U.S. has five champions, nine total medalists in men’s freestyle at Henri Deglane Grand Prix

NICE, France – Team USA picked up nine medals in men’s freestyle at the 51st annual Henri Deglane Grand Prix of France on Saturday—Spencer Lee, Nahshon Garrett, Kennedy Monday, Chance Marsteller and Michael Macchiavello claimed tournament titles.

Lee, a 2024 Olympic silver medalist, breezed through the 57 kg bracket with a 5-0 record, five technical falls, outscoring his opponents a combined 50-0, and his longest match lasting 38 seconds. He finished Thomas Epp of Switzerland in the gold medal match with a double leg takedown, plus four gut-wrench turns, to win, 10-0, in 33 seconds.

This was Lee’s first competition post-Paris. In 2024 Lee won gold at the Pan American Championships and the World Olympic Games Qualifier, on top of his Olympic silver. Lee is a two-time U20 World champion, U17 World champion and three-time NCAA champion for Iowa.

In a similar outing to Lee, Garrett posted a run of five-straight technical falls on his way to the 61 kg gold medal. Garrett outscored his opponents a combined 55-4. The only man to score on Garrett was defending champion Arman Eloyan of France, who Garrett defeated twice, 13-3 and 11-1.

Monday picked up his second international gold medal on the Senior level with a gritty 4-0 effort at 79 kg. Two of his wins came by criteria, 3-3 against Umar Mavlaev of Switzerland and 6-6 versus Lucas Kahnt of Germany. In the championship match, Monday outlasted 2016 Olympian Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France, 13-9.

In addition to his gold medal from France, Monday was the champion at last year’s Grand Prix of Spain, as well as runner-up at the 2024 Bill Farrell Memorial International.

Marsteller added a third-straight international gold medal to his collection with a dominant 4-0 day at 86 kg. The 2023 U.S. World Team member picked up a pair of technical falls, plus a pin, on his way to the finals. He scored the opening takedown against Germany’s Lars Schaefle, a U23 World bronze medalist, to go up 2-0 early in the gold medal match. Schaefle was injured on the exchange and defaulted out of the match, handing Marsteller the gold.

After representing Team USA at the 2023 Senior World Championships, Marsteller has medaled at four international events. He finished with bronze at last year’s Zagreb Open Ranking Series tournament before reeling off gold medals at the Pan American Championships, Grand Prix of Spain and, now, Henri Deglane Grand Prix. Marsteller is slated to compete at the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International next weekend in Bulgaria.

Macchiavello, a returning Henri Deglane Grand Prix champion, posted a 5-0 record at 92 kg. He controlled each of his international opponents, with his closest contest being an 8-2 decision over 2022 U20 World bronze medalist Adlan Viskhanov of France in the championship bout. Macchiavello was a Pan American champion and Final X runner-up at 92 kg in 2023. Most recently, he finished with silver at the Bill Farrell Memorial International.

Yahya Thomas and Quincy Monday both found a place the finals but were upended a match away from the gold. Thomas dropped a 3-3 criteria decision to Ibragim Veliev of Belgium at 70 kg. Monday went down by 12-2 technical fall to 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Chermen Valiev of Albania.

Rounding out the U.S. medal haul were bronze medalists Killian Delaney and Jordan Wood. Delaney posted a solid 3-1 record at 61 kg with two technical falls and a pin to his credit. Wood went 1-2 in a four-man round-robin at 125 kg.

2024 Bill Farrell Memorial International runner-up Jack Wehmeyer went 0-2 at 92 kg and was the only American to finish off the medal stand.

Archived matches of the Henri Deglane Grand Prix of France are available online through France Lutte. Brackets and updated results are posted to Smoothcomp.