61kg Is The Deepest Weight At The 2023 US Open Wrestling Championships
61kg Is The Deepest Weight At The 2023 US Open Wrestling Championships
A breakdown of the deepest weight at the 2023 US Open Wrestling Championships - 61kg.
The US Open is set to go down in Las Vegas, Nevada April 26-30 and will be absolutely incredible! The winner at every weight on the senior level will automatically qualify for Final X creating an extra incentive to compete at the open. That means we have some LOADED weights but one weight stands out above the rest - 61kg. Check out the below article for why 61kg will be the weight to watch in Vegas!
HOW MANY NCAA CHAMPS?!
While this is obviously a freestyle tournament, it’s worth noting the number of college stars who will be in the tournament. At 61kg alone, there are 6 past NCAA champions entered in the weight! To put that number in perspective, there are only 14 total NCAA champs registered in the other 9 weights. 57kg and 125kg have the next most amount of past NCAA champs with 3 entered at each weight. Check out the NCAA champs registered at 61kg below:
- Seth Gross - NCAA Champ (2018), 2nd (2017)
- Vito Arujau - NCAA Champ (2023), 3rd (2022), and 4th (2019)
- Nico Megaludis - NCAA Champ (2016), 2nd (2012 & 2013), and 3rd (2014)
- Nathan Tomasello - NCAA Champ (2015) and 3rd (2016, 2017, and 2018)
- Nahshon Garrett - NCAA Champ (2016), 2nd (2014), and 3rd (2013)
- Cody Brewer - NCAA Champ (2015), 3rd (2016), 7th (2013), and 8th (2014)
Seth Gross' win over Daton Fix to make the 2022 World Team:
The college wrestling stars don’t stop with the NCAA Champs. On top of the above wrestlers, there are 3 other past All-Americans that will be in the bracket. Take a look at those guys:
- Austin DeSanto - 3rd (2021 & 2022) and 5th (2019)
- Joe Colon - 3rd (2014)
- Devan Turner - 8th (2022)
Daniel DeShazer is also worth mentioning. DeShazer was a 2-time Division 2 NCAA champion and had a great freestyle season last year. He made the national team by placing 2nd at the 2022 World Team trials where he defeated Tyler Graff and Josh Rodriguez while only losing 2 competitive bouts against Seth Gross.
DeShazer's win over Josh Rodriguez from the 2022 WTT:
World Level Success
Beyond the college-level success, a number of the above wrestlers have had success on the freestyle scene. Seth Gross is the returning 61kg world team member and defeated the likes of Daton Fix, Nico Megaludis, Jesse Mendez, and Daniel DeShazer to make the team.
Vito Aruajau finished second at Final X in 2022 and 2nd at the Olympic trials the past 2 years at 57kg. Arujau has also had great success at age-level world championships winning silver at Cadet worlds in 2016 and junior worlds in 2019. Arujau might be considered the favorite by most because of his recent dominant win over Daton Fix in the NCAA semi-finals. Check out that match below:
Joe Colon is the only wrestler entered in the field with a senior world-level medal. Colon won a bronze medal back at the 2018 world championships. Along with the medal, Colon has past wins over Seth Gross, Nahshon Garrett, Tyler Graff, and Nico Megaludis. However, that same year Nahshon Garrett defeated Joe Colon to make the world team before suffering an injury allowing Colon to take his place on the team.
Then there’s Austin DeSanto. We dove deep into DeSanto’s freestyle progress in this article proving how DeSanto is making rapid progress. DeSanto took out 2022 national team member Daniel DeShazer last summer at the 2022 Ziolkowski tournament in Poland with a dominant 10-0 tech fall. After that, DeSanto defeated Nahshon Garrett on his way to a gold medal at the 2023 Henri Deglane in January. Most recently DeSanto won a bronze medal at the Rankings Series Event in Egypt where he defeated past Asian gold medalist Uulukbek Zholdoshbekov.
DeSanto’s win over Nahshon Garrett at 5:44:19 in the below video:
It Could Get Even Tougher!
With as deep as 61kg is, Daton Fix has yet to enter and could make the bracket even tougher! Fix finished second at last year’s Final X and won a silver medal at the 2021 senior world championships. Daton Fix was also wildly successful as a cadet and junior on the international stage. He won cadet world bronze in 2015, junior world bronze in 2016 and 2018, and a junior world gold medal in 2017. If Fix enters 61kg at the US Open, he will absolutely be one of the favorites to win this outstanding weight class.
Daton Fix's win in the 2021 World Semi-Finals:
Stay up to date with everyone entered in the 2023 US Open here.