Marlborough’s Jackson Heslin, center, won a USA Wrestling U15 national title in Greco Roman last April in Wisconsin. Heslin stands with a USA Wrestling official and John Knapp, right, a coach with Poway Elite, a club from California. (Photo courtesy Sam Janicki / SJanickiPhoto.com)
Marlborough’s Jackson Heslin, a freshman at Xavier in Middletown, will be representing the United States at the United World Wrestling (UWW) U15 Pan American championships this weekend in Mexico City. He will be wrestling at 53 kilograms (114 pounds).
Competition begins on Friday with Greco Roman with freestyle on Sunday.
Heslin earned a spot on the American team by winning the USA Wrestling 15-and-under national championship in April in Greco Roman in Wisconsin. He took fifth in the freestyle tournament.
Heslin spent a year in California training and wrestling with Poway Elite out of Poway, California, which is about 20 miles northwest of San Diego. John Meyers, who grew in Connecticut and won three State Open championships at Hall in West Hartford (1986-88), is the head coach at Poway.
At the 2019 U15 Pan American championships, Team USA dominated the competition, winning team titles in men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. In total, the Americans captured 25 gold medals with nine Americans sweeping men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman in their respective weight classes. Seven women’s freestylers took home championships at their respective weight classes.
Competition at this year’s event begins Friday with Greco-Roman action. The women’s freestyle wrestling will take place on Saturday, while Sunday will feature all of the men’s freestyle action.
Matches will be streamed live on the UWW Americas Facebook page. You can find the live streams through Facebook by clicking here.
With each style dedicated to one day, the daily schedule will hold qualification and repechage matches in the 10 a.m. session, with the finals starting at 5 p.m, CST. The Mexico City time zone is the same as U.S. Central time.
Friday, October 22
10 a.m. – Qualification and repechage for Greco-Roman
5 p.m. – Finals for Greco-Roman
Saturday, October 23
10 a.m. – Qualification and repechage for women’s freestyle
5 p.m. – Finals for women’s freestyle
Sunday, October 24
10 a.m. – Qualification and repechage for men’s freestyle
5 p.m. – Finals for men’s freestyle
