To close out his inaugural season at Northern Michigan University, Landon Drury made his second United States U20 World Team in three years.
On Friday at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, Drury had to wait in the wings until the afternoon session arrived before getting his chance. This was due to his own recent success. At the US Open last month in Las Vegas, the Washington native won his weight category to become a National Champion, which in turn afforded him a bye to the best-of-three World Team Trials final yesterday. Top young Air Force Regional Training Center prospect Carter Nogle advanced through the bracket to set up a rematch of sorts. In April, Drury had defeated Nogle in the semifinal round of the Nationals by a score of 6-4.
It was not too dissimilar of a result on Friday. Drury took Match 1 over Nogle 5-2 and secured his spot on the U20 World Team in the next round by prevailing via 4-3 decision.
Drury, who hails from a wrestling family, began devoting himself to Greco-Roman wrestling on a full-time basis several years ago, due in part to the COVID pandemic. With the support of his parents, he moved to Colorado where he lived with and trained under retired former Senior star Joe Betterman. Betterman, and later Max Nowry, as well, guided Drury en-route to his first World Team bid in ’23. In that year’s U20 World Championships, Drury advanced to the bronze-medal round and ultimately finished 5th.
Last year, Drury knocked on the door of a second-straight World Championships appearance but was defeated by Otto Black (67 kg, NYAC/NTS). Now they are both teammates at Northern Michigan and roommates, as the duo live with NMU Senior World Team members Max Black (60 kg) and Payton Jacobson (87 kg). Also on Friday, Otto Black triumphed in the 67 kilogram bracket by emerging from a tough showdown with highly-talented wrestler Pierson Manville (Atreus WC).
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