Jayden James pins his way into U23 World semis at 74kg
The Penn State freshman opened with a fall over Kyrgyzstan's Adilet Akylbekov and followed it with a 7-4 quarterfinal win.
Jayden James is into the U23 World semifinals at 74kg, per Justin Basch, who had the Penn State wrestler winning his quarterfinal 7-4.
The opener was the wild one. James drew Adilet Akylbekov of Kyrgyzstan, a U20 World finalist, and got the fall while leading 14-8. GlobalWrestOrder called it an all out barn burner and noted James is a U17 World champion. Basch used the same phrase, writing that James was "in an absolute barn burner to start."
Christian Pyles credited the approach rather than the scoreline, posting that Kyrgyzstan could only score off counters and that James never stopped firing. Twenty two points in a first round freestyle match is not a style you can fake, and James kept attacking with a lead that would have tempted most people to stall it out.
Kyrgyzstan could only score off counters and Jayden just kept firing til the match was over
The rest of the American men
Men's freestyle opened Friday at 1 30 p.m. ET with five Americans on the mat. Ohio State's Seth Shumate joined James in advancing from the first round, taking an 11-0 tech over Dovletgeldi Myradov of Turkmenistan at 92kg, per Basch. The other three were Ben Davino of Ohio State at 61kg against Iran's Ebrahim Khari, Aeoden Sinclair of Missouri at 86kg against Eugeniu Mihalcean of Moldova, and Coby Merrill of Iowa State at 125kg against Khachatur Khachatryan of Armenia.
Semifinals were set for 7 45 p.m. ET. Basch listed Team USA with three medals to that point, led by Kylie Welker's third straight title, with Cristelle Rodriguez-Dobler going for gold at 53kg against Sevval Cayir of Turkey and Adaugo Nwachukwu for gold at 62kg against Iryna Bondar of Ukraine at 9 p.m. ET, plus Reese Larramendy in a bronze match at 65kg.
What to watch is simple. James has one match between him and a U23 World final at 74kg, and he is doing it as a Penn State wrestler who already owns a U17 World title.
Crazy opening match for the Nittany Lion.
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