Team USA takes home 2018 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup title

Dake, Taylor, Snyder and Burroughs lead Team USA to its first Men’s Freestyle Wold Cup victory since 2003.

Team USA was out on a mission for the 2018 edition of the World Cup Championships. The goal was to win their first title since 2003 and they did the job in impressive fashion in Iowa City. Across the board, Team USA dominated their opponents from the start and went on a run that pushed them toward the 2018 World Cup Championship.

The run started with India, where USA won all 10 of their matches. In the nine matches that were wrestled, seven of them ended via a technical fall. Joe Colon had the closest match as he defeated Sandeep Tomar by the score of 6-4. Only Logan Stieber and Jordan Burroughs allowed points as they gave up three points between them.

Japan was next in line as they were the second dual match of the day. USA earned this victory with a 7-3 margin.

Kyle Dake has one of the biggest highlights of the first day as he hit a major throw on Olympic silver medalist Sohsuke Takatani as he moved toward a 10-0 victory.

Yuki Takahashi defeated Thomas Gilman in what was a rematch from the 2017 World Championships match. Japan won two other matches as Kazuya Koyanagi defeated Kendric Maple (2-2) and Takuto Otoguro defeated Stieber with the score 10-5.

Dake, David Taylor, J’Den Cox, Kyle Snyder and Nick Gwiazdowski all earned technical falls in their matches. James Green and Burroughs gave up six points between them as they defeated Kirin Kinoshita and Yuhi Fujinami respectively.

The run continued on day 2 and Georgia was the first to fall. Team USA gave up five points in eight victories. Stieber, Burroughs, Dake, Taylor, and Snyder all earned technical falls, while Green won via majority decision. A surprising outcome was where Cox dropped a match to Dato Marsagishvili. Lasha Lomtadze also defeated Kendric Maple, 4-3.

Azerbaijan awaited Team USA in the finals, but they also fell by an overall score 6-4.

Maple, Stieber, Burroughs, Dake, Taylor and Snyder pulled out the major victories; winning by a combined score of 43-13 including Burroughs pin of Gasjimurad Omarov.

This was a big win for Team USA to defend the home turf. The performances that Dake, Taylor, Snyder and Burroughs put on were dynamic and dominating at the same time. This team is poised to continue making a run toward the 2020 Olympics and with their ability to move around within the weight classes, this is an intriguing team to watch.