2014 JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Junior World silver medalist Aaron Pico
Junior World silver medalist Joey McKenna U.S. takes 2nd in freestyle
By Gary Abbott ZAGREB, Croatia – The U.S. men’s freestyle team turned in a
strong performance at the FILA Cadet World Championships in early August. American freestyle wrestlers earned six medals, two silver
and four bronze, to place second behind Iran in the event. Joey McKenna and Aaron Pico captured silver medals with Thomas Gilman, Gabe Dean, Kyle Snyder and Adam Coon win- ning bronze medals. Coon also earned a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman competition. McKenna opened with a pair of decisions at 60 kg/132 lbs., stopping Burghum Aliyev of Azerbaijan 10-2 and Yo Nakata of Japan 6-2. He followed with a 10-0 technical fall over Giorgi Bregadze of Georgia in the quarterfinals before scoring a first- period fall over Dzianis Maksimau of Belarus in the semifinals. In the finals, McKenna fell to Iman Sadeghikoukandeh of Iran
by an 8-0 score. The Iranian took a lead in the first period, and added to it in the second. McKenna trailed 4-0 late in the match before he attempted a throw and was countered for four points. Pico, a 2013 Cadet World champion, dropped his finals bout
9-2 to Iran’s Hassan Yazdanicharati at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. Late in the first period, Pico got behind Yazdanicharati and
tried to score a takedown but stepped out instead, giving the Iranian a 3-2-lead. Early in the second period, the Iranian was put on the 30-second shot clock. Right off the whistle, Yazdanicharati shot in on Pico and converted for a score. Gilman won a crazy 11-6 bronze-medal bout against Vladimir
Kurdin of Kazakhstan at 55 kg/121 lbs. Dean received the bronze medal when his opponent failed to compete due to injury default at 84 kg/185 lbs. Snyder was in control throughout his bronze-medal match, defeating Pedram Jamshidi of Iran 7-1 at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. It was Snyder’s second career FILA Junior World medal, after he won a gold medal in 2013 as a 17-year-old at the same
weight class. Snyder lost in the quarterfinals to eventual cham- pion Gergii Gogaev of Russia. Coon, a past Cadet World champion, scored a pin over Yusuf
Emre Dede of Turkey in his bronze-medal bout at heavyweight. Coon bounced back from a heartbreaking, last-second loss in the semifinals to Canadian Amar Dhesi by a 7-6 score. Iran won the team title with 64 points, followed by the United
States with 58 points and Russia with 49. Greco-Roman
Coon completed a strong day of wrestling by winning a
bronze medal at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. in Greco-Roman wrestling. Coon needed only 45 seconds to pin Arata Sonoda of Japan
in his bronze-medal match. Arata attempted to throw Coon but Coon took him the other way directly to his back, and pressed for the fall. It was his third pin of the day. Coon scored pins over Stepan David of the Czech Republic in
45 seconds in round one and Adam Mertse of Hungary in the quarterfinals in 5:10. Coon had to rally for an 8-5 win over Seungchan Lee of Korea in the second round. In his semifinal match, 2013 Junior World champion Sergei Semenov of Russia downed Coon by an 8-0 technical fall. Semenov went on to win the gold medal. Women’s freestyle
Marina Doi, Kayla Miracle and Victoria Francis captured
bronze medals. The U.S. finished fifth in the team standings. Doi broke open a close match against Weronika Sikora of
Poland in the bronze-medal bout at 44 kg/97 lbs. Doi converted a second-period takedown into a cradle to earn a fall at 4:21. Miracle opened up her offense in her bronze-medal bout
against Kriszta Tunde of Romania, eventually earning a fall at 59 kg/130 lbs. Francis scored an impressive 16-6 technical fall in her bronze-medal bout over Francy Radelt of Germany at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.
19 USA Wrestler
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