Men’s freestyle brackets released for U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain

PONTEVEDRA, Spain – The men’s freestyle brackets have been released for the 2024 U20 World Championships.10 American men will take the mats starting tomorrow in search of a prestigious age-group World medal.

The opening round draws appear quite favorable across the board for Team USA, which is led by a pair of past U20 World medalists—Luke Lilledahl at 57 kg and Ben Kueter at 125 kg.

Lilledahl, a three-time age-group World finalist and 2022 U17 World champion, made the 57 kg final last year in Amman, Jordan, and is looking to get back to the top of the podium. His first bout comes against Kabe Matjanov of Turkmenistan. Lilledahl needs three wins on Friday to get back to the finals.

After winning U20 Worlds two years ago, Kueter is back for another go at gold. His initial opponent is Alikhan Kussainov of Kazakhstan, who owns two top ten finishes from U17 Worlds but no medals. Like Lilledahl, Kueter is three wins from a return trip to the finals.

Marcus Blaze, Bo Bassett and Ladarion Lockett, all of whom are past U17 World champions, plus two-time U17 World bronze medalist Zack Ryder, add a youthful layer of depth and international experience to this year’s team.

Bassett, who will compete at 65 kg, has one of the tougher draws to start the day in the form of 2024 U20 European bronze medalist Valentyn Hryhoryshyn of Ukraine. Ryder also has a talented opponent with Jinju Li of China, who was a fifth-place finisher at the U20 Asians, as his opener at 79 kg.

Blaze will take on Dohyung Kim of Korea to start his run at 61 kg. Lockett is up against Baitemir Tuleberdiev of Kyrgyzstan at 74 kg. Neither opponent has registered significant international results.

Other U.S. men’s freestyle participants include PJ Duke at 70 kg, Josh Barr at 86 kg, Connor Mirasola at 92 kg and Justin Rademacher at 97 kg. The only notable first round opponent for this quartet is individual neutral athlete Shakhman Nukhaev, a U20 European runner-up, who will face Rademacher in round one.

The men’s freestyle portion of the U20 World Championships will be held Sept. 6-8, with the action beginning at 10 a.m. local time each day except Sunday, which starts at 4 p.m. local time. Pontevedra, Spain, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The U.S. will compete in two groups over the course of the men’s freestyle event. Group one, which starts on Sept. 6, is comprised of Lilledahl, Bassett, Duke, Ryder and Rademacher. Group two starts a day later, featuring Blaze, Lockett, Barr, Mirasola and Kueter.

A full set of 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.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com and USA Wrestling’s social media platforms for complete coverage of the U20 World Championships.