Olympic Trials Preview: Three World medalists headline talented and wide-open 57 kg men’s bracket

As one of the weight classes not yet qualified for the Olympic Games, the winner of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling will not yet be an Olympian. The job will be to win the Olympic Trials, and quickly prepare for the World Olympic Games Qualifier in Istanbul, May 9-12. Place in top three in Turkey and the Trials winner becomes a member of the Olympic Team. If not, the USA does not compete at this weight in Paris.

This also means that nobody sits out until the Championship Series at the Olympic Trials, and the Challenge Tournament semifinal winners both advance to the best-of-three finals on Saturday.

This weight features three World medalists (two of which have been World champions), but the No. 1 athlete on the National Team leading into the Trials is Zane Richards, the former Illinois star who has come on strong the last few seasons. After a few years on the Senior circuit, Richard qualified for the Senior National Team for 2022-23. He had a quality performance at the 2023 World Cup. In 2023 Final X, Richards defeated top ranked Thomas Gilman in the championship series to make his first World Team.

Richards had the first two chances to qualify the weight. At the Senior Worlds, he lost Aliabbas Rzazade of Azerbaijan in his opening bout, 3-2, and did not get repechage. At the Pan American Olympic Games Qualifier in Mexico, he fell in the semifinals to Lehigh NCAA champ Darian Cruz of Puerto Rico, 2-2 by criteria. He will need to beat his U.S. rivals once again to get a final chance to become our Olympian.

Thomas Gilman is easily the most experienced and credentialled in the 57 kg field, winning a 2021 World gold, a 2020 Olympic bronze, plus two World silver medals. His losses to Richards were just by one point at Final X. However, we have not seen Gilman compete much since. He competed at 61 kg at the Dan Kolov, then went 57 kg for the Pan American Championships, which he won. Gilman has been among the world’s best since he finished his career at Iowa and is now training at Penn State. Gilman has always been a freestyle talent, going back to his U20 World bronze medal and U17 World Team berth.

The world now knows about Vito Arujau, who won two age-group World medals but blasted onto the Senior level by winning the 2023 World title at 61 kg. Under the Trials procedures, he moves directly into the challenge tournament semifinals. He last competed at 57 kg in 2022, at the U23 Worlds where he did not place. In college, Arujau moved up to 133 pounds and has won the last two NCAA titles for Cornell. Son of Olympic champion Vougar Orudjev of the Soviet Union who emigrated to the USA, Vito has always had his sights on World and Olympic success.

Winning a 2021 Senior World silver medal at 61 kg was Daton Fix, who also had tremendous success coming through the youth ranks. A 2017 U20 World champion, he won four age-group World medals. He quickly became a Senior-level star early in his college career at Oklahoma State. Fix made his first Senior World Team at 57 kg in 2019. He is a five-time NCAA All-American, with four runner-up finishes for the Cowboys. He lost to Arujau in the NCAA finals a few weeks ago. Like Arujau, he has not been down to 57 kg in a number of year.

Wrestling fans are excited to see Spencer Lee make a run at the Olympic Team after a long journey with more than his share of ups and downs. Lee was one of the best age-group stars coming up, winning two U20 World titles and a U17 World title in dominant fashion. He won three NCAA titles for Iowa but did not claim No. 4 after dealing with injury challenges. When he has wrestled on the Senior level, he has been powerful. This year, he won the Bill Farrell Memorial and the Senior Nationals, and looks to be in good form coming into State College.

Two more past NCAA champs are in the field, Nico Megaludis and Nick Suriano. Megaludis, who won his NCAA crown for Penn State, placed second behind Lee at the Senior Nationals and Bill Farrell this season. He and Lee hail from the same high school in Western Pennsylvania, . Suriano, who started his career at Penn State and then won NCAA titles for Rutgers and Michigan, earned his Olympic Trials berth by winning the 2024 Pan American Championships.

There are three high school superstars who have advanced jumped up into the Senior level and powered their way into the Olympic Trials.

The first prep star to qualify for the Olympic Trials at this weight was junior Marcus Blaze, by winning a gold medal at the 2023 U17 World Championships. Next up was senior and Penn State commit Luke Lilledahl, who placed fifth at the December 2023 Senior Nationals in Fort Worth to punch his ticket to Trials. Lilledahl was a 2022 U17 World champion and is the nation’s No. 1 Pound-For-Pound high school wrestler according to FloWrestling. Securing the final berth in this field was sophomore Jax Forrest, who scored a technical fall over past NCAA champion Nathan Tomasello in the finals of the Last Chance Qualifier. All three are freestyle savants, and wrestle with no fear against older stars.

Also qualifying for the Trials through the December 2023 Senior Nationals were third-place Liam Cronin and fourth-place Daniel DeShazer. Cronin, who wrestled for Indiana and Nebraska, was successful in Greco-Roman in high school and early in college, but is now making waves in freestyle, DeShazer, a veteran on the freestyle circuit and a past Senior National Team member, won Div. II national titles for Nebraska-Kearney.

With such a loaded field, the Challenge Tournament should be explosive right from the get-go. Winning the Trials will only be taking care of half the job at hand. Whoever emerges, perhaps a past Senior World medalist or somebody with a strong age-group record, will be tasked to peak again only a few days later in Istanbul.

While weight classes and final athlete registrations are not finalized until the completion of weigh-ins, this cast of 12 wrestlers is the expected 50 kg field for the Olympic Trials.

Fans looking to attend the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in person can still purchase all session tickets and single session tickets through Ticketmaster.

For those unable to grab a ticket, fear not—all the action from Bryce Jordan Center will be broadcast by NBC properties, April 19-20. The Friday and Saturday evening sessions will be televised on USA Network. NBC’s streaming platform Peacock will host live streams of each mat throughout the competition.

Complete brackets and live results for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials will be hosted on Trackwrestling.com. Fans can also follow @usawrestling on the various social media platforms for regular updates throughout the event.

For more information about the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, please visit usawrestlingevents.com.

2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Wrestling

April 19-20, Bryce Jordan Center, State College, Pa.

Event Schedule

Friday, April 19

10 a.m. (ET) – Challenge tournament prelims, quarterfinals, consolations

6:30 p.m. (ET) – Challenge tournament semifinals, finals

Saturday, April 20

10 a.m. (ET) – Championship series round one (all weights), championship series round two (GR 60-67-77 kg, MFS 57-65 kg), challenge tournament consolations, true third (if necessary)

6:30 p.m. (ET) –Championship series round two, championship series round three (if necessary)

Men’s freestyle 57 kg

Challenge Tournament participants

Automatic berth in Challenge semifinals - Vitali Arujau (Spartan Combat RTC/TMWC)

2023 World Team member – Zane Richards (Illini WC//TMWC)

2020 Olympic Team member – Thomas Gilman (Nittany Lion WC/TMWC)

2019 World Team member – Daton Fix (Cowboy RTC/TMWC)

2023 Bill Farrell champion – Spencer Lee (Hawkeye WC/TMWC)

Dec. 2023 Senior Nationals runner-up – Nico Megaludis (Pitt WC/TMWC)

Dec. 2023 Senior Nationals third place – Liam Cronin (Nebraska WTC)

Dec. 2023 Senior Nationals fourth place – Daniel DeShazer (Gopher Wrestling Club - RTC),

Dec. 2023 Senior Nationals fifth place – Luke Lilledahl (X-Calibur Athletics WC)

2024 Pan American Championships champion at 61 kg – Nick Suriano (New Jersey)

2023 U17 World champion 55 kg – Marcus Blaze (Perrysburg WC)

2024 Final Olympic Trials Qualifier champion – Jax Forrest (Bishop McCort HS)