Vito's Vivaciously Impressive Freestyle Career
Vito's Vivaciously Impressive Freestyle Career
A two-time age level World medalist, Vito knows how to win in freestyle.
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Vito Arujau: very good at folkstyle wrestling. Vito Arujau: incredible at freestyle wrestling. With folkstyle credentials such as freshman NCAA D1 All-American, four-time New York state champion, 216-1 high school record, Super 32 champion, and a win over Daton Fix, many will be surprised to learn that folkstyle isn’t even Vito’s best style.
It's things such as Vito's par terre (specifically cartwheel leg lace and gut wrench), scrambling without exposing, and situational mat awareness that make him so good at freestyle.
Now, let’s run through Vito’s phenomenal freestyle career.
Cadet Level
2014
The summer after his freshman year of high school, Vito made his national presence known by taking fourth at UWW Cadet Nationals with wins over Ian Parker and Noah Baughman. Vito proved that performance was no fluke at Fargo, where he took third finishing behind Dylan Duncan and Yianni Diakomihalis. Vito once again took out one of Michigan’s top recruits in Kanen Storr.
2015
Vito once again found success in Akron the summer of 2015 when he took second at 58 kg, picking up wins over JJ Figuerora and Kaden Gfellar along the way. He lost in the finals to future teammate Yianni.
Fargo 2015 is when Vito Arujau became one of the top recruits in the country. He tech-falled his way through the Cadet 126 lbs bracket, only giving up points in one match.
2016
Vito didn’t slow down in 2016. He tech-falled his way through his UWW Cadet Nationals bracket without giving up a single point until he met current Ohio State star Sammy Sasso in the best-of-three finals. Arujau outlasted Sasso 6-3 and 8-3 with some pretty nice freestyle technique.
Watch Vito defeat Sammy Sasso in the 2015 UWW Cadet National finals below.
Vito wasn’t just satisfied with making the World Team, however. The New York native went out and won himself a silver medal. He rattled off three wins, including over a 2017 Cadet World champion, before falling to Iran in the finals.
Watch Vito defeat Cadet World champion Ryuto Sakaki at 2016 Cadet Worlds below.
Junior Level
2017
Vito competed at both the UWW Junior Nationals and World Team Trials in the summer of 2017, taking second place at both. At Nationals, Vito teched his way to the finals, including taking out Tariq Wilson, before falling to Mitch McKee. At WTT, Vito notched another good victory over Jack Mueller before falling to Austin Gomez.
2018
After a disappointing UWW Junior Nationals where he took fourth, Vito stepped it up a bit at World Team Trials. Although he avenged a loss to Jordan Decatur at Nationals, Vito once again fell in the finals two-matches-to-none to Austin Gomez.
However, no one was able to stop Vito at U23s. Arujau went 8-0 including two wins over Roman Bravo-Young in the finals.
Watch Vito tech fall Nick Piccininni in the 2018 U23 Nationals semifinals below.
2019
Vito returned to the age level World Championships in 2019 with relative ease, outscoring the competition at UWW Junior World Team Trials 72-8. En route to earning another World silver medal, Vito notched arguably the most impressive victory of his career with a win over 2018 Junior World champion, 2019 Alans champion, and 2020 Yarygin runner-up, Akhmed Adrisov of Russia. And Vito beat him 8-1.
Senior Level
2019
Vito made his Senior level debut after his freshman season at Cornell at the 2019 US Open where. He went 4-2 and finished in fourth.
Watch Vito beat two-time NCAA champion Jesse Delgado at the 2019 US Open below.
While Olympic redshirting this past NCAA season, Vito returned to freestyle action at the 2019 Senior Nationals. The Cornell All-American went 4-1 with an impressive win over NCAA champion Nick Suriano in the quarterfinals, qualifying him for the 2020 Olympic Team Trials.
Watch Vito defeat NCAA champion Nick Suriano at the 2019 Senior Nationals below.
