Former Gophers in Action This Weekend

Pat Smith Competes at Worlds, while Mitch McKee Headlines LFA168

MINNEAPOLIS – A pair of former Minnesota wrestlers are in action starting Friday as they look to showcase their respective talents to the world.

Pat Smith begins competition Friday at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

Competing in Greco-Roman at 72 kg for Minnesota Storm, Smith is set to open with a matchup against No. 13 Kamil Czarnecki of Poland. A victory would set up a bout with No. 5 Ibragim Magomadov of Kazakhstan.

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Day 6 wrap: Elor wins gold, Bruntil is fifth, USA women take second, Bey into Greco-Roman repechage

BELGRADE, Serbia – The United States women’s freestyle team closed out the 2023 World Championships with its first individual World champion of the year, Amit Elor at 72 kg and placed second in the team standings behind powerhouse Japan.

Elor defeated Davaanasan Enkh Amar of Mongolia, 8-2 in the finals, to win her second straight Senior World title at this weight class. Elor went to the break with a 3-0 lead, with two step out points and a point when Enkh Amar was placed on the shot clock and did not score. In the second period, Elor and Enkh Amar each got a takedown to make it 5-2, but Elor reversed to make it 6-2. A last-second counter takedown closed the scoring for Elor.

Elor won four matches on the way to the title. Last year, she became the youngest U.S. Senior World champion at age 18. She is now a two-time Senior World champion while still a teenager.

In addition to her two Senior World titles, Elor has won three U20 World titles, a U17 World title and a U23 World title. Last year, she won the Senior, U23 and U20 all in the same season. This year, she has already won the Senior and U20 World titles and is expected to compete in the U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania at the end of October.

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Day 5 wrap: Kilty wins silver, Maroulis, Gray & Hildebrandt get bronze, Elor qualifies for finals, Bruntil to go for bronze

BELGRADE, Serbia – The United States added four more women’s freestyle World medals on Wednesday, qualified three weight classes for the Paris Olympics, and placed two more athletes in medal matches set for Thursday at the World Wrestling Championships in Stark Arena.

All four U.S. women in Group Two won individual medals, a silver from first time World Team member Macey Kilty (65 kg), and bronze medals from veteran stars Helen Maroulis (57 kg), Adeline Gray (76 kg) and Sarah Hildebrandt (50 kg).

Maroulis, Gray and Hildebrandt compete at Olympic weight classes. By winning medals, they all have qualified the United States to compete at their weight class at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The top five in each of the six women’s freestyle Olympic weight classes qualify their nation to compete in Paris at that weight class.

Kilty had a strong run on Tuesday, winning four straight matches to reach the finals. She battled 2022 World champion Nonoka Ozaki of Japan in the finals. Ozaki scored a takedown, and was able to turn Kilty four times from par terre to secure a first-period technical fall.

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Day 4 wrap: USA mens freestylers are World champs; Winchester claims silver, Page gets bronze

BELGRADE, Serbia – It was another busy and successful for Team USA at the World Wrestling Championships at Stark Arena on Tuesday.

The U.S. Men’s Freestyle World Team was crowned World Team Champions, the fifth-time ever and the first time that the team has won back-to-back World Team Titles. The USA men’s freestylers finished with seven medals (three gold, one silver and three bronze medals).

Team USA scored 148 points, well ahead of runner-up Iran with 108 points. Georgia claimed the third-place trophy with 80 points. The United States won men’s freestyle World Team titles in 1993, 1995, 2017, 2022 and 2023.

Kyle Snyder capped off a full week of success by winning his ninth straight World or Olympic medal for the United States by claiming a bronze medal at 97 kg. He won a Tuesday morning repechage match, then received the bronze medal Tuesday night when Abulrashid Sadulaev, a two-time Olympic champion and an Individual Neutral Athlete, could not compete due to injury. Snyder began his medal streak in 2015 with a World gold medal and now has two Olympic medals and seven World medals, including four golds.

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Day 3 wrap: Dake wins silver, Valencia gets bronze, Winchester to go for gold, Page for bronze, Snyder in repechage

The USA men’s freestylers have won six medals, with a silver from Kyle Dake and bronze from Zahid Valencia today. The U.S. women started with Jacarra Winchester reaching the finals and Jen Page going for a bronze tomorrow.

BELGRADE, Serbia – The United States added two more men’s freestyle medals on Monday and remained in the men’s freestyle team race at the World Wrestling Championships at Stark Arena.

In the Group Two finals, four-time World champion Kyle Dake had a classic battle with 2020 Olympic champion and two-time World champion Zaurbek Sidakov, an Individual Neutral Athlete from Russia at 74 kg. It was the last final of the night. When it was all over, after a number of challenges and close calls, Sidakov won his third career World title with a 10-7 victory over Dake.

Dake led 1-0 at the break on a step out, but things opened up in the second period. When Dake was on the shot clock, Sidakov got a takedown and added a point when the 30 seconds ran out on Dake to lead 3-0. A Dake takedown tied it at 3-3. There was a wild exchange which went to a challenge and when it was sorted out Sidakov led 8-7. A exchange at the end of the match also went to a challenge, and Sidakov was given two more points for a 10-7 finish.

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2023 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Terry Haws

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Terry Haws might not have ended up at Saint John’s University in the first place were it not for a rule change and an illicit cigarette.

It was the fall of 1966 and Haws was the athletic director and head football and wrestling coach at St. Cloud Cathedral High School. The previous spring, the school had elected to make a change to its disciplinary policy, increasing the punishment for being caught smoking from a three-day suspension to expulsion.

It was a move Haws – who had also been the boys guidance counselor at Cathedral – strongly opposed.

“His argument was that some kid was going to make a dumb mistake and it was going to cost them a full year of school,” recalls his son Pat, a student at Cathedral at the time. “He thought it was way too harsh.” Continue reading at gojohnnies.com →

Day 2 wrap: Taylor, Arujau, Retherford win gold, Parris gets bronze, Dake qualifies for Monday’s finals

Winning golds were David Taylor, Vito Arujau and Zain Retherford. A bronze went to Mason Parris. Kyle Dake reached Monday’s finals. The USA is in first place, and has earned three Olympic quotas so far.

BELGRADE, Serbia – The second day of the World Wrestling Championships was a big day for the United States.

All that Team USA did was win three individual World gold medals, claimed a World bronze, and placed another star in Monday’s night’s gold-medal finals. They increased the number of weights qualified for the Paris Olympic Games to three and led in the team standings after the first four weight classes.

Individual gold medalists on Sunday night were David Taylor (86 kg), Vitali Arujau (61 kg) and Zain Retherford (70 kg). It was a third career World title for Taylor, while Arujau and Retherford claimed their first.

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