Nebraska is bringing a serious squad to Las Vegas this weekend to compete at the U23 World Championships in men’s freestyle.
The Huskers and Penn State are the only college teams that will have three wrestlers in the field. All three of Penn State’s wrestlers will compete for Team USA, while all three of Nebraska’s wrestlers will be competing for other countries.
Nebraska will have NCAA finalist Christopher Minto competing at 79 kg for Jamaica. Former U20 World bronze medalists, LJ Araujo and Omar
Ayoub will also be competing — Araujo at 74 kg for Brazil, and Ayoub at 65 kg for Puerto Rico.
Both Minto and Araujo could face a Penn State wrestler as the Nittany Lions will have Jayden James at 74 kg and Joseph Sealey at 79 kg.
The last time Nebraska had a wrestler at the U23 Worlds was in 2023 when Brock Hardy won a bronze medal at 65 kg.
Araujo will take the mat Friday and Saturday, while Minto and Ayoub will wrestle Saturday and Sunday. Check back Sunday night for an in-depth breakdown of how it all goes.
Christopher Minto
Jamaica – 79 kg
For a guy who is fairly new to freestyle, Minto has faced some serious competition so far this summer while competing at Real American Freestyle events.
A two-time All-American and fresh off an appearance in the NCAA final, Minto wrestled against Penn State legend Jason Nolf at RAF 09 before taking on Missouri legend Keegan O’Toole at RAF 11.
Against Nolf, one of the best freestyle wrestlers in America, Minto was up 5-3 at one point but ended up dropping the match 10-5.
Against O’Toole — a two-time NCAA champion, U20 World Champion and U23 World Champion — Minto again built up an early lead 5-0 before falling 14-9.
Minto may lack the experience of this field, but he may just be the favorite to win. His strength and defensive ability makes him a true threat.
Minto’s biggest competition will likely come from Iran’s Mahdi Yousefi, a U23 and U20 World gold medalist. Also in the field will be Japan’s Kanata Yamaguchi, a 2025 U20 World bronze medalist, and Ibrahim Yaprak of Turkey, a U23 silver-medalist in 2025.
I’m picking Minto to win here and deliver Nebraska an age-level World Champion going into a big 2026-27 season.
LJ Araujo
Brazil – 74 kg
One of Nebraska’s most decorated freestylers, LJ Araujo has wrestled at two U20 World Championships and has medaled at the U20 Pan-American Championships three times while wrestling for Brazil.
In 2024, Araujo won a bronze medal at U20 Worlds at 79 kg. After losing early, he worked his way back through the repachage rounds to come home with a medal, downing Russia’s Said Saidulov 5-4 in the bronze-medal match. Saidulov will be wrestling at 79 kg this weekend, so he could potentially face Minto.
Araujo returned to the U20 Worlds in 2025 but went 0-2, failing to repeat as a medalist.
This year, Araujo has moved up to the U23 level but down in weight to 74 kg. At Pan-Ams this summer, Araujo finished with a bronze medal at 74 kg — after earning bronze in 2024 and silver in 2025 at the U20 level at 79 kg.
A returning starter at 165 pounds for Nebraska, Araujo went 19-10 as a redshirt freshman last season. Facing a really tough schedule last year, Araujo seems like a candidate to make a serious jump as a sophomore.
This weekend, Araujo will compete against one of the deepest fields in the tournament — there are seven wrestlers in the field who have won age-level World medals. The favorite in the field though may be Team USA’s Jayden James. One of the youngest wrestlers in the field, James nearly made it to Final X this year a month before his 18th birthday. An elite talent, James won a U17 World Championship last year and just earned silver at the U20 Worlds this fall.
Beyond James, the other top guys are Manuel Wagin of Germany and Magomed Baitukaev of Russia. Wagin won U23 World bronze last year, and Baitukaev is a three-time age-level World medalist who beat Penn State’s PJ Duke in 2021 for U17 gold.
Omar Ayoub
Puerto Rico – 65 kg
Another Husker with a lot of freestyle accolades, Ayoub won a bronze medal at the U20 World Championships last year down at 61 kg. This summer, Ayoub became the first ever wrestler for Puerto Rico to win a gold medal at the U23 Pan American Championships. In that tournament, Ayoub fell to Team USA’s Noah Tolentino 13-7 in the early pool play before getting his revenge via 11-0 technical superiority in the final.
Last year at U20 Worlds, Ayoub fell in the second round to Iran before storming through the back side of the bracket, downing Russia’s Adlan Saitiev 8-6. Saitiev — the nephew of three-time Olympic Champion Buvaisar Saitiev — jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but Ayoub ran him down in the end to earn bronze.
The massive favorite in this field is Team USA’s Bo Bassett, a generational talent who just won gold at the U20 World Championships — he’s now set to compete this weekend at U23 Worlds before turning around to compete at Senior Worlds in two weeks. An incoming freshman for Virginia Tech, Bassett beat Ayoub 5-1 in the Ironman finals in 2023 in folkstyle.
Beyond Bassett, the top guys in the field will be Russia’s Eldar Akhmadudinov (2023 U20 World silver medalist) and Japan’s Kaiji Ogino (2024 U23 silver medalist).
Ayoub will be a top contender for Nebraska this year to start at 141 pounds with the loss of Brock Hardy to graduation. It seems that spot will be filled by either Ayoub, Jake Hockaday or Lincoln Sledzianowski.
