American Michael Altomer (87 kg), right, battles Japan’s Daichi Oka at the U23 world championships in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Altomer won to advance to the quarterfinals. (AJ Grieves photo courtesy USA Wrestling)
At the U23 world championships in Las Vegas, the U.S. men’s team had four wrestlers advance Tuesday into the quarterfinals of the Greco Roman tournament including Michael Altomer (87 kilograms), who trains at South Side Wrestling Club in Bridgeport.
But all four wrestlers, including Altomer, fell in the quarterfinals at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
All four, including Aden Attao (130), Kenneth Crosby (55) and Landon Drury (63) lost in the quarterfinals and did not advance in the repechage.
Representing El Salvador, Fairfield’s Donell Young lost his first round bout at 77 kilograms (167.7 pounds) to Ukraine’s Irfan Mirzoeiv, 8-0, in 2:16 and was eliminated.
Altomer and Young are two of five wrestlers in the world championship tournament at the with ties to Connecticut.
Milford’s Kayla Batres, a senior at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, will be competing for Guatemala in women’s freestyle at 50 kilograms (110 pounds) while Danbury’s Matty Lopes, a junior at Lehigh University, will be competing for Brazil in men’s freestyle at 61 kg (134.4 pounds).
Stephen Burrell, Jr., who wrestled at GFA in high school, will be competing for Jamaica at 92 kg (208.8 pounds) in men’s freestyle. Young, who trains at South Side WC, is scheduled to compete in freestyle at 79 kg (174.1 pounds).
“We had four (U.S.) guys in the quarters. I was pretty excited about us bringing all four of those guys in the semis and putting four medals on us,” American Greco Roman coach Joe Warren told USA Wrestling. “I feel like this team is the best it’s been and we’re so close and it’s just (that) we had a real rough round this round. We had some great wins and I you we’re seeing positive things happen and attitude change and so I’m trying to stay positive with this, but I have a hard time losing.”
Altomer, who is from Stuyvesant, N.Y., won his first two matches with an 8-1 win over Saimaiti Wajiti of China and a 9-0 win by tech fall over Japan’s Daichi Oka.
Leading 1-0 early in the match, Wajiti goes for a lift attempt but is unable to convert, and after the two returned to the mat, Altomer got Wajiti into a headlock and picked up two points for exposure. Altomer scored another point in the first period with a step-out to grab a 3-1 lead after one period.
Altomer scored two more points with a chest-to-chest body lock to grab a 5-1 lead. At 1:26, Altomer went ahead 6-1 with Waijti being hit for passivity. Altomer picked up another takedown in the final 30 seconds to ice match and grab an 8-1 decision.
In the next match, Oka was hit with passivity at 4:35 to give Altomer a 1-0 lead. Altomer scores two points on the gutwrench to grab a 3-0 lead. After a feet to back move for four points for Altomer and he puts the match away with a gutwrench.
In the quarterfinals, Altomer dropped a 9-0 decision to Norway’s Martin Lhosaak, who put up the first points with an arm throw that resulted in four points. He extended his lead to 6-0. Altomer was hit with a defensive leg foul for a caution and two. After a lost U.S. challenge, the match ended with Ljosaak winning 9-0.
Women’s freestyle begins on Wednesday in Las Vegas with men’s freestyle beginning on Friday.
Content provided by USA Wrestling was used to compile this report.
