Southbury’s William Henckel powered into the semifinals with an 11-5 victory over Georgia’s Davit Tchetchelashvili at the U20 World Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria. (Richard Immel photo courtesy USA Wrestling)
Southbury’s William Henckel reached the final at the Under 20 world championships in freestyle at 79 kilograms (174.1 pounds) in Bulgaria on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old rising freshman at Penn State will be bringing home a silver medal after dropping an 8-6 decision to Mahdi Yousefi-Hajivar of Iran in the championship match. Yousefi-Hajivar was third at the U20 world championships a year ago and won the U23 world title.
Yousefi-Hajivar grabbed an early 8-2 lead but Henckel continued to press, trimming the lead to two points but that is as close as he would get.
Still, it was medal-winning experience for Henckel in his first appearance on the American team at a world championship event.
“Tournaments like this are full of things that don’t go your way,” Henckel said on Monday. “They’re full of adversity and you have to face it head one and kind of look past it.”
Henckel, a two-time prep school national champion at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, won his first four matches in the tournament with three decisions and a technical fall.
He earned a spot in the world championship final with a 5-4 win over India’s Amit in the semifinals.
Leading 1-0 with just under a minute left in the first period, Henckel got a two-point takedown and wrapped up Amit tightly turning him to his back for another two more points. But Henckel got caught on his back and was nearly pinned.
Henckel ended up out of bounds and out of trouble and led 5-2 after one period.
In the second period, Henckel stepped out of the circle, giving Amit another point and cutting the lead to 5-3 with 2:09 remaining. Henckel was put on the clock for passivity with 1:30 remaining and Amit got another inactivity point with 1:00 remaining.
In the final minute, Henckel held off a furious charge by the Indian wrestler to earn a spot in his first world championship final.
“We’re just here to scrap,” Henckel said. “It’s a game at the end of the day and I want to be the best at this game. But it’s just a game. So, I’m not really stressed out there.”
“I know God is looking over me and everything that happens, happens for a reason. If I win, it is part of his plan. If I lose, it is part of his plan. That kind of mentality takes the stress off me. It takes the nerves and anxiety away.”
Henckel beat Davit Tchetchelashvili of the country of Georgia in the quarterfinals, 11-5.
The Georgian wrestler led 3-0 in the first period getting a takedown off a granby roll and one-point for a step out by Henckel. Off a restart, Henckel got his first takedown of the match. After another restart, Henckel gets a second takedown with 33 seconds left in the period for a 4-3 lead.
In the second period, Henckel picked up a point when the Georgia stepped out but Tchetchelashvili ties the match with a takedown, 5-5, and takes the lead on criteria.
Henckel gets a single leg takedown with 59 seconds left for a 7-5 lead. After a restart, he gets his fourth takedown of the bout for a 9-5 lead.
Henckel beat Bohdan Oleksiienko of Ukraine, 10-0 by technical fall with three takedowns.
In his first match of the tournament, Henckel beat Maksat Tabyldyev of Kyrgyzstan, 8-5. Henckel was hit for the first passivity warning 50 seconds into the bout, but on the restart snatched up a leg and chased Tabyldyev out of bounds for a stepout point. Tabyldyev was also hit for fleeing, giving Henckel a 2-0 lead just one minute in.
Twenty seconds later, Henckel added a takedown to make it 4-0. With 30 seconds remaining, Henckel scored again with a double leg to build a 6-0 lead, which he held at the break.
In the second period off a restart, Henckel powered through on another double leg to extend his lead to 8-1. Tabyldyev responded with a four-point move to close the gap to 8-5 with 90 seconds to go, but neither wrestler generated notable attacks in the final minute.
Henckel qualified for the world championships by winning the U.S. U20 world team trials. Earlier this year, he won the U20 nationals and was a gold medalist at the U20 Pan American championships in Peru.
Southbury’s William Henckel meets with the media after his semifinal victory at 79 kilograms at the U20 world championships on Monday.
Henckel results at U20 world championships
First round: WIN Maksat Tabyldyev (Kyrgyzstan), dec. 8-5
Second round: WIN Bohdan Oleksiienko (Ukraine), tech. fall, 10-0
Quarterfinal: WIN Davit Tchetchelashvili (Georgia), dec. 11-5
Semifinal: WIN Amit (India), dec. 5-4
Final: LOSS Mahdi Yousefi Hajivar (Iran), dec. 8-6
UPDATE (August 20, 2025): The U.S. men’s freestyle team won the world championship at the U20 world championship meet with eight medals, including a silver medal from Southbury’s William Henckel at 79 kg. The Americans won five gold medals — the most they’ve ever won in a single U20 world championship meet The U.S. beat second-place Kazakhstan 185-112 in the team standings. Iran finished third with 111. Kazakhstan had one gold, one silver, and three bronze medals. Iran came away with one gold, two silvers and two bronzes.
