Four men's freestyle wrestlers from the United States will take the mat on Sunday, March 15, hoping to secure a spot for America in the Olympics.

Two qualification spots are available at each weight at this weekend’s Pan-American Olympic Games Qualifier. That means you have to make the finals to qualify your country at that weight, as there is no true second placing match.

This is the second leg of the qualification process for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Below you will find a breakdown of the following four weights: 57kg, 65kg, 86kg, and 125kg. I'll attempt to show you the major obstacles in each wrestler’s path to qualifying America for the Olympic Games.

57kg:

Thomas Gilman (Titan Mercury/Hawkeye WC)

Entries

• Bryan Lucas DE OLIVEIRA PEREIRA (BRA)
• Ligrit SADIKU (CAN)
• Oscar Eduardo TIGREROS URBANO (COL)
• Reineri ANDREU ORTEGA (CUB)
• Juan Rubelin RAMIREZ BELTRE (DOM)
• Edwin Alexi SEGURA GUERRA (GUA)
• Roberto ALEJANDRO BLANCO (MEX)
• Pedro Jesus MEJIAS RODRIGUEZ (VEN)

Seeds

1. Tigreros Urbano: 22
2. Andreu Ortega: 18

The entries for the qualifier are the same as for the championships, except swap in a different wrestler for America. Before the Pan Am Championships, Thomas Gilman was the one seed. Now, he’ll be randomly drawn into the bracket.

With his gold medal on Monday at the championships, Cuba's Reineri Andreu Ortega will be placed in the bottom half of the bracket. With his ninth-place finish at the 2019 world championships and seventh-place finish on Monday, Oscar Eduardo Tigreros Urbano of Colombia will be at the very top of the bracket.

All eyes will be on Thursday's draw to see if Gilman falls in the top or bottom half of the bracket in the nine-man field. The only previous meeting between Gilman and Andreu Ortega resulted in a 7-4 victory for the Cuban in the semis of the 2018 Pan Am Championships in Lima, Peru.

Juan Rubelin Ramirez Beltre (DOM) defeated Tigreros Urbano (COL) 9-4 in the semis of last year’s Pan Am Games. That flipped a 10-6 win by Tigreros from the previous year’s Pan Am semis.

Ramirez also teched Darthe Capellan in the quarters of the same tournament, with Capellan coming back to beat Tigreros 8-7 for bronze. In the semis of the Pan Am championships (not the same as the Games) it was Tigreros 10-8 over Pedro Jesus Mejias Rodriguez (VEN).

Capellan lost in the Canadian Trials so they will be represented by Ligrit Sadiku.

In this year's tournament, held Monday, it was Andreu Ortega teching his way to the finals, beating Darian Cruz 12-2 in the quarters and Edwin Alexi Segura Guerra (GUA) in the semis. The 2017 U23 world champ defeated Mejias Rodriguez 4-2 in the finals.

The Venezuelan made the finals on the strength of a 6-1 win over Ligrit Sadiku in the quarters and 4-3 over Ramirez Beltre in the semis. Gilman took out Mejias 11-4 in the bronze match of those 2018 championships, picking up a stepout, takedown into a gut wrench, tacking on another stepout and takedown to lead 8-2 at the break. In the second period, he scored a takedown and a stepout, giving up two stepouts of his own.

That about covers all the relevant results from the last three years of Pan American athletes at this weight. Just like in 2016, everyone will be watching the draw hoping our rep gets put on the opposite side of Cuba, even though Gilman is more than capable of taking out Andreu Ortega.

65kg

Zain Retherford (Nittany Lion WC)

Entries

• Agustin Alejandro DESTRIBATS (ARG)
• David Washington DOS SANTOS MOREIRA (BRA)
• Dillon Emmanuel WILLIAMS (CAN)
• Wber Euclides CUERO MUNOZ (COL)
• Alejandro Enrique VALDES TOBIER (CUB)
• Albaro RUDESINDO CAMACHO (DOM)
• Mauricio Javier SANCHEZ SALTOS (ECU)
• Brandon Disair DIAZ RAMIREZ (MEX)
• Sixto Miguel AUCCAPINA PEDRAGAS (PER)
• Jose RODRIGUEZ (PUR)
• Wilfredo Aogusto RODRIGUEZ BOCANEY (VEN)

Seeds

1. Sanchez Saltos: 18
2. Destribats: 16

Just like at 57kg, the field for this weight will nearly mirror the championships, swapping in Zain Retherford for Yianni Diakomihalis and Luis Alberto Orta Sanchez for Alejandro Enrique Valdes Tobier on the Cuban team.

The two-time world teamer has never wrestled in a Pan Am championships or Games, but he does have one result against a wrestler in this bracket. That was his first-round match at the 2019 world championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

It was, objectively, a tremendously entertaining match, with Valdes Tobier taking a big lead before Retherford attempted to storm back. There were multiple stoppages for blood, a pair of 2 and 2s, and just the whole thing was incredibly nerve-wracking for American fans.

The gameplan for Zain is pretty straightforward: don't give up an early takedown, because the two-time world bronze has a phenomenal gut wrench. Like most Cubans, Valdes is dangerous from scrambles, with strong leg defense and an ability to turn your shots into his points. But Zain also must leg attack enough to wear Valdes down with his superior conditioning.

Both will be randomly drawn into the field, and due to United World Wrestling bracketing procedures, the top half of the bracket will have four wrestlers while the bottom will contain eight athletes.

Looking around the field, Pan Am Games silver medalist Albaro Rudesindo Camacho (DOM) fell in the first round of Monday's championships to former Ohio State wrestler Jose Rodriguez, now representing Puerto Rico. Rudesindo teched championships silver medalist Mauricio Javier Sanchez Saltos (ECU) in the semis of those Games.

Sanchez Saltos will be your top seed after making the finals, and Agustin Alejandro Destribats (ARG) will be the two seed ahead of Sixto Miguel Auccapina Pedragas (PER) due to finishing with more classification points at the championships. Destribats teched Auccapina in the bronze medal match of last year's championships.

86kg

David Taylor (Nittany Lion WC)

Entries

• Ricardo Adrian BAEZ (ARG)
• Reuben Leroy WILTSHIRE (BAR)
• Clayton Steven PYE (CAN)
• Yurieski TORREBLANCA QUERALTA (CUB)
• Gino Tanislado AVILA DILBERT (HON)
• Angus ARTHUR (JAM)
• Noel Alfonso TORRES CHACON (MEX)
• Pool Edinson AMBROCIO GREIFO (PER)
• Ethan RAMOS (PUR)
• Pedro Francisco CEBALLOS FUENTES (VEN)

Seeds

1. Torreblanca Queralta: 20
2. Ambrocio Greifo: 18

The long-awaited return of David Taylor comes this weekend. The 2018 world champion is a heavy favorite to win this bracket and then make his first Olympic team three weeks later on the campus of his alma mater.

Taylor won Pan Am titles in both 2018 and 2019, with the latter coming just a month before his knee was severely injured against Drew Foster at Beat the Streets.

The former Penn State star will be randomly drawn into the bracket, however, his only real competition is top seed Yurieski Torreblanca Queralta of Cuba. Taylor twice wrestled Torreblanca in 2018, winning a tight 3-2 bout in the gold medal match of the Pan Am championships but controlling a much more definitive 8-0 victory in the world quarterfinals.

I was fortunate enough to attend the 2016 Pan Am qualifier as well. There I saw one of the most heartbreaking losses I've ever seen in person. In the semifinals, Pool Edinson Ambrocio Greifo (PER) led 2012 Olympic silver medalist Jaime Espinal late. After a restart with just nine seconds remaining, Espinal blew through him on a blast double to take a 5-1 lead.

Ambrocio Greifo, who is your two seed this weekend, took more than a full minute to get back to the center. The massive swing, which had occurred in just eight seconds, potentially cost the Peruvian thousands of dollars and likely altered the course of his economic trajectory in his country. If he's on the opposite side of Taylor and Torreblanca, I expect him to get the job done this time around and make the finals.

If the bracket shakes out that way, Edinson Greifo's primary competition will come in the form of Pedro Francisco Ceballos Fuentes (VEN). He was fifth at the 2016 Olympics and has three silvers and a bronze from his continental during this quad. I could not find any matches between Ceballos and Ambrocio since 2016.

There will be two Americans competing for other countries at this weight. Angus Arther (JAM) was a two-time Michigan state champion who wrestled in the 2013 Cadet world championship for Team USA. He wrestled for Jamaica at the senior and U23 world championships last year, as well as at the Pan Am Games and championships in 2019.

The other is former North Carolina star Ethan Ramos (PUR), a four-time national qualifier for the Tar Heels who placed sixth at the 2015 NCAA championships. He fell to Alex Dieringer at the Pan Am championships on Sunday. Ramos was a silver medalist at the 2018 Pan Am Championships and finished ninth at the world championships that year for Puerto Rico.

125kg

Nick Gwiazdowski (Titan Mercury WC/Wolfpack WC)

Entries

• Amarveer DHESI (CAN)
• Oscar PINO HINDS (CUB)
• Eduardo Maximiliano GARCIA BETANZOS (MEX)
• Charles Zachary MERRILL (PUR)
• Luis Felipe VIVENES URBANEJA (VEN)

Seeds

1. Amar Dhesi: 28
2. Pino Hinds: 14

As confident I am that David Taylor will qualify the weight at 86kg, I am even more confident Nick Gwiazdoski gets the job done at heavyweight. The Gwizard of Oz teched Oscar Pino Hinds (CUB) twice last year, and shutout top seed Amar Dhesi (CAN) at the 2018 world championships.

Dhesi pinned two seed Pino Hinds on Sunday. With only six entries right now, they may actually end up facing each other in a round-robin format. Pino is normally a Greco wrestler (he won bronze at the world championships in 2017 and 2018 before making the finals last year), but has made the switch to freestyle.

Charles Zachary Merrill (PUR) competed as an American until 2018. As you can see, most of Puerto Rico's team is made up of wrestlers born in the United States. Although he won't be competing here, Northwestern 133 pounder Sebastian Rivera will represent Puerto Rico at the last chance qualifier at the end of April. That will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is the only remaining opportunity to qualify a country for the Olympics if they do not make the finals this weekend.