Parris, Valencia capture gold, U.S. adds four freestyle medals to wrap Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International

VARNA, Bulgaria – 2024 Olympian Mason Parris and 2023 World bronze medalist Zahid Valencia capped the U.S. men’s freestyle effort at the 2025 Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International with dynamic, technical fall victories in the gold medal finals.

Parris scored from a number of positions, racking up five takedowns and a turn, to finish defending champion Georgi Ivanov of Bulgaria, 13-2, in the 125 kg finals. He converted a go-behind takedown with 1:44 remaining to clinch the technical fall.

It was Parris’ third technical fall in as many matches on his run to gold in Bulgaria. He posted 10-0 wins over Dian Manev of Bulgaria and Yurii Idzinskyi of Ukraine on Saturday to qualify for the championship match.

This weekend’s event was Parris’ first competition since finishing in 10^th place at the Paris Olympics. It is his fifth international gold medal on the Senior level. Parris is a 2023 Senior World bronze medalist, 2019 U20 World champion and two-time Pan American champion.

Also earning a medal for Team USA at heavyweight was 2014 U17 World silver medalist Jordan Wood. He made quick work of Bulgaria’s Adel Bakar in the bronze medal match, scoring a single leg and four leg lace turns to end it 10-0 in just under two minutes.

Valencia was precise throughout a 10-0 technical fall over 2023 U.S. World Team member Chance Marsteller in the all-American 86 kg gold medal match. The first exchange went to Valencia, a snapdown, go-behind finish to get on the board at the 30-second mark. He added a high-c takedown with three seconds left in the period to lead 4-0 at the break. In the second frame, Valencia went back to his high-c, this time finishing with a double leg to the back to take an 8-0 advantage. The match was iced by a Valencia crotch lift with 1:37 remaining.

The win gave Valencia his first international medal since picking up bronze at the 2023 Senior World Championships. Valencia finished the event with a 4-0 record with four technical falls, outscoring his opponents a combined 51-7. His match with Marsteller is the only to go into the second period.

Marsteller wound up with the silver medal, adding to his January tour haul that included gold from last week’s Henri Deglane Grand Prix. He has won a medal at five-straight international events, three of which being gold.

The U.S. finished atop the team standings with gold medalists in five of the ten weight classes, and ten total medalists, to rack up 172 team points. Parris and Valencia joined Daton Fix, Will Lewan and Quincy Monday as U.S. champions at the event.  

An archived video stream of the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov is available for free on the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation YouTube Channel. Complete brackets and final results are available on UWW Arena.