Day Two Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Bracket Reacions
Day Two Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Bracket Reacions
Bracket Reactions for the second day of the 2019 Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Ranking Series event in men's and women's freestyle.
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We now have brackets for day two of the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov Ranking Series event. In total six men's freestyle and six women's freestyle wrestlers will be competing tomorrow in Ruse, Bulgaria.
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Before getting started on tomorrow's brackets, a quick recap of day one. Alex Dieringer made the finals at 79kg, the only American to make the gold medal match. Joe Colon lost in the semifinals and will be wrestling for bronze at 61kg, Michael Macchiavello made the bronze medal match at 92kg after losing in the semis, and Maya Nelson will wrestle Forrest Molinari for bronze at 65kg. Additionally, Riley LeFever is in the repechage at 92kg on the opposite side of Macchiavello, and both Frank Molinaro and James Green are chasing bronzes on opposite sides of 70kg repechage.
On day two, there will be five different weights represented, starting with Thomas Gilman and Josh Rodriguez at 57kg. Up at 65kg are Jordan Oliver, BJ Futrell, and Evan Henderson. Jordan Burroughs is the lone American in the 74kg bracket. Over on the women's side Mallory Velte, Kayla Miracle, and Brenda Reyna are in the 62kg field, and up at 68kg we'll see Macey Kilty, Alex Glaude, and Tamyra Mensah-Stock.
57kg
Thomas Gilman and Josh Rodriguez are the two entries in this 24-man bracket, where the winner will get 18 seeding points. Gilman takes on Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria in the first round, who has wrestled sparingly these past few years but was a bronze medalist at the 2016 European championships. Vangelov beat Gilman very controversially at the 2013 JR world championships. If he wins he'll get a rubber match against Suleyman Atli of Turkey. Gilman took a 7-5 match at the Yasar Dogu last June but fell to Atli in the bronze medal match in Budapest.
Rodriguez takes on Ahmet Duman of Turkey in his first match. Duman was second at the Takhti Cup last month. In the second round, Rodriguez might see Fedor Postnikov of Russia. Postnikov has not gone very deep in many tournaments lately, but was on the Russian Cadet team for Euros once upon a time. Postnikov fell to Rodriguez 7-1 in last year's Ukrainian Memorial. Postnikov's opponent is Sunggwon Kim of South Korea, who has been that country's representative at the past three Asian championships.
Gilman might hit Rodriguez in the quarters, but if the Hawkeye gets by Atli he should be the favorite the rest of the way on his half of the bracket. Potential semi opponents include a trio of U23 world bronze medalists: 61kg Minghu Liu of China, 57kg Taras Markovych of Ukraine (they meet first round), or 57kg Wanhao Zou of China, who beat Jack Mueller in that medal match.
65kg
All three Americans got grouped together in the bottom half. Jordan Oliver starts off with Agustin Destribats, a young and talented Argentine but what should ultimately amount to a warm-up match for Oliver. BJ Futrell looked great in teching his way through the Dave Schultz, and draws 2015 world bronze Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine in the first round. The winner of that one gets Oliver next.
Right below them is Evan Henderson, who faces 2016 Junsik Yun of South Korea. Yun was at 57 for most of his career and hasn't wrestled since the 2017 world championships. In the second round Futrell would hit 2017 Euro bronze Andrei Perpelita of Romania. A win there could put him against Oliver or Futrell.
74kg
Oh boy, we got a doozy here. Second is Jordan Burroughs against Frank Chamizo. That's right, part four of the most highly anticipated match of last year. Our good friend Andrew Spey did an excellent breakdown of their three match history in this article.
It is excellent to see both in this field where they can improve their seed. Them meeting in the second round is a result of international tournaments doing random draw. The only way they are guaranteed to be separated at this year's world championships is if they earn seeding points and up being in the top four of their weight class.
With 18 points available to the winner, Burroughs could jump into position to be the second seed with a win, and if Chamizo earns bronze he'll get 14 points and move into the four slot. There are still several more seeding opportunities, but for them to get those points early is extremely important if we don't want them to hit this early again.
62kg
The best rivalry in women's wrestling in America happens right away as world bronze Mallory Velte will face Kayla Miracle in round one. These two met five times last year: in the U.S. Open finals, in a three-match series at Final X, and again at the Spanish Grand Prix. Right above them are two teammates in Juan Kang and Xingru Pei of China, so the winner of Velte/Miracle is guaranteed to face a Chinese athlete. Kang was bronze at the Klippan and Pei was a world bronze medalist last year at 59kg.
Brenda Reyna, fresh off a WCWA finals appearance, has Elena Esposito of Italy in the first round. Esposito was a Junior European bronze last year, so it is a matchup of excellent young talent. Despite being on the same side, Reyna could only hit the Velte/Miracle winner in the semis.
68kg
Last month at the Dave Schultz, high school senior Macey Kilty made her senior level debut. Last year, she won Cadet worlds and made the Junior world finals. Now in her senior level international debut, she faces reigning world champ Alla Cherkasova of Ukraine in her first action since Budapest.
WCWA champ Alex Glaude is at the very bottom of the top half of the bracket, awaiting her first opponent. She'll get the winner of Tamyra Mensah-Stock and Agnieszka Wieszczek-Kordus of Poland, a 2016 Olympian who won both this event and the Poland Open last year. So it's very possible Glaude will face her American teammate Mensah-Stock in the second round.