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Titan Mercury Wrestling Falls Short in World Clubs Cup Finals, Kyle Snyder Undefeated

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Andy Vance's picture
by Andy Vance
December 8, 2017 at 2:08pm
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After tearing through three clubs in the pool round and a fourth in the semifinals, Titan Mercury came up a match short of defending their title in the World Wrestling Clubs Cup in Tehran, Iran. Ohio State's 97 kg superstar Kyle Snyder won all five of his matches, including four by tech fall.

In the pool round Thursday, the American squad easily dispatched clubs from Bulgaria, Canada and India, with Snyder going 10-0, 10-0 and 9-2 in his three matches. Ohio State alumnus Nick Heflin, currently on the coaching staff at Oklahoma, also went 3-0 on the day at 92 kg as the club advanced to the semis.

Friday morning, the team defeated the Khimori wrestling club from Mongolia for the right to advance to Titan Mercury's fourth-consecutive Clubs Cup finals. Snyder and Heflin both won by tech fall, 12-2 and 10-0, respectively.

After four duals, the Americans had dropped only 4 out of 40 individual matches, all in the lighter half of the roster. Alan Waters, the two-time All American from Mizzou, dropped two of this three matches in pool competition at 61 kg, going 2-2 in the first four duals. Frank Gomez at 70 kg and B.J. Futrell at 65 kg each dropped one of their first four matches.

Waters was not originally supposed to be competing at 61 kg; rather, the spot was supposed to be held by another Ohio State legend, 2016 World and four-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber. An injury kept Stieber off the mats for most of November, however, and Waters was pressed into service.

Heading into the final round, the Americans squared off against Easy Pipe, one of three Iranian clubs in the competition. If you haven't followed international freestyle wrestling, you may not realize that Iranians LOVE - not like, not enjoy, not tolerate - LOVE their wrestling.

Host club Bimeh Razi, the two-time World Cup champs, was considered the favorites but were upset in pool play, taking two of the top Russians out of the field before they crossed paths with Titan Mercury. Easy Pipe, however, proved every bit as challenging for the Americans, who dropped their first four matches of the final dual.

Nazar Kulchytskyy got Titan Mercury on the board with a win at 74 kg, sparking the rally, with successive wins by Kyle Dake at 79 kg and David Taylor at 86 kg. Heflin came up short on some controversial calls, however, and the score was 3-5 in favor of Easy Pipe heading into the last two bouts.

Snyder faced a talented Russian named Baitriev, one of Sadulaev's rivals (most of the Russians in the competition actually wrestled for Iranian clubs, with Sadulaev wrestling for Bimeh Razi). True to form, the reigning, defending, undisputed Olympic, NCAA and World champion teched another highly-touted foe, putting the Cup within reach with just one match to go.

At 125 kg, two-time NCAA champ and 2017 world bronze medalist Nick Gwiazdowski squared off against reigning World Champion Geno Petrishvili of Georgia. Gwiz kept it close, trading takedowns with the heavily-favored heavyweight. Alas, his final takedown wasn't enough, and he dropped the match 6-5, with the victory giving Easy Pipe its first Clubs Cup.

The dual represented the fourth consecutive World Clubs Cup finals.

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