USA Greco

Cortez & Black In U20 World Semifinals

By 5PM Staff

Posted on September 2, 2024

Otto Black -- Photo: Kostadin Andonov

Midway through the opening day of the Junior World Championships and the United States has two semifinalists and three others who are, at least tentatively, still alive in the tournament.

not all roads lead to gold, parent edition, jim gruenwald

Day 1 of the 2024 U20 World Championships began at 10:00am local time from Pontevedra, Spain and is streaming live in the US on FLOWrestling.

The one-two punch of Isaiah Cortez (55 kg, Daniel Cormier WC) and Otto Black (63 kg, CTT) provided the American squad with a sufficient boost on Monday morning as both athletes managed to persevere through very tough opposition in order to advance past the quarterfinal round.

For Cortez, an exhilarating comeback in the qualification round was required in order for him to reach medal contention. The Californian was trailing Anil Mor (IND) 6-0 late in the first period but a four-pointer put him back in the match. Mor nudged Cortez off the edge to make the score 7-4 in his favor just prior to intermission. In the second period, Cortez converted a pair of takedowns, the second of which put him ahead via criteria 8-8. A challenge from India that did not result in the call being changed delivered to Cortez the outright 9-8 lead with the victory escorting him into battle against Hungarian Peter Totok.

Again, Cortez had to find a way to overcome perilous circumstances.

Totok unleashed a throw to go up 4-0 — but then Cortez bounded up and around to snare two points before quickly following with a turn to surge ahead 4-3. A step-out point for Hungary briefly had Cortez staring at a narrow deficit.

The second-period passivity was levied against Totok but Cortez could not take further advantage from par terre top. However, one more scoring action was still on the table. With time starting to become a factor for Totok, Cortez collected his third takedown of the tournament and eventually had his hand raised on the heels of a 7-4 decision.

Residing in the quarterfinal was Maxim Sarmanov of Moldova — who was felled by both Max Black (NMU/NTS) and Billy Sullivan (Army/WCAP) two weeks ago in Lithuania. For the third match in a row, Cortez found himself in a hole out of which it had appeared difficult to climb. And yet, he did.

Sarmanov raced out in front 5-0 thanks to receiving the first passivity/par terre chance and lifting Cortez — who himself had scrambled amid the action to garner exposure points. Confusion ensued, the US challenged, and the scoreboard was updated to 6-4, Moldova. Cortez was the beneficiary of the next passive call and Sarmanov held firm. But — the American would soon swiftly earn two from a takedown. It seemed that Cortez had also scored exposure points but MDA challenged the sequence and the points were wiped off the board. As time ticked off the clock, and with Sarmanov needing to make something happen, Cortez put a cap on the proceedings by engineering one more takedown for the 9-6 triumph.

In the semifinals, Cortez will face Aibek Aitbekov of Kazakhstan, who last year prevailed at the Haavisto Cup in Finland, which is a Senior-level tournament.

Black

A very crisp, if not textbook, approach helped Black get started in the right direction. Working against Serbian Dejan Berkec in the round-of-16, Black hustled from a duck-under to a body attack that he used to grab takedown points. Upon standing, Black was clearly the effective aggressor and, not long after, Berkec was dinged for passivity. From top, Black immediately sought a trap-arm gutwrench on Berkec’s left side and achieved one full rotation to expand his lead to 5-0. Berkec would be awarded his own passivity/par terre opportunity in the second period, but Black defended the lock en-route to a 5-1 win.

Enes Ulku (TUR) was next in line for Black and, like Cortez had in each of his three bouts, the USA athlete had to dig deep in order to prevail.

It was Ulku who was gifted passivity in the first period. His proceeding lift attempt went awry, but he had felt that Black had committed a leg foul and so a challenge was requested. After the review, Black was penalized for a caution-and-two and ordered to hit the deck once more. Ulku’s follow-up try at a lock was stymied, and back to the feet they were.

Early in the second period, Black was in hot pursuit of a takedown and close to getting behind Ulku when the latter counter-scrambled at the edge to earn two more points as well as a 5-0 cushion on the board. Things were not looking promising for Black.

But with just over a minute remaining, Uklu was put down in passivity and Black did not let the opportunity go to waste. He locked around Uklu and tried elevating for a lift; he converted, seemingly for two points, and repeated the same lock-and-lift. A disagreement with the scoring soon interrupted the match. When action was restarted, Black owned a 7-5 lead and Uklu was put back down in par terre. Black went to work on another turn, but Uklu reversed for a point. Then with under :20 to go, Uklu attempted a lift that failed to yield exposure; the mat official awarded two points for a correct hold but the US challenged the call. Following the replay, the call was corrected to 7-6 in favor of Black, who is now one win away from a shot at gold. In the semifinal round, the Colorado Top Team representative will square off against Yurik Hoveyan of Armenia.

77, 87, & 130 kg

Although Aydin Rix-McElhinney (77 kg, Northern Colorado WC), Ryder Rogotzke (87 kg, Ohio RTC), and ’22 U20 World bronze Aden Attao (130 kg, NYAC/Beaver Dam RTC) were defeated in their respective first bouts of the tournament, all three remain live at press time pending the results from the semifinals.

Rix-McElhinney impressively hung in with returning U20 World champ Alireza Abdevali (IRI) before falling via 7-3 decision. Abdevali has to defeat Tornike Mikeladze (GEO) in the semifinal for Rix-McElhinney to be pulled back in for repechage.

It is the same scenario, but with different names, for both Rogotzke and Attao.

Rogotzke was downed by Patrik Gordan (ROU) in the 87 kg qualification round — but Gordan is in the semifinals and will meet Asan Zhanyshov (KGZ). If Gordan is successful, Rogotzke will resume wrestling on Tuesday morning in the repechage. Attao was defeated by top Hungarian prospect Laszlo Darabos; for Attao to have another chance for a medal via repechage, Darabos must defeat Aleksandr Melekhov (AIN).

The semifinal round is slated to begin at 6:00pm local time (12:00pm ET). FLOWrestling is carrying the live broadcast for the US audience.