Both redshirt freshmen this season, Omar Ayoub and LJ Araujo traveled this week to Bulgaria for the U20 World Championships — Araujo competed for Brazil at 79 kg while Ayoub wrestled for Puerto Rico at 61 kg.
In his first age-level World Championships, Ayoub rebounded from a second-round loss to capture a bronze medal on today’s last day of competition. Despite being a returning bronze medalist, Araujo failed to repeat his finish on the medal stand.
With Ayoub capturing U20 bronze, Nebraska will enter this season with three U20 World medalists — Camden McDanel earned bronze in 2023 at 97 kg for Team USA, Araujo earned bronze in 2024 at 79 kg for Brazil, and Ayoub’s recent win at 61 kg for Puerto Rico.
Omar Ayoub
61 kg
Ayoub started his tournament with a back-and-forth 14-10 win over Canada’s Karson Brown — a Pittsburgh commit.
In the second round, Ayoub took a 6-1 lead to the break but eventually fell 8-6 to eventual finalist Ahora Khateri of Iran who scored seven points in the second period. Khateri was a U17 gold medalist a year ago and went on to take silver this week.
Falling into repechage, Ayoub first took on Kazakhstan’s Allan Oralbek. Ayoub stormed out to an 8-0 lead before Oralbek cut it to 8-5 going into the break. Ayoub used a big four-pointer in the second period to put Oralbek away 16-9.
In the bronze-medal match, Ayoub took on Russia’s Adlan Saitiev — the nephew of three-time Olympic Champion Buvaisar Saitiev from Russia (1996, 2004, 2008). Adlan Saitiev was a U20 European silver medalist this year.
Early in the first period, Saitiev scored a takedown and two exposures from a gut wrench to go up 6-0 over Ayoub, but the young Husker clawed his way back in the match one sequence at a time. Ayoub did get a takedown late in the period off a swing single, cutting the deficit to 6-2.
In the second period, Ayoub scored first when he shot in and worked up to a seat belt position before finishing for the takedown. After that Ayoub hit a re-attack on Saitiev when the Russian didn’t get up off the mat fast enough, dumping him over for a takedown. Ayoub then added another takedown on a swing single to go up 8-6.
Ayoub then held on and withstood the Russian onslaught for the remaining 20 seconds to secure the 8-6 win.
Ayoub is not set to start this year as he’s currently behind All-American Jacob Van Dee at 133 pounds, but he’s certainly set to compete for the job — something tells me he won’t be ceding the spot to Van Dee. Regardless, I see either Van Dee or Ayoub moving up to 141 in 2026 to replace three-time All-American and NCAA finalist Brock Hardy at that spot.
LJ Araujo
79 kg
The returning U20 World bronze-medalist at 79 kg, Araujo struggled this time around at U20 Worlds.
In his first match against Kazakhstan’s Yerkhan Abil, Araujo fell behind early and never recovered, dropping the match 6-0. Abil then fell to India’s Amit Amit, a U20 Asian gold medalist, ending Araujo’s tournament and his hope for another bronze medal.
Araujo will turn the page now and set his focus on being Nebraska’s 174-pound starter this coming season as a redshirt freshman.
