Jordan Burroughs of the United States battles Cuba’s Franklin Gomez in the men’s freestyle final at 74 kg at Saturday’s Pan American Games in Peru. Burroughs won, 4-1. (Juan Carlos Guzmán Negrini / Lima 2019)
LIMA, Peru, August 10 – Jordan Burroughs, a four-time world champion, won his third Pan Am Games wrestling championship on Saturday while two-time world champion Kyle Snyder won his second Pan Am Games crown and Nick Gwiazdowski, the North Carolina State graduate and NCAA champion, won his first Pan Am Games medal.
It closed out a successful week of wrestling for Team USA at the Pan Am Games. The men’s freestyle team brought home four gold medals and two bronze medals – a medal in each weight class. The Americans won 15 medals in wrestling including five in women’s freestyle and four in men’s Greco Roman. Cuba finished with 16 medals in wrestling while Venezuela was third with nine.
Burroughs won the gold medal at 74 kilograms (163 pounds) with a 4-1 victory over Franklin Gomez Matos of Puerto Rico. In a hard-fought bout, Burroughs took a 1-0 lead after one period with a step out. Gomez Matos tied the match at 1-1 after drawing a caution and one from Burroughs, who was penalized for fleeing the mat.
Burroughs took a 2-1 lead with a step out and added a takedown with 30 seconds remaining for the 4-1 margin of victory.
Ironically, seven years ago on this date, Burroughs won an Olympic gold medal in 2012 at the London Olympics.
American Kyle Snyder puts the squeeze on Puerto Rico’s Evan Ramos in the men’s freestyle finals at 87 kg at Saturday’s Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. (Juan Carlos Guzman Negrini / Lima 2019)
Snyder (97 kg, 213 lbs.) won his second Pan-American Games gold medal with a 9-3 win over Jose Diaz Roberti of Venezuela, who won here at the Pan Am Games in 2016. Snyder scored nine unanswered points in the second period including a pair of takedowns to secure the win.
Gwiazdowski, a former NCAA Division I national champion at North Carolina State, won his first Pan Am gold medal at 125 kg (275 pounds) in dominating fashion.
Gwiazdowski went unscored upon in all three of his matches, outscoring his foes 30-0, and earning three techs to earn the gold medal.
In his first bout, Gwiazdowski used three turns on a leg lace to close out a 10-0 win over 2018 Junior Pan Am bronze medalist Andrew Gunning of Peru.
To advance to the title match, Gwiazdowski overpowered nine-time Pan Am Championships medalist and 2015 Pan Am Games silver medalist Korey Jarvis of Canada, finding his leg lace successful, once again, and executing four turns for another 10-0 win.
For gold, Gwiazdowski downed Oscar Pino Hinds of Cuba, who is a two-time Senior World bronze medalist in Greco-Roman (2017 and 2018). Gwiazdowski scored three takedowns in the first period to build a 6-0 lead at the break, then tacked on another pair of takedowns for the 10-0 tech fall.
Gwiazdowski’s next tournament will be at the 2019 World Championships September 14-22 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Each of the last two years, Gwiazdowski took bronze at the World Championships.
Jordan Burroughs from the United States controls Peru’s Abel Herrera in a men’s freestyle match at 74 kg at Saturday’s Pan American Games. (Juan Carlos Guzman Negrini / Lima 2019)
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