U.S. Wrestlers Win Three Gold Medals On Day 3 Of Matteo Pellicone International

by Todd Kortemeier

Victoria Anthony competes in the Women's 48kg championship match on day 2 of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Wrestling Trials at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on April 10, 2016 in Iowa City, Iowa.

 

U.S. wrestlers provided thrills and won gold medals on the penultimate day on the mat at the Matteo Pellicone International in Rome, Italy.
Victoria Anthony, Abby Nette and Kollin Moore all won gold medals to highlight a five-medal day for USA Wrestling. Tony Nelson added a silver medal while Hayden Zillmer scored a bronze.
First up was Anthony at 50 kg. The three-time Pan American Championships gold medalist scored a major upset in the semifinal, upsetting top-ranked Emilia Vuc of Romania, setting up a meeting with Miglena Selishka of Bulgaria in the final. Anthony had a 9-3 lead at the break, only to fall behind 10-9 with less than a minute left. Anthony came back to score a four-pointer and take the lead with just seconds to go, holding on for a thrilling 13-10 victory. 
Trying to top that action was Nette at 59 kg. Nette’s meet was a round-robin format, and the winner of her match with Diana Kayumova of Kazakhstan would finish with the top record and gold medal. Nette, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, built up a 6-0 lead on the strength of three takedowns and went on to win by the same score for Team USA’s second straight gold medal.
In the third Team USA final of the day, Moore faced off against Alireza Karimimachiani of Iran at 97 kg. Moore, the Under-23 world silver medalist, fell behind 3-1 at the break but scored a takedown to take a 3-3 lead on criteria and went on to finish off the hat trick of U.S. gold medals. 
Also at 97 kg., Zillmer won the bronze medal, defeating Ibrahim Ciftci of Turkey. At 125 kg., Nelson was assured of the silver medal in the round-robin event.
The Matteo Pellicone is a United World Wrestling (UWW) Ranking Series event. The first such event of 2021, the Pellicone will an important meet that will go toward seeding at the world championships in October. The meet concludes Sunday with the remaining men’s freestyle finals.

Todd Kortemeier #


Todd Kortemeier is a sportswriter, editor and children’s book author from Minneapolis. He is a contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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