USA leaves Sargsyan Cup with three silvers and a bronze
Valencia let an 11-6 lead go in the 86kg final, Olejnik closed the tournament out with silver on Sunday.
USA Wrestling has the full ledger from the Stepan Sargsyan Cup in Armenia. Zahid Valencia, Cam Amine and Izzak Olejnik all took silver, and Joey McKenna won his bronze medal match 10-1.
Olejnik was the last American on the mat, dropping the final 11-1 to Gadzhimuard Alikhmaev. Per Jon Kozak, Alikhmaev is ranked 11th in the world, was third at both Russian Nationals and the Yarygin this year, and was the Russian Nationals runner up last year. Getting there took the wildest scramble of the weekend for the Americans.
Valencia gives one back
Valencia's loss is the one that stings. He led Askhab Khadzhiyev of Kazakhstan 6-0, then 8-2 at the break per Justin Basch, and lost 12-11. Kozak said Valencia "definitely got tired" and almost had the winning takedown at the end. Christian Pyles had him up 11-6 with 47 seconds to go.
The name on the other side of that scoreline is the part that will travel. Basch noted that Aeoden Sinclair teched Khadzhiyev 12-2 in the opening rounds of U20 Worlds. Pyles posted the same detail.
More on the earlier 86kg final.
Amine runs into a world No. 10
Amine went 3-0 to reach the 74kg final and lost it 3-1 to Imam Ganishov. Kozak reported Ganishov won Russian Nationals in 2025, was bronze this year, and is ranked 10th in the world at 74kg.
McKenna's tournament ran through the back side. He lost 8-0 to Abasgadzhi Magomedov, the 2021 World champ and 2023 World silver medalist, was pulled into repechage, and won bronze 10-1. Killian Delaney was the only American to go home empty, losing 11-0 to Amir Chamzyn of Russia at 57kg and getting eliminated.
Our take. Three finals against Russian and Kazakh entries ranked inside the world top 11 is a hard week to grade on medal color alone.
He was up 6-0 early and 11-6 with 47 seconds to go.
Izzak Olejnik was down 5-0 in his semifinal match at the Stepan Sargsyan Cup with just 20 seconds left before getting a takedown to 3 turns to win 8-5!