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Kyle Snyder, Nick Heflin Wrestling in World Wrestling Clubs Cup Tonight

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Andy Vance's picture
December 6, 2017 at 11:42pm
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Ohio State's reigning, defending Olympic, World and NCAA champion Kyle Snyder is in Tehran, Iran, wrestling alongside other members of the Titan-Mercury Wrestling Club in the World Wrestling Clubs Cup, Dec. 7 and 8.

Snyder is joined by two-time All American Nick Heflin, a 2013 Ohio State graduate and current assistant coach at Oklahoma under former Buckeye assistant coach Lou Rosselli.

An all-star list of U.S. freestyle wrestlers will compete in the tournament against the best wrestling clubs from around the world. Titan Mercury won the Cup last year in Karkhov, Ukraine, despite a shocking upset of Snyder late in the tournament.

Iran’s host teams of Bimeh Razi - the two-time Clubs Cup champions - and Easy Pipe added several international wrestlers to their rosters in hopes of wresting the cup back from the American contingent. Also in the mix will be a team from Dagestan, Russia, though Abdulrashid Sadulaev is expected to compete for Bimeh Razi.

As with international club football (soccer, that is), teams can add athletes to their team from other countries. This year's tournament, with ten contested weight classes, sees Bimeh Razi with four Russian on their roster, including:

  • 2017 World silver medalist Khetag Tsabolov at 74 kg
  • 2016 Olympic silver medalist Aniuar Geduev at 79 kg
  • Vladislav Baitsaev, who nearly upset Sadulaev in the 97 kg Russian Nationals at 125 kg
  • Sadulaev, who is slated to compete at 92 kg, where he will face Heflin, not at 97 kg, where he would have faced Snyder

Snyder is the biggest name on Titan-Mercury's incredible roster, and wrestles at 97 kg. Fellow Buckeye and 2016 World Champion Logan Stieber was slotted to compete at 61 kg, however an injury last month sidelined the 4-time NCAA champ.

Action is slated to begin at 10 a.m. in Tehran - that's 1:30 a.m. EST, as Iran is 8.5 hours ahead of the Eastern timezone.

The tournament follows a four-pool system, with the winner of each pool advancing on to the semifinals and then on to the finals, somewhat like the system in World Cup soccer. On the first day of the tournament, Titan Mercury wrestles in Pool A, and faces clubs from Canada, India and Bulgaria.

Live-streaming is theoretically available via the Iranian Wrestling Federation's Instagram feed. If you're a night owl and you manage to find the feed, feel free to leave updates in the comments below.

Titan-Mercury World Clubs Cup Roster
Weight Wrestler Notes
57 kg Thomas Gilman Iowa Hawkeye, 2017 World Silver Medalist
61 kg Alan Waters Two-time NCAA All-American
65 kg Franklin Gomez World Silver Medalist
65 kg  B.J. Futrell World Clubs Cup Champion
70 kg Nazar Kulchytskyy World Clubs Cup Champion
74 kg Isaiah Martinez Illinois, Former NCAA Champion
79 kg Kyle Dake Four-time NCAA Champion
86 kg David Taylor Penn State, Two-time NCAA Champion
92 kg J'Den Cox Two-time Olympic and World medalist
92 kg Nick Heflin Ohio State, Two-time All-American
97 kg Kyle Snyder The Greatest of All Time
125 kg Nick Gwiazdowski World Bronze Medalist

 

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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