Current Buckeye Kollin Moore and verbal commit Malik Heinselman punched their tickets to the Junior World Championships in Finland next month with titles on Friday at the 2017 Junior World Team Trials.
Heinselman earned a spot in the championship series with a win at the US Open last month, and his bracket at 50 kg only had two other entrants. In the championship series, Heinselman won the first two matches of the best-of-three series with scores of 7-4 and 10-0 over Cevion Severado to earn the spot on the US Junior World Team.
Moore represented Team Titan Mercury and continued where he left off during his impressive redshirt season. The Buckeye 197 lber tore through the 96 kg bracket, defeating Jackson Striggow, Samuel Colbray, and Jacob Warner by a combined score of 33-3 to win the Challenge bracket. In the best-of-three Championship Series, Moore defeated Andrew Marsden 13-2 and 20-8 to earn a spot on the Junior World Team at 96 kg.
@moore_of_kollin is headed to his second straight Jr. World Championships! He wins the 96kg Jr. World Team Trials. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/GZ1UL7oftF
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) June 10, 2017
Luke Pletcher lost his opening bout at 60 kg 6-4 to Nick Farro and was knocked into the consolation bracket. Pletcher won two matches in the consolation bracket before falling 10-0 to Virginia's Jack Mueller in the consolation semifinals.
Kevin Snyder (younger brother of Buckeye heavyweight Kyle Snyder) lost his opening bout at 96 kg 10-0 to Samuel Colbray. In the consolation bracket, Kevin lost 4-2 to Joshua Roetman 4-2 and was eliminated from the competition.
The US Senior World Trials, featuring Kyle Snyder, Logan Stieber, Nathan Tomasello, and Nick Heflin will be contested on Saturday, June 10th on the campus of the University of Nebraska.
