The Nebraska Wrestling team sent three wrestlers to the U23 World Championships this weekend in Las Vegas. Despite some success, things largely didn’t go as they likely had hoped.
This year’s NCAA finalist Christopher Minto made it to the bronze medal match at 79 kg for Jamaica, but he fell short of the podium. For Puerto Rico, Omar Ayoub wrestled at 65 kg, and LJ Araujo took the mat for Brazil at 74 kg.
None of Nebraska’s wrestlers earned medals with Minto’s 5th-place finish pacing the trio of Huskers.
Here’s how it happened:
Christopher Minto
Jamaica – 79 kg
Despite being very green in freestyle, Minto at times looked really good this weekend. He also showed his inexperience at times, especially against some really seasoned freestylers in the field.
Minto first faced Israel’s Omer Barak. After giving up an early four-pointer off an arm spin by Barak, Minto rattled off 14 straight points — including five takedowns — for the 14-4 win via technical superiority.
In the second round, Minto faced the tournament’s eventual silver-medalist Said Saidulov of Russia. Saidulov proved to be too much for Minto, downing him 13-3 via tech. Minto did secure a late first-period takedown and was in deep late in the second, but any Russian is not a good matchup for an inexperienced freestyler.
With Saidulov reaching the final, Minto was pulled back into repechage (freestyle’s consolation bracket) where he won his first two matches to make it to the bronze-medal match. Minto first downed Germany’s Stas Wolf 12-1 via tech before beating Kazakhstan’s Yerkhan Abil 6-3.
In the bronze-medal match, Minto faced off against Japan’s Kanata Yamaguchi — now a three-time age-level World medalist. Despite possessing a noticable size advantage — Yamaguchi was much shorter than Minto — Minto’s lack of freestyle experience really showed in this match against a very savvy Yamaguchi. The Japanese wrestler was often able to turn Minto for exposures in scramble situations on the way to a 10-0 win via tech in the second period.
Despite missing the podium, Minto’s performance was encouraging going into his junior season for the Huskers. Facing this level of competition can only benefit Minto as he turns his attention to his favored style of folkstyle.
Omar Ayoub
Puerto Rico – 65 kg
A U20 bronze medalist last year at 61 kg, Ayoub moved up from U20 to U23 and from 61 to 65 kg this year — he won U23 gold at Pan-Ams earlier this summer.
This weekend, Ayoub won his first match 6-2 over Hungary’s Zoltan Mizsei, notching three takedowns to none in the match.
In the second round, Ayoub fell to Russia’s Eldar Akmadudinov 6-4. Down 4-0 in the second period, Ayoub cut the deficit to 4-2 with a takedown, but Akmadudinov got a takedown of his own shortly after. Despite two late push-out points for Ayoub, Akmadudinov earned the 6-4 win over Ayoub.
Akmadudinov went on to reach the semifinal. Facing Iran’s eventual champion, Akmadudinov was up big late but gassed out and was ran down, ending Ayoub’s hopes of earning a medal.
With the season starting in just a few weeks, Ayoub now turns his attention towards a three-way competition to replace Brock Hardy at 141 pounds this season.
LJ Araujo
Brazil – 74 kg
After a first-round bye, Araujo faced Kazakhstan’s Nurdaulet Seilbekov. In that match, Araujo injured his right hand in the opening minute — it was unclear how he hurt his hand, but it was in an early exchange as the two wrestlers were tied up. The injury was noticably affecting Araujo before he eventually got injury time. After getting his hand wrapped, Araujo barely used it throughout the rest of the 8-0 loss, knocking him out of the tournament.
The injury really seemed to bother and limit Araujo, so the big question now is whether it’s an injury that will affect his availability for the upcoming season.
If Araujo is forced to miss time to start the year, the top contenders to step in for him would be a trio of true freshmen — Mason Petersen, Nolan Fellers or Noah Bull. Next week’s wrestle-offs just got a lot more interesting at 165 pounds.
