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NEW article - Senior World Championships preview(s) + RESULTS

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Tanner Lafever

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If you guys didn't already know, this Saturday the 2025 Senior World Championships get underway in Zagreb, Croatia.

There, a total of seven past/present Hawkeyes will take the mat - including six for Team USA.

I just published my preview for the Men's Freestyle portion of the event - which will lead things off on the 13th:

Hawkeyes vs. The World: Men's Freestyle Preview - On3

Among the Hawkeyes competing:

57kg - Spencer Lee (USA)
65kg - Real Woods (USA)
70kg - Victor Voinovich III (Serbia)

And here's my Women's Freestyle preview - whose portion of the proceedings will kick off on the 16th:

Hawkeyes vs. The World: Women's Freestyle Preview - On3

The four Hawkeyes on the mat:

53kg - Felicity Taylor (USA)
65kg - Macey Kilty (USA)
68kg - Kennedy Blades (USA)
76kg - Kylie Welker (USA)
 
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jrod65

jrod65

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Good stuff.

Beyond ready for Lee to get his gold!

My expectations from team USA as a whole are tempered this year. Lots of talent, but unproven on the Sr level international stage. Hope they all ball out, but my guesses:

Lee - gold
Forrest - bronze
Woods - DNP
Duke - bronze
Carr - 5th
Haines - DNP
Valencia- silver
Hidlay - bronze
Snyder - bronze
Hendrickson- 5th
 
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GLC1969

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Lee Sliver
Forrest Gold
Woods DNP
Duke 5th
Carr Bronze
Haines Bronze
Valencia Silver
Hidlay Bronze
Snyuder Silver
Hendrickson Bronze
 
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Tanner Lafever

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Lee will now need Harutyunan to win in the semifinals later this morning in order to get the chance to wrestle back for bronze tomorrow.
 
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Tanner Lafever

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Women's Freestyle draws dropped earlier today.

Here are the brackets for all four Hawkeyes + some initial thoughts on their path(s):



 
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Tanner Lafever

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Real Woods (65kg) goes 1-1 to start his World Championships debut.

In the R32, Woods exploded late 1st/early 2nd period to the 14-1 TF over Moldova's Maxim Sacultan - who finished 9th at the Paris Olympics & 5th at Worlds in 2023.

Unfortunately, Woods's R16 draw was #1 Rahman Amouzad - silver in Paris and gold at 2022 Worlds.

Woods actually got in on multiple deep shots, but the Iranian was ultimately too much and pulled away for the 12-1 win.

Now, Amouzad needs to reach the final in order to pull Woods back into tomorrow's repechage (which I think he will).
 
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HawkeyeInOlathe

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Tanner Lafever said:
Real Woods (65kg) goes 1-1 to start his World Championships debut.

In the R32, Woods exploded late 1st/early 2nd period to the 14-1 TF over Moldova's Maxim Sacultan - who finished 9th at the Paris Olympics & 5th at Worlds in 2023.

Unfortunately, Woods's R16 draw was #1 Rahman Amouzad - silver in Paris and gold at 2022 Worlds.

Woods actually got in on multiple deep shots, but the Iranian was ultimately too much and pulled away for the 12-1 win.

Now, Amouzad needs to reach the final in order to pull Woods back into tomorrow's repechage (which I think he will).
Click to expand...
any clue why Real didn't wrestle for HWC?
 
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Tanner Lafever

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Real Woods will get a chance to wrestle back for bronze tomorrow - as Amouzad (Iran) reaches the finals with two more wins this morning.

The former Hawkeye will need to win three consecutive matches tomorrow in order to leave his first World Championships with a medal.
 
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Tanner Lafever

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HawkeyeInOlathe said:
any clue why Real didn't wrestle for HWC?
Click to expand...
Not sure.

IIRC, I believe he initially indicated that he'd be joining the HWC after graduation.

(That could be wrong, but I feel like he gave a quote sometime in the spring of 2024 - maybe when the new facility opened? - to that effect.)

But yeah, not sure what all went into him eventually deciding to head up to Ann Arbor instead.
 
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vhsalum1

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Tanner Lafever said:
Not sure.

IIRC, I believe he initially indicated that he'd be joining the HWC after graduation.

(That could be wrong, but I feel like he gave a quote sometime in the spring of 2024 - maybe when the new facility opened? - to that effect.)

But yeah, not sure what all went into him eventually deciding to head up to Ann Arbor instead.
Click to expand...
bobbynic stated that he "needed a change of scenery"

He was here for 2 years.. AND made some cash. I don't get what that even means.
 
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Tanner Lafever

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Running a little behind today, but here's the recap from a busy morning for the Hawkeyes.

Real Woods (bronze at 65kg)

Woods won three consecutive repechage matches to earn bronze in his first-ever Senior World Championships appearance.

He started things off with a quick 10-0 TF over Ikromzhon Khadzhimurodov (KGZ).

That was followed by a 7-5 win over #8 Sujeet Sujeet (IND), in which Woods had an early five-point flurry, a chest-wrap exposure just before the break, the defended for the comfortable win from there.

And finally, a 3-1 win over Peiman Biabani (CAN) for bronze - in which the only points scored were of the activity clock variety - though Woods really hustled in the 2nd period to get the Canadian put back on the clock, then defended a deep, low single for the final 20 seconds to hang on for the bronze

#2 Macey Kilty (repechage at 65kg)

Kilty lost a heartbreaking opening bout on criteria (6-6) to Alina Kasabieva (UWW) - a 4x age-level World medalist.

Kasabieva hit a high-flying 4pt counter off a deep shot from Kilty, then led 6-2 at the break. Kilty fought back to even the score at 6-6 with about 1:30 to go and looked ready to pull in front, but that was it for the scoring and Kasabieva's initial 4pt move held up as the winner.

Thankfully, Kasabieva went on to defeat a pair of World/Olympic medalists in the quarters/semis to reach the final, which pulls Kilty back into tomorrow's repechage.

#8 Kylie Welker (repechage at 76kg)

Welker won her opener via fall over Vanesa Georgieva (BUL), jumped ahead 4-0 in the first 10 seconds, but not scoring again until early in the 2nd period, when Georgieva finally took her first shot of the match and was promptly pancaked/pinned.

That set up a quarterfinal vs. #1 Aiperi Medet Kyzy (KGZ) - a 2x Olympian (5th in 2024/2021) and 2021 World bronze medalist.

Welker looked really good for the first five minutes. She converted a low single midway through the first, then scored a step-out midway through the 2nd to build a 3-0 lead. But in the final 60 seconds her opponent really picked up her urgency, digging in an underhook and driving Welker to the edge.

It ultimately paid off with a pair of takedowns, the latter of which gave Kyzy her first lead of the match with ~13 seconds to go - before tacking on a pair of turns to extend the final 8-3 margin.

Welker too, was pulled into tomorrow's repechage when Kyzy won her next match to reach the 76kg final.
 
Nashville_Hawk

Nashville_Hawk

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jrod65 said:
Good stuff.

Beyond ready for Lee to get his gold!

My expectations from team USA as a whole are tempered this year. Lots of talent, but unproven on the Sr level international stage. Hope they all ball out, but my guesses:

Lee - gold
Forrest - bronze
Woods - DNP
Duke - bronze
Carr - 5th
Haines - DNP
Valencia- silver
Hidlay - bronze
Snyder - bronze
Hendrickson- 5th
Click to expand...
I was all in on your predictions yet some of our fellas really brought their A games. Was somewhat surprised by performances from Woods, Haines and Hidlay and somewhat shocked - or extremely shocked in Lee's case - by performances from Lee and Duke. Duke is a youngster but I still thought he would wrestle for a medal. All in all a great showing by the Americans! :)
 
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Tanner Lafever

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Kennedy Blades battled back on Day 2 to secure bronze at 68kg - including an incredibly impressive win over a former World champion:



 
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