Brayton Lee dropped his first bout of the 2019 UWW Junior World Championships to Ashraf Ashirov (Azerbaijan) by 3-2 decision and was subsequently eliminated when Ashirov dropped his next match.
Lee would have had a chance to advance via the repechage system if Ashirov had beaten Vasile Diacon (Moldova) and continued to win. Instead, Lee’s Estonian tournament experience is cut short after only one bout.
Continue readingRising Gopher redshirt freshman Brayton Lee received his draw for the UWW Junior World Wrestling Championships which begin Monday in Talinn, Estonia.
When action kicks off at 2:30 am CT Lee will face the winner of Ashraf Ashirov (Azerbaijan) and Raul Zarbaliev (Israel). Ashirov finished 8th at the 2018 Cadet World Championships while Zarbilev finished 9th at the 2019 European Juniors.
Continue readingFormer University of Minnesota and current Minnesota Storm wrestler Pat Smith (77kg) took home his fourth Pan American Games gold medal on Wednesday in Lima, Peru, when he defeated Wuilexis Rivas of Venezuela in the championship bout.
Smith had previously won Greco-Roman gold medals at the games in 2015, 2016, and 2017 now adding a 2019 gold medal at a higher weight class.
Continue readingFormer Gophers grappler Pat Smith is set to compete for USA Wrestling at the 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday, August 7.
Smith will compete at 77kg (~170lbs) in Greco-Roman wrestling after previously winning the same competition three times between 2015 and 2017. His tournament kicks off on Wednesday morning with the finals coming later that same day.
Continue readingThree Gophers freshman earned All-America honors at the United States Marine Corps Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota this week.
All three freshmen ran through their brackets to place on the podium top-eight with 160-pound Baylor Fernandes placing the highest at third with 138-pound Marcos Polanco (7th) and 152-pound Cael Carlson (8th) following suit.
Continue readingIt was a moment Devin Skatzka doesn’t think he’ll ever forget.
It’s March 9, 2019, the 2019 Big Ten Championships are at Williams Arena. Skatzka is on mat one in sudden victory against Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola in the quarterfinals round. On the mat in the opposite corner was 157-pound Steve Bleise against Northwestern’s Ryan Deakin.
First, Skatzka heard the sold-out arena explode when Bleise was victorious. There was no doubt the crowd was loud enough to get through his headgear.
Just moments later, Skatzka turned Labriola to his back for the sudden victory. Not just any victory, a pin. Continue reading at gophersports.com
