U.S. receives Greco-Roman draw at U23 World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – The Greco-Roman brackets have been released for the U23 World Championships with 10 U.S. athletes entered in the field

Paris Olympian Payton Jacobson headlines the U.S. lineup set to compete over the next three days at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall. He will begin his run at 87 kg against Tomislav Brkan of Croatia.

Jacobson recently won a bronze medal at the Valamar Cup following his appearance at the Olympics. He finished in 13^th place at this event last year down at 77 kg and also has an eighth-place finish from the U20 Worlds under his belt.

Two other members of last year’s U23 World Team join Jacobson with a repeat appearance—Robert Perez III at 67 kg and Justus Scott at 72 kg. Perez has drawn 2024 Olympian Nestor Almanza Truyol of Chile. Scott awaits the winner between Kristo Merilain of Estonia and U23 World champion Seyed Sohrabi of Iran.

Senior National Team member Max Black received a first-round bye. He will face either three-time age group World medalist Nihad Guluzade of Azerbaijan or Yasuhito Mori of Japan in his opener at 60 kg.

At 82 kg, Beka Melelashvili will represent the U.S. on the World stage for the first time. His run begins with U23 Pan American champion Daniel Bello Vega of Venezuela. Bello Vega defeated Melelashvili 5-4 at the U23 Pan Ams. Melelashvili was fifth at the 2022 U23 World Championships while competing for Georgia.

Wyatt Voelker, who was fifth at the 2023 U20 World Championships, has drawn Christos Chatsatourov of Greece in the first round at 97 kg.

Additional Team USA athletes in the mix are Billy Sullivan at 55 kg, Jonathan Gurule at 63 kg, Hunter Garvin at 77 kg and KJ Miley at 130 kg. First round matchups for each American can be found below.

The Greco-Roman portion of the U23 World Championships will be held October 21-23. Women’s freestyle and men’s freestyle will follow later in the week. Greco-Roman action begins at 10:30 a.m. local time each day. Tirana, Albania, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The U.S. will compete in two groups over the course of the Greco-Roman event. Group one, which starts on Monday, is comprised of Black, Perez III, Scott, Melelashvili and Voelker. Group two starts a day later, featuring Sullivan, Gurule, Garvin, Jacobson and Miley.

A full set of brackets and match-by-match results is available on UWW Arena. A live broadcast of the event is available for the U.S. market at FloWrestling.com.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com and USA Wrestling’s social media platforms for complete coverage of the U23 World Championships.