Jacobson, Miley fall in Greco-Roman quarters, four in repechage hunt at U23 World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – Four Americans remain in the running for a repechage match following a lengthy morning of Greco-Roman action at the 2024 U23 World Championships.

2024 Olympian Payton Jacobson and 2024 U23 Pan American champion KJ Miley both advanced to the quarterfinal round at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall before falling to opponents holding the Individual Neutral Athlete designation.

Jacobson wrestled well throughout the day at 87 kg, including his 3-1 quarterfinal loss to Aues Gonibov, who is a returning U23 World champion and Senior World bronze medalist. Jacobson went blow-for-blow against the Russian. Each man gained a passivity point, but it was a correct throw call for Gonibov that provided the edge.

Prior to the quarters, Jacobson took a tough 3-1 decision against Tomislav Brkan of Croatia, followed by an 8-0 thumping of Japan’s Yudai Kobori.

Miley’s 130 kg quarterfinal against Dmitrii Baboryko was over in 44 seconds. Baboryko hit an underhook toss early and followed with three-straight gutwrenches to end the match, 8-0. Miley won an impressive 5-3 match over Poland’s Tomasz Wawrzynczyk in his opener—a four-point arm throw for Miley proved the difference.

Billy Sullivan at 55 kg and Hunter Garvin at 77 kg both went 1-1 on Tuesday morning, winning their first matches by technical fall, but coming up short in the round-of-16.

Jacobson, Miley, Sullivan and Garvin are all in still eligible for a repechage match entering the semifinal round, needing just one more win from the opponent who defeated them to get pulled back into the tournament.

63 kg entrant Jonathan Gurule had a tough outing, dropping his opening round match to Mairbek Salimov of Poland by technical fall, 9-0. Salimov was defeated in the quarterfinals, which prevents Gurule from being eligible for a wrestle-back match.

The U23 World Championships continue at 4:45 p.m. local time with the Greco-Roman group two (55-63-77-87-130 kg) semifinals, followed by the Greco-Roman group one (60-67-72-82-97 kg) medal matches at 6 p.m. Tirana, Albania, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

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

Revisit the details of each match from today in our day two match notes article.