2019 Dan Kolov

Day One Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Bracket Reactions

Day One Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Bracket Reactions

Bracket reactions for the nine US athletes competing on day one of the 2019 Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Ranking Series tournament.

Feb 27, 2019 by Wrestling Nomad
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Brackets have been released for the first day of the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Ranking Series event. In total six men's freestyle and three women's freestyle wrestlers will be competing tomorrow in Ruse, Bulgaria.

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Brackets have been released for the first day of the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Ranking Series event. In total six men's freestyle and three women's freestyle wrestlers will be competing tomorrow in Ruse, Bulgaria.

Watch the 2019 Dan Kolov - Nikola Petrov Live on Flo

Thursday Feb. 28 | 3:00 AM Eastern

Starting off on the men's side will be Joe Colon at 61kg, Frank Molinaro and James Green at 70kg, Alex Dieringer at 79kg, and Riley LeFever and Michael Macchiavello at 92kg. Each will be competing to earn seeding points for this year's world championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The brackets can be seen below. Let's get into the draws for all nine athletes, who is in their way to make the finals, and how many points they can earn if they win their bracket. More information on how the ranking series works can be found here.

61kg

There are 16 points at stake in this bracket. The only American in the field is Budapest bronze medalist Joe Colon, who could move up to the two seed (for now) if he wins this bracket. He starts off with Saleh Eddine Kateb of Algeria, a two-time Junior continental champ in Africa.

A win puts him against either Recep Topal of Turkey or Kairat Amirtayev of Kazakhstan. Both were on Colon's side of the bracket at the world championships, but he did not wrestle either. Topal was a European bronze medalist last year. In the semis he could see world silver medalist Nurislam Sanayev or possibly Yarygin silver Nikolai Okhlopkov.


70kg

James Green and Frank Molinaro are both in this bracket, on opposite sides so they can't meet until the finals. There are 16 points available for the champ of this bracket. Neither of their first round opponents have any credentials of note.

Can I interest you in Molinaro vs Ilyas Bekbulatov in the second round? Yes, that Bekbulatov: the four-time Yarygin champ and four-time European medalist, probably the best wrestler to never wrestle at the world championships. If he takes out Bekbulatov, he'll 2016 world University champ Viktor Rassadin, who has twice been runner-up at Russian Nationals.

Green should face Anzor Zakuev of Russia in the quarterfinals, a 2017 Junior European champ. Waiting in the semis is any number of options, including world silver and Olympic bronze medalist Ikhtiyor Navruzov. Also on Green's side are a couple of tough Ukrainians in Semen Radulov and Andriy Kvyatkovskyy.


79kg

Alex Dieringer is the only member of Team USA in this bracket, which like the first two has 16 points going to the winner. Ringer has a great draw into the semis, where he could see Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France, who he teched in last year's Bill Farrell finals, or Nika Kentchadze, the U23 world champ last year.

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92kg

The smallest bracket of the day with only 10 wrestlers has 14 points on the line for the gold medalist. LeFever and Macchiavello are on opposite sides of the bracket and both start in the quarterfinals. 

A 2018 NCAA champ, Macchiavello starts off with the veteran Istvan Vereb of Hungary. Vereb is making his second appearance up at 92kg after winning the Henri Deglane at the beginning of this month. A win puts him against the red hot Magomed Kurbanov of Russia in the semis. Kurbanov was bronze at the Intercontinental Cup in November, second at the Alans in December, and won Yarygin last month.

As for LeFever, he starts off with Suleyman Karadeniz, who only wrestled in one event last year and did not place at the Takhti Cup in Iran a couple weeks ago. A win puts him in the semis against either Ibrahim Bolukbasi of Turkey, a 2016 Olympian who won the Takhti Cup last year, or last year's U23 bronze medalist Bohdan Hrytsay of Ukraine. Also on that side is Irakli Mtsituri of Georgia, the silver medalist at U23 Euros.


65kg

Two Americans are on the top side, and one of them could potentially earn 16 seeding points. Forrest Molinari is at the very top against Henna Johansson of Sweden, who she lost to in the bronze medal match of last year's Spanish GP. Johansson just won the prestigious Klippan Open and was a European bronze medalist last year.

Maya Nelson starts off with two-time Junior African champ Nour Jeljeli of Tunisia. A win there puts her in the quarters against 2016 Junior African champ Amel Hammiche of Algeria. If she wins both of those, and Molinari beats Johansson, they'll meet in the semis.

Amanda Hendey was done no favors with her bottom half draw. She opens against reigning world champ Petra Olli of Finland, a tall task no doubt. After that she could hit 2015 world bronze medalist Dzhanan Manolova of Bulgaria. That is if she doesn't face Junior world bronze Tatyana Rizhko of Ukraine.