Warsaw played host to three major international wrestling tournament this weekend, one for each style, and hundreds of wrestlers from around the globe. The United States was well-represented, with over two dozen competitors across all three style. Additionally, a trio of Americans from the Cliff Keen Wrestling Club, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, competed for foreign federation.  

The Ziolkowski Memorial

Seventeen Americans traveled to Poland for the freestyle tournament, representing myriad clubs. The Hawkeye Wrestling Club took home the most hardware, with Brandon Sorenson and Cory Clark winning bronze medals at 70 and 61kg, respectively, while Sammy Brooks earned a silver at 86kg, the highest placement by any American in the freestyle tournament. 

Joe Colon, representing the Valley-RTC, scored another bronze medal at 61kg. 

At 65kg, Jordan Oliver competed in his first tournament since the 2017 U.S. Open and his first overseas tourney since the 2015 Yashar Dogu in Istanbul. JO gave 2018 Russian National Champion Akhmed Chakaev all he could handle in the semifinals but fell 9-8 in a hard-fought bout before forfeiting in the repechage to finish fifth. 

Prior to the Ziokowski, Oliver wrestled at the 2018 Beat the Streets event in New York City in May, where he edged Azerbaijan Olympic Champ Togrul Asgarov.

Watch Oliver wrestle Asgarov below:

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Another notable American was Jaydin Eierman. The Missouri Tiger won his first round match against 2018 Euro silver medalist (and #5 on the latest FloWrestling international rankings) Beka Lomtadze of Georgia before losing the next round and thereafter being eliminated from medal contention. 

In Serbian wrestling news, the Michigan Wolverines' own Stevan Micic won a gold medal at 57kg. Micic had to get by a very tough Nurislam Sanayev, the 2018 Asian Champ, before taking out Givi Davidovi of Italy to claim the top prize. 

David Habat, former Edinboro Scot and current Slovenian competitor, and Domenic Abounader, a former Michigan Wolverine now wrestling for Lebanon, both failed to place in Poland. 

In Russian wrestling news, Gadshimurad Rashidov beat Russian Nationals champ Magomedrasul Idrisov, earning the starting spot on the Russian World Team at 61kg. Rashidov missed RusNats but was given the opportunity to wrestle-off with Idrisov at the Ziokowski and earn a trip to Budapest in October, which he did. 

Fellow RusNats skipper Ilyas Bekbulatov is perhaps the most talented wrestler in the world never to wrestle in the world championships. The enigmatic Bekbulatov has won four prestigious Yarygin tournament and four European medals, including one gold, but has never made a Russian World Team. Bebulatov also did not wrestle in Russian Nationals and was given an opportunity to wrestle off Chakaev in Poland for the starting spot at 65kg, but instead entered and then withdrew from both the 65 and 70kg brackets. When and where we will next see Bekbulatov wrestle remains, like his motives, unknown.

The Pytlasinksi Memorial 

The big story at the Greco-Roman tournament was Tracy Hancock pinning the reigning four-time world and Olympic gold medalist Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia in the first minute of their semifinals match. 

Hancock would go on to beat Nikolai Bayrakov of Bulgaria in the finals to claim the top step on the awards podium. Neither Joe Rau nor Brandon Mueller, the only other Americans in the Greco tourney, were unable to solve their opponents and returned home without medals. 

The Poland Open

The women's freestyle portion of the Polish wrestling bonanza, simply titled the Poland Open, sans memorial, saw seven American world team member enter the brackets. 

Whitney Conder at 50kg, Forest Molinari at 65kg  and Tamyra Stock at 68kg all won bronze medals and claimed valuable rankings points for the World Championship's seeding system. Sarah Hildebrandt at 53kgs and Jacarra Winchester at 55kg were both stopped in their respective bronze medal matches and settled for fifth.