, Ayoub would likely see Khateri in the second round.
For Ayoub to medal would be an incredible feat against this field.
