USA Wrestling's Men's Freestyle Team Has Never Been Deeper
USA Wrestling's Men's Freestyle Team Has Never Been Deeper
A breakdown of the current depth of Team USA's men's freestyle squad.
Final X was an incredible display of wrestling across all styles where America’s best wrestlers put on an amazing show at the Prudential Center. The fantastic freestyle wrestling we observed at Final X, and over the past few months, proved an important fact for Team USA - specifically the men’s freestyle team: there’s outstanding depth at every weight. American fans might take that depth for granted and because of that, I’ll dive deep into the landscape of the men’s freestyle team in the below article.
How Many Medals Are We Leaving At Home?
The first point to consider in Team USA’s depth is to recall all of the world medalists who WON’T compete at this year’s world championships because they failed to make the world team. Take a look at a breakdown of all the world medalists not on the world team in the below table:
7 total world medalists - 3 different world champions - 25 total medals…all watching this year’s worlds from home! There was a time when winning world/Olympic medals was a luxury on the men’s freestyle scene for Team USA. To put things into perspective, from 2000-2009 Team USA’s men’s freestyle team only won 21 total medals by 18 total athletes. USA is winning medals at a much higher rate than 20 years ago and that makes it even more impressive that wrestlers like Zane Richards, Vito Arujau, Nick Lee, Chance Marsteller, and Zahid Valencia were able to make their first senior world team.
Richards & Marsteller Aren’t Flukes
Zane Richards and Chance Marsteller might be surprise world team members but they’ve been showing signs of remarkable improvement over the past year. Of course, Marsteller defeated Jordan Burroughs at last year’s Final X but he then went on to wrestle a fantastic tournament in Tunisia last July. There, Marsteller defeated Iran’s Ali Savadkouhi on his way to a bronze medal at that tournament. Savadkouhi was notably the first Iranian to defeat Jordan Burroughs (at the 2022 World Cup) and also recently defeated world and Olympic champion Zaurbek Sidakov and 2-time world silver medalist Mohammad Nokhodi. On top of the Savadkouhi win, Marsteller also recorded wins in 2022 and 2023 over world medalists Khetik Tsabolov (world champ) and Arsalan Budazhapov. And of course, Marsteller recorded domestic wins over the likes of Carter Starocci, Vincenzo Joseph, and David McFadden.
Marsteller's win over Ali Savadkouhi:
Richards' rise began at the 2022 World Team Trials. Although he lost to Vito Arujau, Richards placed third by defeating Matt Ramos and ultimately made the national team with a win over Jakob Camacho at Final X. He continued to pick up steam when he competed at the World Cup in December 2022 when he defeated Iran’s Reza Momeni and 2022 world bronze medalist Zanabazar Zandanbud. Then this year, Zane Richards put everyone on notice with his win over 2X world champion Nick Suriano in the finals of the US Open.
Richard's win over world medalist Zandanbud:
The point is this - while Burroughs and Gilman were establishing themselves as the best in the world at their respective weight classes, Marsteller and Richards were nipping at their heels. Both wrestlers were slowly and steadily improving just waiting for their opportunity to prove themselves. Team USA now has the luxury of having multiple top wrestlers in the world at both of those weights, and others as we'll see in the rest of this article.
Kyle Dake, David Taylor, And Gable Steveson’s Closest Matches May Be Behind Them
While Dake, Taylor, and Steveson were favorites heading into Final X and made the world team in two straight matches, their matches against their Final X competitors were noteworthy. Aaron Brooks lost to David Taylor 6-0 and 5-4. Remarkably, both of those matches were closer than any matches Taylor had at the 2022 World Championships on his way to gold. Mason Parris lost to Gable Steveson 6-2 and 5-0. Those matches were closer than any Steveson had during his run to the finals at the 2020 Olympics. Only Gable’s gold medal match with Geno Petriashvili was closer (10-8).
The transitive property doesn’t always apply in wrestling matches. We know “styles make fights” and there’s certainly a chance Taylor or Steveson have closer matches in Serbia. However, there’s a reason both Aaron Brooks and Mason Parris are ranked in the top 10 in the world at their respective weight classes. They are that good and both would be medal contenders if they wrestled at worlds.
Then there’s Jason Nolf’s two losses to Kyle Dake - 6-0 and 3-0. While he wasn’t able to score a point in the match, Nolf certainly tested Dake and has established himself as one of the top 10 74kg wrestlers in the world. In fact, Dake has wins the past 2 years over 2 different world medalists - Timur Bizhoev (2021 world bronze medalist) and Younes Emami (2022 world bronze medalist). Dake’s impressive showing over Nolf becomes even more impressive when we know just how good Jason Nolf is and should give us full confidence in Kyle Dake heading into the world championships.
Jason Nolf's win over world medalist Younes Emami:
How many different Americans Could Medal At 61kg and 92kg?
Vito Arujau looks to be one of the best, if not the best, 61kg wrestlers in the world. However, Nahshon Garrett also looked incredible when he defeated Daton Fix at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, 12-4. Fix already proved he's world-class with his silver medal at the 2021 World Championships. Then there's Austin DeSanto who defeated Nahshon Garrett 14-13 at the Henri Deglane tournament this past January. Arujau, Fix, Garrett, and DeSanto are all currently ranked in the top 10 in the world at 61kg and would be strong medal contenders at the world championships.
This is not hyperbole - I honestly believe at least 5 different Americans could bring home a medal from the World Championships at 92kg. We haven’t seen Zahid Valencia or Mike Macchiavelo wrestle many of the world’s best at 92kg however both Nate Jackson and Kollin Moore have been very active on the freestyle scene at 92kg over the past two years. Combined, Jackson and Moore have recorded 6 wins over world medalists at 92kg from the 2021 or 2022 world championships. And Jackson and Moore didn’t even make Final X! America’s upper weight depth is insane and though it’s Valencia’s first world championships, we should be supremely confident in his ability to bring home a medal.
Final X Almost Looked VERY Different
Another point that proves the depth of Team USA is to think back to the US Open and consider how many close matches some of the champs ALMOST lost. Zane Richards was down late to Nick Suriano before scoring the go-ahead takedown with just 27 seconds left. Nick Lee (and everyone else) originally thought he lost on criteria to Beau Bartlett in the semis before we all found out a scorekeeper made a mistake and Lee actually won 10-10. Then in the finals, Lee was down 5-0 to Joey McKenna before scoring 10 straight points to get the 10-5 win.
Nick Lee's win over Beau Bartlett:
Or how about at 79kg and 125kg? Chance Marsteller was trailing late in the second period to Alex Dieringer in the US Open Finals before scoring an activity clock point with 49 seconds left to take the 1-point win. Mason Parris needed a takedown with just 27 seconds left to defeat Wyatt Hendrickson in the semis of the World Team Trials.
Then there’s Zahid Valencia who was just one period away from making Final X at 86kg. However, because Aaron Brooks came back and scored 10 unanswered points after trailing 6-0, Valencia was forced to move up to 92kg. We know now it was the right decision but it definitely shows the depth of Team USA when you have a world team member like Valencia who lost to the runner-up at a lower weight class.
Aaron Brooks' win over Zahid Valencia:
Team USA Is In A Good Place - Let’s Enjoy It
Hopefully, the above ramblings prove one thing - it’s a great time to be a fan of Team USA’s Men’s Freestyle Squad. The amount of world champions/medalists not on the team is almost unbelievable. The depth in the United States should not be taken for granted and only means Team USA’s success will continue at the world/Olympic level!