Northern Michigan University’s Will Scherer and Combat’s Michael Daleiden (71 kg) both earned silver to give the United States two medals from the International MYHI Tournament held on Saturday in Ilmajoki, Finland.
Scherer — who was in the 82 kg bracket the highest he has weighed for an event — went 2-2 in the U20 age division. Both of Scherer’s losses came from Luka Kajanne of the home country. Kajanne was a Nordics Championships gold medalist at U17 three years ago and in ’24 represented Finland at the U20 Worlds. Scherer’s wins were recorded against Mardo Armus of Estonia and Matias Onnelehto (FIN), respectively.
The lone American in the U17 division was Daleiden, who won four consecutive bouts in pool competition. He had defeated, in order, Kimi Jokilheto, Tommi Juupaluoma, Eemeli Puuruen, and Oliver Anttila — all of whom hailed from Finland — before dropping an 8-3 decision to Adam Boubel of Czechia. The silver medal for Daleiden is his first piece of hardware earned from an international Greco-Roman tournament. The promising youngster came up just short of a medal last month in Sweden, as well.
The tournament did not bring forth the type of results either Brian Grabner (68 kg, IGA) or Colton Steldt (68 kg, Combat WC) would have preferred. Grabner, who has established himself as a stout prospect, defeated Eero Tormanen (FIN) via technical superiority in Round 1 but lost his next two bouts to fall out of medal contention. Steldt was downed by Akseli Schmitt (FIN) in his opener and then was defeated by Leo Ljungvist (SWE) in the proceeding round.
The four-man USA contingent will remain in Finland (Kourtane) until the middle of the week for a training camp prior to heading back stateside.
Lucas Steldt’s Perspectives
American Greco-Roman coach and Combat WC founder Lucas Steldt was — as is so often the case — the coach for the tournament on Saturday and provided his assessment of the four athletes’ performances; but before that, he summarized the purpose of the trip itself.
The Mini Tour of FIN
“We arrived this past Wednesday in Kuortane, the location for Finland’s Olympic Training Center, for this tournament and the camp afterwards. We come to this competition and camp annually in February and it is being used as our progression to Eastern Europe. This year, the formatting was different. They started the camp on Thursday, the 19th, and the competition was on Saturday just two days later. So, we trained on Thursday and Friday and then traveled to the competition Saturday morning. We have now returned to Kourtane (Saturday night) to continue this camp until Tuesday, which will be the 24th. The following weekend is Finland’s U20 National Championships.
“We all return to the US on Wednesday, except for Will Scherer. He is heading to Hungary to train throughout the month of March and he compete there, as well. Scherer will rendezvous with the Northern Michigan athletes at KIMBA ((Kozma István Hungarian Wrestling Academy) in Budapest. Will is following our programming of international training and competition for his development level. The young guys we have are not yet ready for a one or two-month commitment overseas. I do plan on having our younger athletes train and compete in Hungary in March of next year, but that will still be capped at approximately 10-15 days of exposure. After the athletes are seasoned and acclimated to the programming, we send them to training and competition opportunities for tours that are a month long, if not longer.”
Steldt’s Performance Assessments
U20 — Colton Steldt (68 kg) — “Showed improvement with footwork, hand-fighting, and acclimating to the speed of the game. Inexperienced athletes make consistent strides in development in the beginning of their careers, and that is what Colton is doing. Patience and positivity are the focus with the young guys.”
U20 — Brain Grabner (68 kg) — “Looked really good and had just some small mistakes that cost him a placing. Westley Bockert always produces athletes who can fight. The athletes from Alaska are always pushing the pace. Bockert does a great job of developing these types of athletes. With Bockert’s military background discipline, respect and gratitude are ingrained into all of his competitors.”
U17 — Michael Daleiden (71 kg) — “Could not be developing any better. The Fins bring a very physical style of Greco-Roman. It is a very Hungrian type of style, I’d say. Mike fought, took ground, and won positions in a very mature and stoic manner. He was winning scrambles and creating scores. Par terre defense was strong. We’ll be working on par terre offense and continue to develop his takedowns. Overall a great performance for him coming home with silver.”
U20 Will Scherer (82 kg) — “He will be bringing home silver. Had a hard-fought loss in the finals, which was a rematch for him from Round 1. Will had a great win in his second match, then a forfeit that lead him to the rematch. For now let’s keep it short with Scherer. Otherwise, we would have to write the first book of a novel series, which is probably appropriate given this young man’s story so far. But let’s remember that he came to us weighing only around 36 kg, or 80 lbs, before he began Greco full-time in high school. Now you look, and here he is wrestling 82 kg. Overall, it’s steady as she goes with a hyper-focus on key areas. Some athletes make it easy to train them. Will is certainly one of those athletes.”
2026 International MYHI Tournament
February 21 — Ilmajoki, FIN
TEAM USA RESULTS
U17
71 kg: Michael Daleiden (Combat WC) — SILVER
WON Kimi Jokilheto (FIN) 7-4
WON Tommi Juupaluoma (FIN) via inj. default
WON Eemeli Puuruen (FIN) 8-0, TF
WON Oliver Anttila (FIN) 5-3
LOSS Adam Boubel (CZE) 8-3
U20
68 kg: Brian Grabner (IGA) — 7th
WON Eero Tormanen (FIN) 9-0, TF
LOSS Hugo Riehunkangas (FIN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Elian Hedberg (SWE) 4-2
68 kg: Colton Steldt (Combat WC) — 11th
LOSS Akseli Schmitt (FIN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Leo Ljungvist (SWE) 4-0
82 kg: Will Scherer (NMU/NTS) — SILVER
LOSS Luka Kajanne (FIN) 6-0
WON Mardo Armus (EST) 5-1
WON Matias Onnenlehto (FIN) via forfeit
LOSS Luka Kajanne (FIN) 5-2
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