Ten Team Standouts from the U20/U23 World Team Trials

The SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio was the setting for three days worth of incredible action in freestyle and Greco-Roman over the weekend. The men's U20 and U23 World Team Trials took place and plenty of current and future stars did battle. Our U20 teams in both styles have been established, while our U23 teams largely need to follow the results of Saturday's National Team true-third place matches before final confirmation.

What doesn't need any affirmation is the great showings by a handful of collegiate teams over the three-day tournament(s). While plenty made a case to be mentioned, here are ten schools that stood out.

Cornell

The Big Red had a bit of production from the present and the future. In the U20 freestyle tournament, Meyer Shapiro, the top recruit in the Class of 2023 showed why he's so highly regarded. Shapiro only had two wrestle in the best-of-three finals because of his UWW U20 Open win. He posted back-to-back shutouts against Nebraska's Antrell Taylor. Shapiro likely steps into the Cornell lineup immediately and has success.

Three existing team members brought home stop signs at the U23 division. On day one from Geneva, Phillip Moomey won the Greco-Roman tournament for a second consecutive year. Two of the last three individual matches from the tournament involved Cornell wrestlers. Both Julian Ramirez (74 kg) and Jacob Cardenas (92 kg) lost in round one of the best-of-three series. They battled back to win in three matches. Cardenas has made his second consecutive U23 World team. Last year, he came home from Pontevedra with a U23 world silver medal. Ramirez will have to wait on the results of Saturday's National Team third-place matches to see if he'll be on the team.

In addition to their champions, Cornell also had three other All-Americans at the U23 freestyle tournament one fifth (Joshua Saunders) and two sevenths (Brett Ungar/Cole Handlovic). Their younger teammate, Vince Cornella, was third in U20 freestyle, a tournament he won in 2022.

The full article can be found on InterMat's Rokfin Page.