Last week’s Matteo Pellicone Memorial in Rome, Italy was not the first United World Wrestling “Ranking Series” tournament of the year — but it was the first for members of the 2022 United States World Team.
“Ranking Series” points benefit athletes who are in the running to receive top-8 seeds in their weight categories at this year’s World Championships. “This year’s”, because although no plans are currently in place for the points structure to change following ’22, they very well might as UWW has revamped their system several times since its inception for the ’17-’18 season. At press time, the only American who is in position to garner a top-8 seed in September is ’21 World bronze G’Angelo Hancock (who, incidentally, has not earned any points post-Oslo and still comes in at #5).
The first UWW ranking event of ’22 was Vehbi Emre in March, which did not include Team USA participation. Next came Bolat Turlykhanov during the first week of June, a gathering that coincided with the two Final X Series dates stateside; and then most recently, Pellicone. The fourth and final “Ranking Series” tournament, Zouhaier Sghaier, takes place in Tunisia later this month but no American Greco-Roman athletes will be making the trip.
However, continental competitions also offer “Ranking Series” points and US athletes picked up plenty of those by virtue of stream-rolling through the Pan-American Championships with four golds and three bronze. It is from this event how several United States competitors either recently added to their point totals or garnered rankings for the first time.
But three items need to be understood:
- none of the US medalists from the Pan-Ams made the ’22 World Team, effectively rendering their points/rankings inconsequential.
- as mentioned, Hancock is currently the only American to enjoy a ranking position that would translate to a top-8 seed at the World Championships; Max Nowry (55 kg, Army/WCAP, bronze at Pellicone) is right outside the bubble at #9 and still has a chance to sneak into the top-8 should any of the athletes ranked above him fail to appear in Serbia.
- aside from Nowry, none of the other ’22 World Teamers who competed in Rome carry enough points to challenge for a top-8 seed; since the US is not sending athletes to the Tunisia ranking tournament, their rankings cannot be improved.
Below is each United States Greco-Roman Senior athlete’s current UWW ranking based on results from the Pan-American Championships and Matteo Pellicone Memorial.
WORLD-RANKED USA GRECO-ROMAN ATHLETES
— As of 6/27/22
— *’22 US World Team
*55 kg: Max Nowry (Army/WCAP) — #9 – 16,100 pts
55 kg: Brady Koontz (TMWC/Ohio RTC) — #23 – 5,000 pts
60 kg: Randon Miranda (Rise RTC) — #30 – 10,000 pts
*60 kg: Ildar Hafizov (Army/WCAP) — #31 – 9, 960 pts
60 kg: Dalton Roberts (Army/WCAP) — #33 – 8, 200 pts
63 kg: Sammy Jones (NYAC) — #40 – 5,000 pts
*63 kg: Jesse Thielke (Army/WCAP) — #49 – 3,760 pts
*67 kg: Alex Sancho (Army/WCAP) — #21 – 15,100 pts
72 kg: Patrick Smith (Minnesota Storm) — #40 – 5,000 pts
*77 kg: Kamal Bey (Army/WCAP) — #84 – 3,200 pts
77 kg: RaVaughn Perkins (NYAC) — #32 – 9,500 pts
*82 kg: Ben Provisor (NYAC) — #33 – 6,600 pts
82 kg: Tyler Cunningham (MWC) — #34 – 6,500 pts
82 kg: Spencer Woods (Army/WCAP) — #59 – 3,520 pts
87 kg: John Stefanowicz (Marines) — #44 – 6,200 pts
87 kg: Rich Carlson (Minnesota Storm) — #61 – 4,000 pts
*87 kg: Alan Vera (NYAC) — #74 – 3,100 pts
*97 kg: G’Angelo Hancock (Sunkist) — #5 – 47,200 pts
97 kg: Nick Boykin (TMWC/Ohio RTC) — #42 – 6,500 pts
*130 kg: Cohlton Schultz (Sunkist) — #29 – 10,600 pts
130 kg: Tanner Farmer (NYAC/IRTC) — #47 – 4,000 pts
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