International

Maroulis, Guilford remain alive for medal at world championships

by
Connecticut Wrestling Online
October 27, 2026

American Helen Maroulis (top) beats Mia Friesen of Canada, 11-0 by tech fall at the 2026 world championships on Tuesday. (Tony Rotundo photo courtesy USA Wrestling).

Courtesy USA Wrestling

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Oct. 27, 2026 – American stars Helen Maroulis and Dymond Guilford received favorable results on Tuesday evening at the 2026 Senior World Championships, advancing to the repechage with medal hopes intact.

Both women suffered heartbreaking quarterfinal losses in which their leads were erased in the final moments—Maroulis to Japan’s Sena Nagamoto and Guilford to Ukraine’s Anastasiya Alpyeyeva. Both Nagamoto and Alpyeyeva advanced to the gold medal round, breathing new life into the U.S. women’s freestyle effort.

Maroulis, an Olympic champion and four-time World champion, aims for her ninth World medal. She will face either 2026 Asian bronze medalist Ulmeken Esenbaeva of Uzbekistan or two-time Olympian Luisa Valverde Melendres of Ecuador for the right to wrestle for bronze at 57 kg.

Two-time World Team member Guilford seeks her first Senior World medal. Her path to 125 kg bronze begins with 2025 European bronze medalist Anastasiya Zimiankova of Belarus. Guilford was a finalist at the 2022 U23 World Championships.

Remaining women’s freestyle group one athletes Kayla Miracle (65 kg) and Morgan Turner (50 kg) finished 1-1 and were removed from the medal running earlier in the day.

Action resumes Tuesday at Barys Arena at 6 p.m. local time with the Greco-Roman group three (63-67-87 kg) medal matches. Astana, Kazakhstan, is nine hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.