Hawkeyes compete at U.S. Olympic trials, day 1 updates

STATE COLLEGE, PENN — Update 7:45 p.m. — Former Hawkeye standout Spencer Lee is headed to the best-of-three championship for an Olympic birth against another former Hawkeye — Thomas Gilman, who now wrestles for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club at Penn State.

Lee took down one seed Zane Richards 13-6 in dominant fashion, heading into the second period 9-0. Gilman scored all the points in his 6-0 win over Daton Fix, a four-time NCAA national runner-up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys who also was a U20 world champion, Pan American gold medalist and U.S. national champion.

Both Hawkeyes Kylee Welker and Reese Larramendy lost their respective semis, removing them from Olympic-team contention.

Friday night also involved drama from Jordan Burroughs — a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, six-time world champion, and three-time Pan American gold medalist, among the many international wins that give him the record for more Olympic and World championships in U.S. history.

When Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink held on to his ankles after a whistle, Burroughs gave the back of his head a shove — drawing jeers from the local crowd. After the match, with the two wrestlers exchanging words, Penn State fans boo’d Burroughs out of the arena.

Then when two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist J’den Cox lost his semis match to national champion Kollin Moore 2-2, by criteria, he took off his shoes and laid them in the center of the mat — signifying his retirement.

Update 5:30 p.m. — Heading into the evening session, four past and present Hawkeyes are alive in the semifinals to make America’s Olympic team this summer.

Both three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee and Thomas Gilman — a 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and 2021 world champion and Pan American Continental champion — are in the semis in the 57K bracket.

Kylee Welker and Reese Larramendy for the Hawkeye women are one away from the finals in their respective brackets.

Update 12:45 — Former Hawkeye and three-time national champion Spencer Lee made quick work of his first opponent, winning by technical fall in the first period.

A few matches before, fellow former Hawkeye Thomas Gilman faced off against 17-year-old high school sophomore Jax Forrest. Despite the more than decade separating them, Forrest was on top of 29-year-old Gilman for a time before Gilman secured a 5-4 win with a takedown.

On the women’s side, another Hawkeye-vs.-Hawkeye matchup went to Kylie Welker — who wrapped up Marlynne Deede for a technical fall by leg lace in the first period.

Update 12:15 — After winning his first, former Hawkeye Alex Marinelli in his second match fell to Jason Nolf — the two seed and former Penn State three-time national champion.

Marinelli was among a handful of Hawkeyes to drop matches in the earlier rounds — including fifth-year senior Felicity Taylor and Brianna Gonzalez, both of whom lost their first matches. That pits them against each other on the backside of the bracket, setting up a rematch of the national championship finals in March — when Taylor topped Gonzalez 9-2.

First-year sophomore Nyla Valencia, after beating teammate Ava Bayless in her first round, lost by technical fall in her second to the one seed. That loss puts her in the wrestle-back against teammate Emilie Gonzalez, who she recently wrestled and beat 12-1 at the U20 national championships in Spokane, Wash.

U20 nationals champion Reese Larramendy held on to a lead — even as it nearly slipped away — giving up a few takedowns in the second period. Her 10-8 victory brings her up against the second seed for her second match.

Neither Spencer Lee nor Thomas Gilman had wrestled yet at noon, with both getting first-round byes.

Update 9:45 a.m. — After several first-round matches, Hawkeyes have tallied two wins and three losses — with one coming to a teammate.

Redshirt first-year Nyla Valencia, with an 11-4 score, beat Ava Bayless, who won a national championship for the Hawkeyes in March at the 109 weight.

Former Hawkeye Alex Marinelli won his first 4-0, putting him up next against two-seed Jason Nolf, who lost just three matches in his Penn State college career — winning three national championships as a four-time All-American.

Up 6-2 at the break, former Hawkeye Tony Cassioppi ended up dropping the match 6-6 — with his opponent winning by criteria.

And Emilie Gonzalez, who won a national title with the Hawkeyes in March and is in the same bracket as Valencia and Bayless, lost by technical fall 11-0.

Update 8:15 a.m. — A stacked 18 brackets of the country’s best wrestlers over the next two days will grapple for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in Paris later this summer, including 14 who identify as Hawkeyes in some capacity — either past, present, or professional.

Across the six men’s freestyle brackets are three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee and four-time Big Ten champion Alex Marinelli, both of whom wrapped their University of Iowa wrestling careers in 2023; four-time world-level medalist Thomas Gilman, who competed for the Hawkeyes from 2013 to 2017; and Tony Cassioppi, a four-time All-American who competed from 2018 to 2023.

Lee — eyeing an Olympic birth for a decade — has had a strong shift to freestyle, topping podiums of late, including at the Bill Farrell Memorial tournament in November, Senior Nationals in December, and the Pan-American Championships earlier this year.

On the women’s side, University of Iowa sophomore Kylee Welker, 2023 U20 Pan American champion and 2024 national champion, is among nine Hawkeyes competing at the trials, finding herself in a bracket with two of her teammates — senior Marlynne Deede, a 2023 and 2024 national champion, and freshman Rose Cassioppi.

With only six Olympic weights, as opposed to the 10 collegiate classes, teammates are piling up in many of the brackets — as are national champions. The lightest 50K bracket includes Hawkeyes Emilie Gonzalez, who won the 2024 national championship at the 101 weight; Ava Bayless, who won the national championship at 109; and Nyla Valencia, a two-time runner-up at the U20 national championships who recently won the last-chance qualifier for the trials.

Both fifth-year senior Felicity Taylor, who won the national title at 116, and Brianna Gonzalez, who took second to her, are at 53K. Gonzalez last weekend won the U20 national championship, earning her a spot on the world team, along with Hawkeye sophomore Reese Larramendy, who won U20 nationals and the collegiate national championship at 143.

Several former Hawkeye Wrestling Club members are competing in both the women’s and men’s brackets. And, in the Greco style, UI resident doctor Brandon Marshall — fresh off a six-year hiatus — qualified for the trials at the recent last-chance tournament in Virginia.

With all the athletes having made weight Friday morning, they were refueling two hours before competition at 10 a.m., eastern, or 9 a.m. central.

In a circle after warming up and drilling, the Hawkeye women heard from their coaches and then brought it in for a quick, “For her” chant — referencing the barriers they’re breaking down for all the girls coming behind them, looking up to them.

Follow along for live updates.

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