American Ben Davino celebrates after winning the 61 kg world championship at the U23 world championship tournament in Las Vegas on Saturday night. (A.J. Grieves photo courtesy USA Wrestling)
A fourth wrestler with state ties picked up an individual victory at the U23 world championship tournament in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Donell Young of Fairfield, a wrestler at the University of Scranton, went 1-1 at 79 kilograms on Saturday in men’s freestyle representing El Salvador on Friday at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Stephen Burrell, Jr., a senior at the University of Virginia, fell in the repechage round to Sando Kurashivili of the country of Georgia, 10-0 in 2:38 and finished tenth overall at 92 kilograms. Burrell (1-2 in the tournament) wrestled at Greens Farms Academy in Westport and trains with Bridgeport-based South Side Wrestling Club.
Young won his first round match over Serbia’s Andrija Ivanovic, 11-0 in 5:26 before losing in the quarterfinal round to Japan’s Kanata Yamaguchik, 10-0 in 1:12.
Young, who graduated from Fairfield Ludlowe, wrestled in Greco Roman earlier in the week in the tournament at 77 kg and was eliminated after a 8-0 loss in 2:16 to Ukraine’s Irfan Mirzoeiv, 8-0, in 2:16 and was eliminated.
Danbury’s Matt Lopes, a student at Lehigh and wrestling for Brazil, went 1-1 at 61 kilograms in men’s freestyle.
American Michael Altomer (87 kilograms), who trains at South Side Wrestling Club, went 2-1 in the Greco-Roman tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals.
American Benjamin Davino won his first age group world championship on Saturday night with a victory in men’s freestyle at 61 kg. Making his first appearance in an age-group world final, Davino pinned Iukhan Dokturbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan. Davino got Uulu into a cradle to post the fall as time expired to seal the victory and win the gold medal.
Also on Saturday, American Jayden James (74 kg) claimed his second age-group world silver medal of the year after losing a tight 5-3 bout to three-time age-group world medalist Magomed Baitukaev of Russia. James, who finished as the U20 World runner-up in August, won the U17 world title in 2025.
American Coby Merrill dominated the 125 kg bronze medal match. In his worlds debut, Merrill bullied Milan Gellen of Hungary to win the bronze medal with a 10-0 technical fall.
Content from USA Wrestling included in this report
International
GFA’s Burrell is still alive at U23 world championships
International
GFA’s Burrell is still alive at U23 world championships
