U23 and U20 Greco Recap

RECAP

Geneva, OH, is the host of this year's U20 World Team Trials and U23 Nationals.  The champion in each U20 (Juniors) and U23 weight classes will represent the United States at the 2023 UWW World Championships. Additionally, the top 8 place winners in the U20 division, who are age and grade eligible, qualify for the Junior and 16U National Championships later in the summer in Fargo.

The 2023 U20 World Championships will take place in Warsaw, Poland, while the U23 World Championships will be in Tampere, Finland.

U20 WORLD TEAM TRIALS

Michigan Grapplers had a strong showing at the U20 World Team Trials on Friday. The tournament format is a challenge tournament, where the winner of that mini-tournament wrestles in a best 2-out-of-3 against the winner from U20 Nationals.

At 67kg, a Michigan Wolverine commit made the world team. Joel Adams won 9-7 over Gunnar Hamre in the challenge tournament finals before sweeping the series 2-0 against Jadon Skellenger in the finals.

Blake Stauffenberg, a rising star for the Spartans, made the world team at 72kg. He had two techs and a 12-7 win in the challenge tournament. Stauffenberg won two high-scoring matches against Richard Fedalen (New York RTC) in the finals to secure his spot on the world team. Fedalen was the returning U20 world team member at the weight.

At 82kg, Brayden Gautreau (Gaylord HS) beat the 3-seed and 1-seed to win the challenge tournament. His finals match was against Jared Stricker, a D3 NCAA runner-up this season, with Gautreau winning impressively by tech. Ultimately, Gautreau fell just short of making the world team, losing both matches to Michael Altomer, who won the 2022 U20 Pan-American Championships.

U23 NATIONALS

Jordan Hamdan (Hudson HS, MSU) led the way in U23, making the world team at 63kg. He kicked things off with two techs before beating Jeremy Bockert 10-6 to make the finals. In the finals, Hamdan won the first match 6-5 over Kyle Rowan. In the second match, Hamdan cruised to an 8-0 tech over the Stanford Cardinal. Hamdan ended the second match with a nice 5-point throw straight to a gut.

Michigan had another champ at 67kg. Former Warren Woods Tower star David Stepanian cruised through the field to make the world team. Stepanian had three straight techs to make the finals, where he won both matches by tech over Max Schierl. This is Stepanian's second appearance on the U23 world team, as he took 8th at the 2022 world championships.

At 77kg, another Spartan made a run to the finals. Entering the tournament as the 6-seed, Caleb Fish put together 4 straight wins to make the finals, including a pin over the 2-seed in the semis. In the finals, Fish ran into Payton Jacobsen, a former U20 world team member. Fish would lose both matches to become the world team alternate.

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