Three Ohio State alumni will wrestle Saturday for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team, and it is guaranteed that at least one Buckeye will represent Team USA in Tokyo as one matchup is an all scarlet-and-gray affair.
Kollin Moore, the three-time All American and three-time Big Ten champion, will face former teammate Kyle Snyder, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist, in a best-of-three final for the 97 kg spot at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Fellow teammate Joey McKenna, the three-time All American and two-time Big Ten champ (and two-time Pac-12 champ), will face Jordan Oliver for the 65 kg spot.
A comprehensive list of all schools that have THREE participants in the Olympic Team Trials freestyle finals:
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) April 3, 2021
Ohio State
Thats it. Thats the list.#GoBuckeyes
Snyder, by dint of being a reigning Olympian, earned a bye to the best-of-three finals. Moore rolled through the field Friday as the No. 1 seed in the "challenge tournament," with a 10-0 tech fall of future Wisconsin wrestler Braxton Amos in the opening and then winning a 6-2 decision against Virginia Tech alumni and current Director of Wrestling Performance Ty Walz in the semifinals. In the finals of the challenge bracket, Moore again dominated in a 10-0 tech fall over North Carolina State alumnus Michael Macchiavello.
Kollin Moore advances to tomorrow's final in 97 kg and will face off Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder.@TeamUSA x #WrestlingTrials21 | @USAWrestling
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) April 3, 2021
NBCSN
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Moore was slated to have faced J'den Cox as the precursor to the best-of-three versus Snyder, but the two-time reigning world champion at 92 kg missed weight Friday morning and was removed from the bracket. Cox has trained at least part of the time at the Ohio Regional Training Center since early 2020, and his failure to make weight sent shockwaves throughout the wrestling community.
He'll face Snyder in the finals. Coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
At 65 kg, McKenna won a pair of impressive victories over high-powered opponents, with a 12-1 tech fall of James Green, the two-time world medalist, and then besting the top-seed, two-time Hodge Trophy winner Zain Retherford in an 8-5 decision with two late takedowns in the second period.
His opponent on Saturday night is two-time NCAA champion Jordan Oliver, the No. 2 seed in the weight class. Oliver defeated fellow two-time NCAA champ Yianni Diakomihalis on criteria in Friday night's semifinals. The winner of the 65 kg best-of-three must still qualify the United States for a spot in the Olympics at the weight by competing at the World Olympic Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 6-9.
Only one school had more entrants at the Olympic Team Trials than Ohio State. The Buckeyes were represented by six current or former wrestlers. In addition to McKenna, Moore and Snyder, alumni Myles Martin and Nathan Tomasello made their play for the Olympics, as did current Ohio State team member Nicholas Boykin in Greco-Roman.
Boykin, a redshirt freshman competing at 97 kg, defeated Khymba Johnson (New York Athletic Club) 3-1 in the first round and then top-seeded Daniel Miller (All-Marine Wrestling Team) 7-5 in the semifinals. But his run for Tokyo ended with an 8-2 loss to Wisconsin's Amos in the challenge bracket finals. Boykin will have one more match today to determine the second-place finisher in the bracket.
Tomasello had a tough opening draw with Vitali Arujau (TMWC/Spartan Combat). NaTo dropped a 3-2 decision in his long-awaited return to competition and was sent to the consolations where he will face Sean Russell of the Gopher Wrestling Club in his first match and is still in play for a third-place finish in the 57 kg weight class.
Martin also dropped his first-round match on Friday, a narrow 2-1 to nemesis Gabe Dean (TMWC/ Spartan Combat). He bounced back with a solid 5-2 win over Penn State's Carter Starocci (TMWC/ NLWC) and will face Nathan Jackson (NJRTC) on Saturday afternoon.
