Kilty, Welker, Macaluso move to women’s freestyle semifinals at U23 World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – For the second-straight day, three U.S. women moved on to the semifinals at the U23 World Championships. Macey Kilty, Kylie Welker and Sofia Macaluso all went undefeated on Thursday morning for Team USA.

Kilty and Welker, who will also compete in the Senior World Championships later on this week in Albania, were dominant at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall. The duo combined for five wins, two pins and three technical falls, while only giving up three match points.

Kilty, a five-time age-group World medalist and 2023 Senior World finalist, went 3-0 at 62 kg with a pair of pins and a 10-0 technical fall. Her toughest test of the morning session came from 2024 Olympian and 2021 U23 World bronze medalist Esther Kolawole of Nigeria. Kilty trailed Kolawole, 3-1, midway through the second period before converting on a high-c and pinning Kolawole with an inside leg turk finish at the 5:30 mark of the match.

Up next for Kilty is U23 European bronze medalist and 2021 U20 World bronze medalist Viktoria Vesso of Estonia in the semifinals. Kilty is looking to get back on the U23 World podium after narrowly missing out last year.  

Welker only needed two matches to make her way to the 72 kg semifinals. She posted an 11-0 technical fall over 2022 U20 World runner-up Anastassiya Panassovich of Kazakhstan, followed by a 40-second, 10-0, technical fall on Haticenur Sari of Turkey.

Her semifinal opponent this evening will be three-time U23 World medalist and 2021 U23 World champion Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine. A win in the semifinals would clinch Welker’s third age-group World medal. She was a U20 World champion in 2021 and U17 World bronze in 2019.

Macaluso emerged with a pair of tight victories to make the 57 kg semifinals, where she will face returning U23 World finalist and current U23 European champion Zhala Aliyeva of Azerbaijan.

In her opener, Macaluso needed a last second inside trip and turn to overcome a late, 9-4, deficit against Mexico’s Bertha Rojas Chavez, who is a 2024 U20 World finalist. Her quarterfinal was less dramatic—a sound 4-1 decision over Individual Neutral Athlete Anastasia Kozlova.

Two Americans came up short in the morning session and will wait to see if the repechage ball bounces their direction— Elena Ivaldi at 53 kg and Adaugo Nwachukwu at 65 kg.

Ivaldi put up eight points in both of her back-and-forth matches. She came from behind to edge U23 Pan American champion Yusmy Chaparro Urrego of Colombia, 8-8, in her first match. In the quarterfinals, Ivaldi couldn’t overcome a pair of headlocks in a 10-8 loss to Otgontuya Chinbold of Mongolia. Chinbold is the reigning U23 Asian champion and earned bronze at this year’s Senior Asian Championships.

It was one-and-done for Nwachukwu, who drew talented Romania Kateryna Zelenykh in the first round. Zelenykh scored a four-point takedown in the latter stages of the first period, which proved to be the difference in a 5-5 criteria match. Zelenykh is a two-time U23 World medalist and earned silver at this year’s Senior European Championships.

The U.S. crew needs wins from Chinbold and Zelenykh this evening to bring Ivaldi and Nwachukwu into the wrestle-backs with a chance at bronze.

The U23 World Championships continue at 4:45 p.m. local time with the women’s freestyle group two (53-57-62-65-72 kg) semifinals, followed by the women’s freestyle group one (50-55-59-68-76 kg) medal matches at 6 p.m. For those following along live, 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 four match notes article.