Before Final X, many wrestling fans expected the US to send a veteran squad to Serbia for the World Championships in hopes of repeating as World Champs and adding to sky-high individual medal counts. While a team title and individual medals are of course on the table, the World Team that emerged on Saturday night has a mix of veterans and unexpected newcomers. All-told, six out of ten men's freestylers will join four veterans to compete in their first World Championships this September. One of the six newcomers, Gable Steveson, is an Olympic gold medalist, so while this will be his first World Championships, he's been on this kind of stage before.

Men's Freestyle World Team

57 kg - Zane Richards (1st World Team)

61 kg - Vito Arujau (1st World Team)

65 kg - Nick Lee (1st World Team)

70 kg - Zain Retherford (4th World Team, 2022 silver)

74 kg - Kyle Dake (6th World/Olympic Team, 2018 gold, 2019 gold, 2021 Olympic bronze, 2021 World gold, 2022 gold)

79 kg - Chance Marsteller (1st World Team)

86 kg - David Taylor (5th World/Olympic Team, 2018 gold, 2021 Olympic gold, 2021 World silver, 2022 gold)

92 kg - Zahid Valencia (1st World Team)

97 kg - Kyle Snyder (9th World/Olympic Team, 2015 gold, 2016 gold, 2017 gold, 2018 silver, 2019 bronze, 2021 Olympic silver, 2021 World silver, 2022 gold)

125 kg - Gable Steveson (2nd World/Olympic Team, 2021 Olympic gold)

How the 6 New World Team Members Earned Their Spots

Vito Arujau, Zahid Valencia, and Gable Steveson are not surprising first-time members of this World Team. Gable already owns an Olympic gold while Vito and Zahid have age-level World medals. All three were favorites on Saturday night in Newark. Zane Richards, Nick Lee, and Chance Marsteller, on the other hand, had to take out returning medalists to earn their tickets to Belgrade.

In Zane Richards' two previous meetings with Thomas Gilman, he was teched twice by a combined score of 23-2. He demonstrated extreme improvement at Final X by enduring Gilman's brutal handfight and forcing him to take attacks that were less than ideal. He bested the World champ and four-time medalist 4-3 and 8-6 with come-from-behind scores in the final minute of each match.

While Nick Lee was the on-paper underdog at Final X, he did defeat World silver medalist Yianni Diakomihalis 16-8 the last time they competed at the 2021 Olympic Trials. Since that time, Yianni won his third and fourth NCAA titles and added a World silver medal this fall. Still, Lee held off Yianni with a 7-6 win in round 1 and an 8-8 criteria victory in round 2. 

The final match of the night was a fitting conclusion to a dramatic three-match series between ten-time World and Olympic medalist Jordan Burroughs and first-time World Team member Chance Marsteller. Burroughs narrowly won the opening bout by challenging in the final 15 seconds to earn a controversial point for an illegal singlet pull. Two takedowns were enough to give Marsteller the 5-4 victory in the second match. Not many fans left their seats for the final match in the series which was also the final match of the night. Burroughs opened the bout with a takedown in the first 15 seconds and held a 3-0 lead at the break. Marsteller earned two step-outs in the first two minutes of the third period. In the final minute, Burroughs was put on the activity clock. With time winding down on the activity clock, he attacked Marsteller and was close to a step out on the edge. As the action went out of bounds, Marsteller went to his back but used a head pinch to lift Burroughs through. The sequence was initially ruled four points for Burroughs, but a challenge from Reece Humphrey resulted in four points for Marsteller instead. He added a point for a failed challenge from Burroughs and the expired activity clock to take an 8-3 victory. The three matches were full of blood stoppages and challenges. In the end, the 18 minutes of wrestling in the series took over 42 minutes to complete.

Scoring Highlights From Burroughs vs Marsteller's Series