2024 Pan-American Olympic Qualifier

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Yankeefan33

Well-known member
It's that time! The second of three possible qualification paths for USA wrestlers arrives this week with the 2024 Pan-Am Olympic Qualifier in Mexico. Greco will take place Wednesday, women's freestyle on Thursday, and men's freestyle on Friday. Important notes for those high school fans that may be tuning in for the first time:
- Finishing top two at this tournament qualifies the COUNTRY for the Olympic spot. Further qualifiers domestically take place in April.
- The brackets are divided essentially in half, with both finalists qualifying their country. No finals match will take place, and no wrestlebacks will be held
- The US has qualified 7 spots already. They qualified 15 total in 2020, 14 in 2016, and 17/18 in 2012.
- If you fail to qualify this week, there is one final chance at a tournament in Turkiye in May. That's a much harder path, since any wrestler not qualified can show up, including a bunch of Euro hammers.

The US is looking to qualify the following weights:

Men's Freestyle:
57kg- Zane Richards
65kg- Nick Lee

Women's Freestyle:
53kg- Dom Parrish
62kg- Kayla Miracle
68kg- Amit Elor

Men's Greco:
60kg- Ildar Hafizov
67kg- Alejandro Sancho
77kg- Kamal Bey
87kg- Spencer Woods
97kg- Alan Vera
130kg- Cohlton Schultz
 
 
Men's Freestyle Bracket Breakdowns:

57kg- Zane Richards grabs a bye, courtesy of the #2 seed, and awaits the winner of Costa Rica and Guatemala. A semifinals match with Darian Cruz (former Lehigh NCAA champ) is the match to watch- Zane beat Cruz 12-2 a year ago at Zagreb and 8-2 at PanAms four months ago. RBY (now representing Mexico) has a good shot at qualifying from the top half if his weight is managed.

65kg- Nick Lee will also get the early bye as the #1 seed and will most likely face two NCAA All-Americans. Austin Gomez will probably be the quarters match, with the winner getting either Lachlan McNeil (my guess) or Josh Kramer. Lee beat Gomez by fall at Worlds in 2023 (was winning 10-3) and will be favorited against McNeil or Kramer. Bottom half will be one of Tobier (Cuba), Destribats (Argentina) or Hanna (Bahamas).

Predictions for other weights:
74kg- Cuba (Garzon) and Venezuela (Montero)
86kg- Colombia (Izquierdo) and Cuba (Yurieski)
97kg- Venezuela (Sarco) and Cuba (Silot Torres)
125kg- Puerto Rico (Smith) and Canada (Dhesi)
 
Non-American representatives with American ties (if you're looking for someone to root for at the other weights!):

- Darian Cruz, Puerto Rico, 57kg (Lehigh)
- Guesseppe Rea, Ecuador, 57kg (Wilkes)
- Lachlan McNeil, Canada, 65kg (North Carolina)
- Austin Gomez, Mexico, 65kg (Michigan)
- Josh Kramer, Ecuador, 65kg (Arizona State)
- Cesar Alvan, Brazil, 74kg (Columbia)
- Dylan Palacio, Uruguay, 74kg (Cornell)
- Sonny Santiago, Puerto Rico, 74kg (North Carolina)
- Anthony Valencia, Mexico, 86kg (Arizona State)
- Ethan Ramos, Puerto Rico, 86kg (North Carolina)
- Maxwell Lacey, Dominican Republic, 97kg (Wheeling)
- Aaron Johnson, Jamaica, 125kg (Cumberlands)
- Jonovan Smith, Puerto Rico, 125kg (Presbyterian)
- Amar Dhesi, Canada, 125kg (Oregon State)
 
Coming into Greco today, based on brackets, I would have thought Schultz and Bey qualify easily; Vera and Sancho have good, but not automatic paths; Hafizov has been a coin flip with the Cuban he'll need to beat, and Woods is a significant underdog vs Cuba. So 4 is most likely when the dust settles, but 5 on a good day.

So far, Schultz is into the semis by beating both guys in his 3 man pool easily.
 
Any reason why Spencer Lee went to the one a week or so ago and didn’t try to qualify the US here?

Just curious as I am unaware of how the US picks participants for this PAQ
 
Sancho, Woods, Vera also into the semis.

Sidenote: I misspoke about Bey's path being easy. He lost last week on criteria, 6-6, to the Colombian he'll probably have in the semis.

There will be some real nailbiters. Bey, Hafizov, Vera, Sancho all had recent 0, 1, or 2 pt matches against guys they need to beat to qualify us.
 
maligned said:
Sancho, Woods, Vera also into the semis.

Sidenote: I misspoke about Bey's path being easy. He lost last week on criteria, 6-6, to the Colombian he'll probably have in the semis.

There will be some real nailbiters. Bey, Hafizov, Vera, Sancho all had recent 0, 1, or 2 pt matches against guys they need to beat to qualify us.
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Beys quarters opponent is a hammer and former world champ I believe. That's most likely going to be a loss
 
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jmog said:
Any reason why Spencer Lee went to the one a week or so ago and didn’t try to qualify the US here?

Just curious as I am unaware of how the US picks participants for this PAQ
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Pan-Am Qualifier representative goes like this- the reigning world team member (Richards) has the spot, unless challenged by a world medalist from 2019-2023. At 57kg, that list was Vito, Daton, and Gilman. None of them chose to wrestle for the spot (you have to make weight an extra time, a pain for those guys) and Zane got the spot

At 65kg, there was a wrestle off between Yianni and Nick Lee. Yianni was hurt in the first match and forfeited the second, so Lee earned the spot.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
Kamal wrestles the match of his life and beats Julfalakyan 4-2. Should have been worse, hit a nasty head pinch for four that was wiped because of a "leg foul". That's a former World champ/Olympic silver he beat, just amazing!
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I'd seen in the UWW articles that Julfalakyan was wrestling for Argentina at this event, but I skimmed the matchups, saw "Argentina" and didn't even pay attention to the name or potential threat. I hope Bey's got something left in the tank. He's always been capable of wins like this, but not of stringing them together. Hopefully, he stays humble and realizes Julfalakyan hasn't gotten any world hardware in 10 years.
 
Hafizov falls, 7-3, to the Cuban that he beat at the Pan Am Games, 7-5. Chances that he, or any of our Greco guys, qualifies his weight at the world qualifier in April are slim.

Down to 5. They'll wrestle all the semifinal matches at 6pm ET as if they're finals since those are the qualification matches, and they won't wrestle a championship or bronze match.
 
Cuba came into Greco with 3 already qualified. They could still send all 6 like last cycle. Semi-finals participation will be this:

United States 5
Colombia 4
Venezuela 4
Cuba 3
Dominican Rep 2
Chile 2
Brazil 2
Ecuador 1
Honduras 1

Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and Honduras all qualified 0 wrestlers in any style in the last Olympics, so these are especially huge matches for them this evening.
 
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Sorry, just to expound on that last comment I made. Venezuela, the DR, and Honduras went 0-11 across the 3 styles in semifinal matches at this event in 2020.

I did not remember this at all, but Venezuela went 0-6 in those matches and had at least one semifinal loss in all 3 styles.
 
Greco qualifiers:

60kg- Venezuela and Cuba
67kg- Chile and Ecuador (Cuba previously qualified)
77kg- Cuba and Colombia
87kg- USA and Colombia
97kg- Honduras and USA (Cuba previously qualified)
130kg- USA and Chile (Cuba previously qualified)
 
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USA Greco Semifinal Results:

67kg- Alejandro Sancho loses via fall. Was put down in 1st period and was gut wrenched to make it 3-0. Got a passivity point in the second and when trying to turn was stuck on his back. Heartbreaker there for the US
77kg- Kamal Bey loses to Colombia 6-4. Was up 4-0 at the break after a passivity + turn + failed challenge, but was turned twice as well as taken down to make it 6-4. Felt like he really had a chance there and missed it.
87kg- Spencer Woods takes down Cuba 6-3! Was taken down and hit with passivity, but got a reversal to make it 3-2 at the break. Got passivity himself to make it 3-3 and a leg foul on Cuba (+missed challenge) made it 6-3. Just wrestled extremely solidly, took advantage of a couple of mistakes to score and qualifies the weight. That's a huge one for USA Greco!
97kg- Alan Vera wins over Venezuela 7-1 and qualifies the weight! Passivity for Vera plus two good guts made it 5-0, another throw/turn got him to 7 at the break. Late passivity does nothing and Greco gets two with Schultz to go!
130kg- Cohlton Schultz makes it three with a 2-1 win over Venezuela! A pushout early in the second is the different between passivity points. A solid turnaround for Greco after three tough losses at the lightweights.
 
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MPhillips said:
Agreed. Made a bad decision up 4-2 and it cost him.
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Today just reminds me that it all evens out. I don't think our Greco program is particularly good, but last Olympics we scraped four qualifications, partially due to some upsets by Hafizov and Sancho. They both regressed to the mean and didn't qualify this year. Same with Bey- that hyperagressive style that won him Junior worlds was beaten down and replaced with someone who can't score a takedown now on anybody with talent.
 
Good moment at 87kg- Venezuelan wrestler left his shoes on the mat and was hugged by the Colombian wrestler who beat him. A positive moment of sportsmanship.
 
MPhillips said:
You're not wrong. I mistakenly believed we were better than most of the other countries that aren't Cuba. We're just not...
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Our team match winning percentage in recent years at these events is about the same as Colombia and Venezuela, much worse than Cuba, and much better than all others.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
Today just reminds me that it all evens out. I don't think our Greco program is particularly good, but last Olympics we scraped four qualifications, partially due to some upsets by Hafizov and Sancho. They both regressed to the mean and didn't qualify this year. Same with Bey- that hyperagressive style that won him Junior worlds was beaten down and replaced with someone who can't score a takedown now on anybody with talent.
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You may be right. I thought 4 would have been par with the draws we had, though. I think it was a slight downer of a day/night.

Woods was a nice surprise, for sure. That Cuban had given up 1 match point in the last 3 Pan Am tournaments. He's whitewashed everyone.
 
I thought Mijain Lopez was going to try to make another run. Is that not a thing? Figured he wouldve been in this tournament
 
maligned said:
You may be right. I thought 4 would have been par with the draws we had, though. I think it was a slight downer of a day/night.

Woods was a nice surprise, for sure. That Cuban had given up 1 match point in the last 3 Pan Am tournaments. He's whitewashed everyone.
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We got four in 2020 and four in 2016, although there was an extra tournament in 2016 you could qualify at. Only getting half of a Greco squad will be more palatable if all our women and freestyle wrestlers qualify as well.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
Greco qualifiers:

60kg- Venezuela and Cuba
67kg- Chile and Ecuador (Cuba previously qualified)
77kg- Cuba and Colombia
87kg- USA and Colombia
97kg- Honduras and USA (Cuba previously qualified)
130kg- USA and Chile (Cuba previously qualified)
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Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, and Venezuela already with as many/more qualifiers this year than last.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
Pan-Am Qualifier representative goes like this- the reigning world team member (Richards) has the spot, unless challenged by a world medalist from 2019-2023. At 57kg, that list was Vito, Daton, and Gilman. None of them chose to wrestle for the spot (you have to make weight an extra time, a pain for those guys) and Zane got the spot

At 65kg, there was a wrestle off between Yianni and Nick Lee. Yianni was hurt in the first match and forfeited the second, so Lee earned the spot.
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Thanks
 
Yankeefan33 said:
We got four in 2020 and four in 2016, although there was an extra tournament in 2016 you could qualify at. Only getting half of a Greco squad will be more palatable if all our women and freestyle wrestlers qualify as well.
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The world qualifier is slightly more doable this time, too, with 3 getting spots. Although I'd probably only give Bey an outside shot even in that format. He's the only one that can flash some high-end ability among the 3 left, and it will require wrestling 3 or 4 matches at a high level.
 
Parrish, Elor, and Miracle into the semis in women's competition today. Parrish will face a Cuban who got teched in less than a minute by our 53kg rep, Gomez, last week. Miracle faces a 20yo two-time age group world medalist from Venezuela. Miracle pinned her last week in about 4:30 when she was losing 5-4. Elor will see.....doesn't matter. She's Amit Elor.
 
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