Who's Left At 74kg For The Open And Trials?
Who's Left At 74kg For The Open And Trials?
Who's left at 74kg for the Open and Trials that will be in the mix to challenge Jordan Burroughs?
Now that there are 10 senior-level weights, the question at 74kg becomes who is left to challenge Jordan Burroughs for a world team spot? Kyle Dake and Alex Dieringer are both up at 79kg, and Chance Marsteller will not be competing at next week's U.S. Open in Las Vegas.
That leaves four-time NCAA finalist Isaiah Martinez and the recently bumped-up Nazar Kulchytskyy. Already qualified for World Team Trials is Tommy Gantt, who looked excellent in winning the Bill Farrell.
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Martinez won University Nationals in 2016 and then the U23 trials last year, but the U.S. did not send a team to University Worlds in 2016. IMar wound up getting fifth at U23 worlds, a performance that makes it easy to see him making the national team but unlikely to give Burroughs a serious challenge for the world team spot.
Just like the rest of Penn State’s team, it is a question mark as to whether or not we will see NCAA champ Vincenzo Joseph at either the Open or WTT. However, we will see a former NCAA finalist for Penn State in Dan Vallimont in the mix.
We could also see veterans Quinton Godley or Kevin LeValley show up. All in all, this is a race for second behind Burroughs.
The lack of established senior-level guys leaves some opportunity for college-level guys like Evan Wick and Taleb Rahmani. Wick was third last year at the junior trials challenge tournament and also third at NCAAs this season. To get to the third-place match at JR trials, he pinned Rahmani with a cradle in the first period.
Remember, the top seven placers from the Open qualify for next month’s WTT challenge tournament in Rochester, MN. The winner of the Open will sit in those challenge tournament finals, which will be a best-of-three series.