Simmons, Jantzen and Pendleton weigh-in, receive first-round draws
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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
08/12/2005
Izmir, Turkey - Four men's freestyle wrestling weight classes (55 kg/121 lbs., 66 kg/145.5 lbs., 84 kg/185 lbs. and 120 kg/264.5 lbs.) have weighed in and received draws for competition that will take place Saturday, August 13 at the Ozel Yamanlar High School Sports Hall, where the weigh-ins took place on Friday evening. After stepping on the scale, wrestlers draw a random number to decide their placement in a single-elimination championship bracket. Matches will be wrestled until the finals, when all wrestlers who lost to a finalist will then be entered into a consolation bracket, competing for two bronze medals. Nick Simmons (Williamston, Mich./Michigan State Univ./Michigan WC) is in the top half of his bracket at 55 kg/121 lbs. He will face Dzmitry Alenski of Belarus, a competitor in the 2005 Junior Greco-Roman World Championships. If he reaches the semifinals, it is possible Simmons could face 2001 Junior World champion Amiran Elbakidze of Georgia. There are many other notables in Simmons' weight class, all of them on the bottom half of the bracket. They include Daniel Neustroev of Russia, sixth in the 2004 World University Championships, Jamie Macari of Canada, seventh in the 2004 World University Championships, Rollan Koksegenov of Kazakhstan, third in the 2004 Asian Junior Nationals, Seshito Shimizy of Japan, fourth in the 2004 World University Championships and Taqi Dadashi of Iran, a 2002 Junior Asian Nationals champion. Simmons placed third at the 2005 U.S. World Team Trials and the 2005 NCAA Championships. Jesse Jantzen (Brookline, Mass./Harvard Univ./New York AC) will compete in the largest weight class so far at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. There are 23 competitors in the weight class. Jantzen's first match will be against Maksyan Melnya of Ukraine in a pigtail match to get into the 16-man bracket. If he wins, Jantzen would face the winner of the match between Alqubaseil Mohamed of United Arab Emirates and Ahto Raska of Estonia, who placed fourth in the 2002 and 2004 World University Championships. The 66 kg/145.5 lbs. bracket is loaded with athletes who have enjoyed recent success on the highest level - the Olympics. Kazuhiko Ikematsu of Japan placed fourth in the 2004 Olympic Games and Arshak Hayrapetyan of Armenia placed fifth in the 2000 Olympic Games. Neither would face Jantzen until the semifinals. Also in this bracket is Ahto Raska of Estonia, who placed fourth in the 2002 and 2004 World University Championships. Raska and Jantzen are potential quarterfinal opponents. Jantzen won an NCAA title in 2004 and was a three-time NCAA All-American. Also weighing-in for the U.S. team was Chris Pendleton (Stillwater, Okla./Oklahoma State Univ./Gator WC) at 84 kg/185 lbs. Pendleton's first bout will be against Loic Bertrand of France, who placed fifth in the Mediterranean Championships this year. It will be a pigtail bout. Also in Pendleton's half of the bracket are Danny Einhorn of Canada, who placed ninth at the 2004 World University Championships, and Takao Isokawa of Japan, who was sixth in the 2004 World University Championships. 2002 World bronze medalist Majid Khodaei of Iran is also competing at this weight class. He would only face Pendleton in the gold-medal bout. Pendleton was a two-time NCAA champion and placed third at the 2005 U.S. World Team Trials. The U.S. does not have a representative at 120 kg/264.5 lbs., but many young international stars weighed in, includingAndrey Svatkovskiy of Kazakhstan, fourth in the 2003 Junior World Championships, Alexey Voronin of Russia, 2004 European Junior Nationals champion, Arjan Bhullar of Canada, fifth in the 2005 Junior World Championships, Markus Hamann of Germany, fourth in the 2004 World University Championships and seventh in the 2002 World Championships, and David Otiasvili of Georgia, seventh in the 2005 European Championships and fourth in the 2002 World Championships. Preliminary competition for these four weight classes will begin at 10:00 a.m. in Turkey. Repechage matches and the medal matches will take place at 5:00 p.m. The final three men's freestyle weight classes, 60 kg/132 lbs., 74 kg/163 lbs. and 96 kg/211.5 lbs., will weigh-in on Saturday, August 13 at 4:00 p.m. and compete on Sunday, August 14. TheMat.com will provide complete coverage of the 2005 World University Games.