Jakob Camacho, top, in Saturday’s semifinal win over Matthew Ramos at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament in Iowa. (Photo courtesy Sam Janicki /SJanickiPhoto.com)
Danbury native Jakob Camacho continues to progress in his international wrestling career.
Camacho advanced to the best-of-3 finals of the Challenge Tournament at 57 kilograms (125.6 pounds) in the U.S. World Team trials this weekend in Coraville, Iowa.
The winner of the Challenge Tournament advances to face American Thomas Gilman, the 2021 world champion with a berth on the American team going to the world championships in September in Serbia going to the winner.
However, it will be Cornell All-American Vito Arujau challenging Gilman on June 3 at Final X Stillwater. Arujau won the best-of-three series Sunday, 2-0 with a pair of technical falls.
In the opening match, Arujau quickly took down Camacho and turned him with an ankle lace multiple times for a 10-0 win in 1:02. In the second match, Arujau also got his offense rolling, and finished off a 13-0 technical fall in 4:03 with a four-point lift.
Arujau, a 2020 U.S. Open champion, was the silver medalist at the 2019 Junior World championships. Arujau was representing Spartan Combat WC/TMWC while Camacho, who will be a junior at North Carolina State in the fall, was representing Wolfpack RTC.
Camacho finished 2-1 in the Challenge Tournament with two wins on Saturday.
2022 World Team Trials challenge tournament
