The United States entered the final day of women’s freestyle competition at the Cadet World Championships with a stack of prizes — three golds, a bronze and a team title trophy — well within their grasp. 

The Americans reached out Friday and took everything in sight. 

Erica Pastoriza, Katie Gomez and Amit Elor won individual golds, Ava Ward scored a pair of victories to claim a bronze and the United States put the finishing touches on the country’s first women’s freestyle team title at the Cadet World Championships. 

Elor completed her two-day destruction of the 69-kilogram bracket by decking Ukraine’s Yevheniaa Siedykh in the finals. Elor needed just 3 minutes and 37 seconds of mat time to slice her way through the field, outscoring her three opponents by a combined 32-0 count along the way. 

Gomez utilized a series of lightning-quick leg attacks to dust Russia’s Natalia Khramenkova 10-0 in the gold medal match at 53 kilograms. 

Pastoriza cruised to the top of the podium, as well. She cranked Romania’s Alexandra Voiculescu over for a first-period fall to win the gold at 40 kilograms. 

Ward added to the American medal haul by collecting a pair of wins Friday, including an 8-1 victory against Sviatlana Katenka of Belarus in the bronze medal match at 46 kilograms. 

All together, the United States won seven medals and racked up 149 points to finish 10 ahead of second-place India. 

“We made history today,” USA Wrestling women’s developmental coach Jessica Medina said. “Today is the opening day of the Olympics and I think about the momentum for our Olympic Team, for our women’s program from our development all the way to our Seniors and it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come as a team and I believe there’s so much more for us to do and to come and we’ve worked hard to get to this point. I hope when they look back they’ll see that and when they look ahead and watch our women make history in Tokyo they’ll realize the path they’re on.” 

In addition to the superb performance by the women’s freestyle team, Cory Land became the second American since 1998 to reach the Cadet World finals in Greco-Roman. 

Below is Kyle Klingman’s account of some of the top Greco developments Friday in Budapest. 

Fire First Round

The United States came out on a mission. Otto Black (48 kg) and Ryder Rogotzke (80 kg) secured falls while Jadon Skellenger (65 kg) and Corey Land (55 kg) won by technical superiorities. The only loss came from Jim Mullen (110 kg) — a silver medalist in the freestyle competition. U.S. Greco went 4-1 in its opening round. 

Slip And Slide

Jadonn Skellenger went up 6-0 after a four-point throw and a gut wrench — then things got interesting. Rokas Cepauskas of Lithuania attempted seven consecutive throws and slipped on all of them, which yielded no points but it was enough to bring them back to their feet. Skellenger eventually won, 9-0. 

Reserve No More

Otto Black lost 10-2 and 9-1 to Aden Valencia in the best-of-three finals to make the Cadet Greco team at 48 kg. Valencia opted not to compete and Black took advantage by reaching the semifinals with a fall and a 4-0 win in the quarterfinals. Black led 5-3 late in the match but gave up a takedown and lost 5-5 on criteria. He will wrestle for a bronze medal Saturday. 

Landing In The Finals

Cory Land (55 kg) became the first American to reach the Greco Cadet World finals since Cohlton Schultz won the event in 2017. Land posted victories of 10-0, 9-6, and 5-0 and is one match away from a gold medal. The Alabama native competed at the 2019 Cadet Worlds where he went 0-1. 

Friday Results

Greco-Roman 

48: Otto Black

Round of 16: Black def. Yuri Karapetyan (ARM), FALL 3:37

Quarterfinals: Black def. Peter Zsigmond Totok (HUN), 4-0

Semifinals: Servet Angi (TUR) def. Black, 5-5

55: Cory Land

Round of 16: Land def. Berati Inac (TUR), 10-0

Quarterfinals: Land def. Adam Silverin (SWE), 9-6

Semifinals: Land def. Zhantoro Mirzaliev (KGZ), 5-0

65: Jadon Skellenger

Round of 32: Skellenger def. Rokas Cepauskas (LTU), 9-0

Round of 16: Skellenger def. Ashot Poghosyan (BUL), 8-0

Quarterfinals: Ankit Gulia (IND) def. Skellenger, 14-6

80: Ryder Rogotzke

Round of 16: Rogotzke def. Anastasiia Zadvorna (CRO), FALL 1:28

Quarterfinals: Joju Samadov (AZE) def Rogotzke, 11-4

110: Jimmy Mullen

Round of 16: Nikita Ovsjanikov (GER) def. Jimmy Mullen, 7-2

Women's Freestyle 

40 kg: Erica Pastoriza

Gold medal match: Pastoriza def Alexandra Voiculescu (ROU), FALL 1:34

46: Ava Ward

Repechage: Ward def Anastasiia Zadvorna (UKR), FALL 2:55

Bronze medal match: Ward def. Sviatlana Katenka (BLR), 8-1

53 kg: Katie Gomez

Gold medal match: Gomez def. Natalia Khramankova (RUS), 10-0

69 kg: Amit Elor

Gold medal match: Elor def. Yevheniia Siedykh (UKR), Fall 1:55