Villaescusa, Welker advance to women’s freestyle semifinals at Senior World Championships

TIRANA, Albania –The U.S. women opened the 2024 Senior World Championships with a strong morning session that saw Areana Villaescusa and Kylie Welker move on to the semifinal round at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall.

Villaescusa, a first-time U.S. World Team member, overpowered both of her opponents at 55 kg. She picked up a first-period pin over Zulfiya Yakhyarova of Kazakhstan before ousting three-time age-group World medalist Elvira Suleyman Kamaloglu of Turkey in dominant fashion, 11-4.

Welker picked up right where she left off in Albania, posting three wins during the preliminary rounds, including an emphatic pin over 2024 Asian champion Qian Jiang of China in the 72 kg quarterfinals. Her first two wins were shutouts.

In the semifinals, Villaescusa will face 2024 U20 World and Asian champion Jin Zhang of China. Welker stands opposite 2022 World silver medalist Ami Ishii of Japan.

2023 World silver medalist Macey Kilty was upended in the 65 kg quarterfinals by three-time age-group World medalist Kateryna Zelenykh of Romania, 11-4. Kilty led 2-1 at the break but gave up a pair of four-point takedowns in the second frame, which made all the difference in the match.

Two-time World finalist and 2019 World champion Jacarra Winchester lost a low-scoring, 2-1, contest in her first match of the day to India’s Mansi Mansi. All three points in the match came from activity time expirations.

Both Kilty and Winchester remain in the running for a repechage match, needing Zelenykh and Mansi to win in tonight’s semifinals.

The Senior World Championships continue at 4:45 p.m. local time with the women’s freestyle semifinals, followed by the Greco-Roman medal matches at 6 p.m. For those planning to follow along live, Tirana, Albania, is located five 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 U.S. match from today in our day two match notes article.