Stanford’s Nico Provo, at last March’s NCAA championships, was one of four wrestlers with state ties at the trials for the U.S. world championship team.
The United States held a two-day qualifying tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, for spots on the American team for upcoming Senior World Championships in Tirana, Albania on Oct. 23-29 with four wrestlers with ties to Connecticut competing at the Senior World Trials.
In men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman, there was competition for spots on the U.S. team in four weight classes. In a non-Olympic year, there are 10 weight classes at the world championships. But because this is an Olympic, there will be just four non-Olympic weights at the world championships. Six weight classes were contested at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in August.
2024 Olympians were not eligible to compete at the upcoming world championship meet in a non-Olympic weight class. Notably, this means 2023 world champion Amit Elor, who won gold at 68 kilograms in Paris, won’t be able to defend her title at 72 kilograms.
The two-day Senior World trials concluded with a best-of-three series to determine the spots on the four-person American team in three styles — men’s and women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman.
Stanford’s Nico Provo (Stratford) and North Carolina State’s Ryan Jack (Danbury) participated in freestyle competition along with Trumbull’s Matthew Ryan. Peter Del Gallo, the newly-appointed women’s wrestling coach at Greens Farms Academy, competed in the Greco-Roman tournament, finishing fourth.
Provo competed at 61 kilograms (134.4 pounds) and dropped a pair of decisions including a 10-6 decision to Seth Gross of Wisconsin RTC.
Ryan, who previously competed at the University of Buffalo, dropped a pair of bouts at 70 kilograms or 154.3 pounds. Jack, who will be a senior this with the Wolfpack, went 1-2 in the tournament at 70 kg. with a forfeit. He was eliminated by Yahya Thomas of the New Jersey RTC, 8-1.
Del Gallo had the most success competing in Greco Roman at 55 kilograms or 121.2 pounds. He won his first match with a 10-0 shutout in 2:15 over Kansas’ Ezekiel Witt of Bison Wrestling Club before dropping a 7-3 decision in the semifinal to 2023 U.S. world team member Brady Koontz of the University of Dubuque (Iowa).
Koontz won the trials to make the U.S. team in Greco-Roman for the second time.
In the consolation semifinal, Del Gallo shutout Texas’ Kody Tanimoto of Bison Wrestling Club, 7-0. In the consolation, Billy Sullivan of Army beat Del Gallo by technical fall, 9-0 in 2:24 to finish third.
Del Gallo has been a resident athlete with South Side Wrestling Club in Bridgeport over the past 18 months. He was recently named as the head girls wrestling coach at Greens Farms Academy.
Del Gallo was an All-American wrestler at the University of Southern Maine and a three-time NCAA Division III qualifier with a career record of 133-10. In high school (Gardiner, Maine), he was a four-time Maine state champion who won two New England championships in 2016 and 2013. He had a career record of 208-5.
