Both William Jakeway (55 kg, Unattached) and Jesse Porter (82 kg, NYAC) placed 1st on Saturday at Thor Masters 2026, giving the United States two gold medalists from the famed Scandinavian event for the first since ’17, and for only the second time in history.
Jakeway and Stahl were the only two athletes at 55 kg, essentially relegating the bracket to a best-of-three series between the pair. Jakeway defeated Stahl 7-4 on Friday; on Saturday, Jakeway, a prolific user of two-on-one’s, made the tie-up work for him prior to securing an early takedown. Later in the first period, he capitalized on the passivity/par terre call to crank Stahl over for two points. Stahl was dinged for passive again in Period 2, and Jakeway rotated a gutwrench to wrap the match early and walk away with his first gold from a Senior international event.
’21 World Team member Porter was in dire straits Fright night opposed by ’25 World bronze Karlo Kodric (CRO) before the Croatian came up injured. Kodric had amassed a 7-0 lead in the second period thanks to a four-point side lift. But upon impact from said lift, Kodric suffered an apparent stinger, could not continue, and Porter prevailed via injury default. The next round pitted Porter against US teammate and oft domestic rival Fritz Schierl (Minnesota Storm). The two had met previously many times it seems throughout the years but Saturday brought them together for the first time on foreign turf. Porter broke the ice by executing a crash gut for two points following passivity, though Schierl reversed for a point of his own. In the second period, passivity was doled out on Porter, but Schierl could not convert from top par terre and Porter eventually triumphed 3-2.
The victory over Schierl rendered Porter’s proceeding bout, versus Oliver Kruger (DEN), the de-facto final. Kruger benefited from the match’s first passivity call but Porter defended and quickly notched a point in return to go up on criteria. Then in the second period, Porter unfurled a beautiful arm throw for four points to take a 5-1 lead. Kruger would himself score a single point prior to the conclusive whistle, but, other than that, it was a clean decision win for Porter and one that came attached to 82 kg gold, his first medal in four tries at Thor Masters. For his part — and likely not how he would have preferred — Schierl received bronze from the tournament, as well.
Nelson & DuLaney
Duncan Nelson (67 kg, Air Force/WCAP) and Christian DuLaney (97 kg, NYAC/Southern Illinois RTC) both had productive outings in Denmark. Neither finished with the results for which they aimed, but it was time well-spent. Nelson had a tough match against Jonathan Jednell (SWE) on Fridaybut wound up the 3-0 winner. A forfeit in the next round put Nelson against Witalis Lasovski (GER), a bout the American lost by a score of 5-1. Nelson’s last match of the tournament, his third, came courtesy of ’20 Olympian Aker Schmid, who emerged victorious by way of technical superiority. Schmid (whose given surname is Al Obaidi) is originally from Iraq and competed in the Tokyo Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. Schmid also went on to win the entire tournament and twice defeated Dominik Etlinger (CRO) en-route to doing so.
DuLaney went 1-1 on Friday and was in position to claw his way back into what was a very crowded field at 97 kg. The ’23 Final X runner-up looked very sharp against Aleksandar Stjepanetic (SWE) in the opening round and held his own when opposed by Daniel Gastl (AUT). But, ultimately, DuLaney was stopped by Lithuanian Mindaugas Venckaitis in Round 3 to halt his trek to the podium. Nevertheless, for Nelson and DuLaney — both of whom are expected to be top contenders at next month’s US World Team Trials — the event was a value-add. Both wrestlers participated in at least three matches and will now have more appropriate baselines from which to build during camp next week.
Elsewhere
From a competitive standpoint, it was an overall rough go of it for the rest of the USA contingent at Thor Masters 2026 as the seven other athletes besides Jakeway, Porter, Schierl, and DuLaney were unable to register a win. Below are additional notes regarding the event and full boxscore results for the American athletes.
Notes:
- Prior to Saturday, the last time two US Greco athletes earned gold at Thor Masters was in March of ’17 when 2X Olympian Ildar Hafizov (63 kg, Army/WCAP) and ’15 World bronze Robby Smith captured top honors. Also in that year’s event, four-time World Team member Patrick Smith emerged with bronze — which means that the results for the US in ’26 as far as medals are concerned mirror those from ’17.
- Counting wins via forfeit — and not counting Porter vs. Schierl — the combined individual record for the US at Thor Masters was 8-20.
- Finland won the team title with 14 points followed by Croatia (12). The US finished 4th and tied with Denmark in the points standings with 11; however, the US had 12 participants while Denmark had only seven.
2026 Thor Masters
March 20-21 — Nykobing Falster, DEN
TEAM USA DAY 1 RESULTS
55 kg: William Jakeway (Unattached) — GOLD
WON Pontus Stahl (SWE) 7-4
WON Pontus Stahl (SWE) 8-0, TF63 kg: Riley Lomenick (Unattached) — 4th
LOSS Jonathan Hallen (SWE) via fall
LOSS Mark Loitto (SWE) 9-1, TF
LOSS Tino Ojala (FIN) 5-167 kg: Duncan Nelson (Air Force/WCAP) — 7th
WON Jonathan Jednell (SWE) 3-0
WON Nilton Sito (PER) via forfeit
LOSS Witalis Lazovski (GER) 5-1
LOSS Aker Schmid (AUT) 9-0, TF77 kg: Drew Allgeyer (NMU/NTS) — 11th
LOSS Rasmus Ulriksen (DEN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Tigran Galustyan (FRA) 8-0, TF82 kg: Jesse Porter (NYAC) — GOLD
WON Karlo Kodric (CRO) via injury def.
WON Oliver Kruger (DEN) 5-2
WON Fritz Schierl (Minnesota Storm) 3-282 kg: Fritz Schierl (Minnesota Storm) — SILVER
LOSS Oliver Kruger (DEN) 9-1, TF
WON Karlo Kodric (CRO) via forfeit
LOSS Jesse Porter (NYAC) 3-287 kg: Hank Baronowski (NMU/NTS) — 10th
LOSS Matej Mandic (CRO) 9-0, TF
LOSS Arkadiusz Kulynycz (POL) 8-0, TF87 kg: Christian Rouleau (Minnesota Storm) — 10th
LOSS Erik Loeser (GER) 9-0, TF
LOSS Damian Von Euw (SUI) 8-0, TF97 kg: Christian DuLaney (NYAC/Southern Illinois RTC) — 14th
WON Aleksandar Stjepanetic (SWE) 5-3
LOSS Daniel Gastl (AUT) 6-0
LOSS Mindaugas Venckaitis (LTU) 8-0, TF97 kg: Cody Kwak (NMU/NTS) — 18th
LOSS Fadi Rouabah (ALG) 9-0, TF
LOSS Filip Smetko (CRO) 9-0, TF97 kg: Keith Miley (NYAC/Arkansas RTC) — 18th
LOSS Tyrone Sterkenburg (NED) 8-0, TF
LOSS Anton Vieweg (GER) 8-0, TF130 kg: Jimmy Hustoles (NMU/NTS) — 9th
LOSS Romas Fridrikas (LTU) 8-0, TF
LOSS Matti Kuosmanen (FIN) 9-0, TF
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