Kyle Snyder Leads U.S. Medal Haul At Wrestling Ranking Series Event In Tunisia

(L-R) Kyle Snyder competes against Suleyman Karadeniz of Team Turkey during the men’s freestyle 97 kg. semifinals at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on Aug. 6, 2021 in Chiba, Japan.

Winners Kyle Snyder, Sarah Hildebrandt, Thomas Gilman, Seth Gross and Zain Retherford led a Team USA assault on the podium that yielded a total of 11 freestyle medals over the weekend at the Zouhaier Sghaier International in Tunis, Tunisia.
The Zouhaier Sghaier was the fourth UWW Ranking Series event of the year and comes two months ahead of the world championships in Serbia.
Snyder and Hildebrandt claimed their wins on Saturday.
Since 2015, Snyder has made it to every world championships or Olympic final except one in the men’s 97 kg. classification, collecting seven medals — including three gold — along the way. He won his third international tournament so far of 2022 when he beat Mamed Ibragimov of Kazakhstan, the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medalist, in an 11-0 decision.
Hildebrandt, a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist and two-time world silver medalist, also posted an 11-0 win in her final. She beat U.S. teammate Emily Shilson for the women’s 50 kg. title. Shilson, who took the silver medal, is a cadet, junior and U23 world champion. 
The winning ways continued Sunday.
Gilman, the reigning world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in men’s 57 kg., won with a 9-8 decision over India’s Udit in the final. Gilman bounced back from a first-round loss by fall to Justin Lehr of Germany to win the weight class. 
Gross joined Gilman atop the podium by prevailing over Nebi Uzun of Turkey in the men’s 61 kg. class. Though no points were scored by either wrestler, Gross took the gold medal when Uzun defaulted due to injury.
Retherford dominated in the men’s 70 kg. final, downing two-time junior world bronze medalist Syrbaz Talgat from Kazakhstan. Retherford is a three-time U.S. world team member.
Also on Sunday, Yianni Diakomihalis defeated U23 world silver medalist Adlan Askarov of Kazakhstan, 15-5 to claim the silver medal in the men’s 65 kg. class.
Chance Marsteller closed out the U.S. medal collection Sunday with a bronze medal in the men’s 79 kg. In the final match Marsteller wrestled to a 10-0 decision over Baliyan Gourav of India, a world junior bronze medalist.
In other Saturday action, after American Hayden Zillmer led three-time world champion Geno Petriashvili of Georgia 4-1 early in the second period of the men’s 125 kg. final. Though Zillmer eventually lost an 8-4 decision, he still emerged with a silver medal, his first international medal of 2022.
Emma Bruntil brought home a silver medal in the women’s 65 kg. Though all three wrestlers in the round-robin competition went 1-1, Bruntil was awarded the silver by giving up fewer points in the tournament than the bronze medalist.
Skylar Grote earned her third international medal of the year, a bronze in the women’s 72 kg. Grote shook off a first-round defeat and posted a 10-0 technical fall in the second period of the bronze medal match against Manju Manju of India.