BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – The U.S. saw two athletes pushed through to repechage on Sunday evening at the 2026 U20 World Championships—Leister Bowling IV and Aidan Squier each need a pair of wins tomorrow morning to qualify for the bronze medal round.
The four Americans in Greco-Roman group one were kept out of the win column during the preliminary rounds, with challenging draws all around.
Bowling IV, who was fifth place at last year’s U20 World Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria, was stifled, 6-0, by U20 European champion Samvel Terteryan of Armenia at 77 kg. Terteryan separated in the bout with a pair of passivity points and timely par terre offense.
Squier was defeated by 2025 Senior World bronze medalist and three-time age-group World medalist Taizo Yoshida of Japan, 10-2, at 87 kg. Yoshida’s output of attacks eventually broke through the positioning of Squier, in what was a close match early on.
Semifinal wins by Terteryan and Yoshida gave the U.S. representation in tomorrow’s repechage round. Bowling IV’s path to bronze begins with 2023 U20 African bronze medalist Mohamed Ibrahim of Egypt. Likewise, Squier starts his repechage journey against 2026 U20 European bronze medalist Vladyslav Solodchuk of Ukraine, who also holds a 2024 U17 World bronze medal.
Also in action on Sunday were 2024 U17 World Team member Trayvn Boger at 130 kg and Nicholas Sorrow at 63 kg. Boger lost 9-1 to 2023 U17 World bronze medalist and current U20 Asian champion Amirhossein Abdevali of Iran. Sorrow dropped a 10-5 contest to Taiga Hibarino of Japan. Both Abdevali and Hibarino lost in the quarterfinals, knocking Boger and Sorrow out of medal contention.
Read More: U20 World Championships Day One Match Notes
The action continues from A4 Studio at 6 p.m. local time with the Greco-Roman group one (63-77-87-130 kg) repechage and Greco-Roman group two (55-67-72-97 kg) qualification rounds. Bratislava, Slovakia, is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.
Greco-Roman group two athletes include Ezekiel Witt at 55 kg, Amryn Nutter at 67 kg, Eli Esguerra at 72 kg and Cittadino Tuttle at 97 kg.
Additionally, the women’s freestyle brackets will be released between sessions on Monday.
Fans can watch the U20 World Championships live or on-demand at FloWrestling.org. Brackets and live results are available through UWW Arena.
USA Wrestling will provide continued updates from the U20 World Championships on TheMat.com and its social media platforms.
