November 4, 2026
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College Wrestling
The 2026 Senior World Championships concluded on Sunday at Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, and Team USA is heading home with two team titles and a pile of history. The U.S. men's freestyle team edged Russia 194-185 to win its sixth team title, finishing with five champions and nine medalists, both U.S. records. The U.S. women's freestyle team edged Japan 137-135 for its first team title since 1999 and only the second in program history, snapping Japan's run of 11 straight team titles. Overall, the United States crowned seven world champions, matching the U.S. record set in 2022. Greco-Roman, however, went without a medal for the fifth straight World Championships.
Below are 10 takeaways from Team USA's performance at the 2026 Senior World Championships.
Bo Bassett needed just two weeks to go from a ninth-place finish at the U23 World Championships in Las Vegas to the top of the podium at the Senior World Championships. The 20-year-old Virginia Tech freshman won gold at 65 kilograms in his senior world debut, capping his run with a 9-1 victory over two-time Olympian and 2023 world bronze medalist Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia. Bassett opened with a fall over Canada's Peiman Biabani and a 12-0 technical superiority over France's Quentin Sticker. He then rallied from a 12-3 deficit, one point away from a technical superiority loss, to edge Russia's Abasgadzhi Magomedov 14-13 in the quarterfinals before handling Tajikistan's Abdulmazhid Kudiev 12-2 by technical superiority in the semifinals. In the final, Tevanyan scored the first point on a step-out, but Bassett answered with a takedown as time expired in the first period and added three more takedowns in the second period as the Armenian wilted. Pace is what separates Bassett. Opponents struggle to keep up with him for six minutes, and his relentless style reflects a wrestler who loves the sport. Bassett, who won a U20 world title in August, is the first American since Bill Zadick in 2006 to win a world title at this weight. Now he is a senior world champion before wrestling a single college match.
Everest Leydecker has yet to wrestle a college match, and at 19 she is already a senior world champion. The Iowa freshman won the 55-kilogram title with a 4-1 victory over Ukraine's Nataliia Klivchutska, a win that also clinched the women's freestyle team title for the United States. Like Bassett, Leydecker turned a disappointment in Las Vegas into gold. She was pinned in the semifinals of the U23 World Championships and settled for bronze, then won the senior world title two weeks later. Leydecker, a two-time U20 world champion, pinned 2023 world bronze medalist Anastasia Blayvas of Germany in the quarterfinals and controlled the ties in a 6-1 semifinal win over Japan's Nagisa Harada. In the final, she stayed patient until Klivchutska shot in late, then sprawled and turned her for two exposure points. Leydecker is now the second-youngest American woman to win a world title, behind only Amit Elor. The confidence is obvious. "I know I can beat anybody I go on the mat with," said Leydecker. U.S. women's head coach Terry Steiner pointed out that she already has more wins on the international circuit than she does in college wrestling. Above all, she loves the sport, something she said she realized after winning a middle school state title in eighth grade with her father as her coach. The sport's all-time list may be her next stop.
Few wrestlers have climbed as quickly as Adaugo Nwachukwu. She moved from Nigeria to California in 2018 and didn't start wrestling until her sophomore year at Silver Creek High School in San Jose. As a junior, she capped an undefeated season with a California state title. She went on to win three NAIA national titles, two at Iowa Wesleyan and one at William Penn, and she will compete for McKendree this season. Weeks after taking silver at the U23 World Championships in Las Vegas, the 23-year-old U.S. Army specialist won her first senior world title at 62 kilograms, edging two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Nonoka Ozaki of Japan 12-11 in a classic final. Nwachukwu led 5-0 at the break, but Ozaki rallied and took her first lead with 13 seconds left. Nwachukwu answered with a takedown in the closing seconds, and Japan's unsuccessful challenge of that takedown gave her the decisive point. Nwachukwu was the first American to win gold in Astana, and she became the first world champion from the Army World Class Athlete Program since Iris Smith in 2005.
After falling short of an NCAA title in 2025, when he placed third at 174 pounds, Penn State's Levi Haines rebounded to make the U.S. senior world team and win silver at 79 kilograms at the 2025 World Championships. He added a U23 world title last fall and a second NCAA title in March, then won his first senior world title in Astana. Haines edged Iran's Mohammad Nokhodilarimi, a five-time world medalist, 4-3 in the final. Haines trailed 3-2 at the break after Nokhodilarimi countered a gut wrench attempt for two points, but he went back to the low single for the go-ahead takedown in the second period and held off the Iranian's attacks the rest of the way. That is the Haines formula. He is so positionally strong and so difficult to score on that opponents rarely find offense, and his pace and physicality wear them down. Haines also handled Russia's Ismail Khaniev 8-1 in the quarterfinals en route to the final. His gold clinched the men's freestyle team title for the United States.
Spencer Lee won his first senior world title at 57 kilograms after tearing his ACL for the fourth time about three months before the World Championships. "I haven't wrestled in 16 freaking weeks, man," said Lee. "I came here and I didn't even know if I could shoot." The former Iowa star went 5-0 with four technical superiorities and a fall. He opened with technical superiorities over Guatemala's Edwin Segura Guerra, Iran's Milad Valizadeh and Russia's Abubakar Mutaliev, and his semifinal showed his grit. Trailing Azerbaijan's Islam Bazarganov 10-3 in the second period, Lee rolled into a headlock and pinned him. In the finals, he needed just 26 seconds to beat Mexico's Roman Bravo-Young, a former Penn State star, 10-0. Lee became a legend with his "excuses are for wusses" mantra after winning the 2021 NCAA title with two torn ACLs. He finished his Iowa career as a three-time NCAA champion and two-time Hodge Trophy winner, then added an Olympic silver medal in 2024. He is one of America's greatest lightweights of this generation.
Entering the Senior World Championships, Jordan Burroughs and John Smith were the clear choices for the Mount Rushmore of American men's wrestlers. A case could be made for others. After Astana, Kyle Snyder is no longer up for debate. The former Ohio State star won his fifth world title at 97 kilograms, giving him nine senior world medals to go with an Olympic gold and an Olympic silver. His five world titles and Olympic gold give him six world and Olympic titles, matching Burroughs and Smith for the most by an American man. Snyder is also the only American to win a world title in his teens, 20s and 30s. He did it the hard way in a bracket that featured four Olympic champions. Snyder rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the second period to beat two-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia 4-4 on criteria in the quarterfinals. In the finals, Snyder trailed Japan's Arash Yoshida 4-0 with 41 seconds left before scoring a single leg at the 0:25 mark and a go-behind at the 0:19 mark to win 4-4 on criteria. That is the resume of an all-time great, and the finish showed why.
Kyle Dake added another chapter to an already historic career, winning his fifth world title at 86 kilograms. It was his third different weight class to win gold, following titles at 79 kilograms in 2018 and 2019 and at 74 kilograms in 2021 and 2022. The 35-year-old former Cornell star went 6-0 with two wins by technical superiority and beat Russia's Ibragim Kadiev 6-3 in the semifinals. In the finals, Dake edged 2025 world bronze medalist Arsenii Dzhioev of Azerbaijan 3-2, scoring the match's only takedown early in the second period and shutting Dzhioev down the rest of the way. At 35 years and eight months old, Dake became the oldest American to win a senior world title, passing Bruce Baumgartner, who won in 1995 at 34 years and nine months. He has now reached the final in all six of his world appearances, and his five world titles are tied with Burroughs and Snyder for the second most by an American, behind only Adeline Gray's six. His decade at the top is about as consistent as anyone the sport has seen.
At 35, Helen Maroulis is still piling up world medals. She won bronze at 57 kilograms, her ninth senior world medal, and she earned it the hard way. After opening with an 11-0 technical superiority over Canada's Mia Friesen, Maroulis fell 4-2 in the quarterfinals to eventual silver medalist Sena Nagamoto of Japan. She rebounded with a fall over Ecuador's Luisa Valverde Melendres in repechage, then beat Kazakhstan's Nilufar Raimova 5-2 in the bronze-medal match. Maroulis led 4-0 at the break before a cut opened above her right eye and required a full head wrap, and she held on through Raimova's second-period attacks. The medal tied Maroulis with Bruce Baumgartner, Jordan Burroughs, Kristie Davis and Adeline Gray for the most world medals by an American. Snyder joined the group two days later, and no American has won 10. A four-time world champion and three-time Olympic medalist, Maroulis competed at her first Senior World Championships in 2011. She has outlasted generations of challengers and shows no signs of slowing down.
Trent Hidlay came within seconds of repeating as a world champion. In a rematch of last year's 92-kilogram final, the former NC State star led Russia's Amanula Gadzhimagomedov 2-1 when he drove the Russian off the mat on a shot with 18 seconds left. The sequence was initially scored two points for Hidlay, which put him ahead 4-1, but the Russian corner challenged, and officials reversed it to two points for Gadzhimagomedov for a chest wrap. The call was stunning because Gadzhimagomedov appeared to be out of bounds before he changed movements. Hidlay could not score in the final seconds and lost 3-2. It was a heartbreaking finish after he led for most of the match. Hidlay reached the finals with wins over Azerbaijan's Ali Tcokaev, who went on to take bronze, and Iran's Amirhossein Firouzpourbandpei, and his silver is his second straight world medal. On a team filled with stars, he remains one of USA Wrestling's brightest.
Team USA's Greco-Roman squad left Astana without a medal, extending the program's drought to five straight World Championships. G'Angelo Hancock's bronze at 97 kilograms in 2021 remains the last world medal for an American Greco-Roman wrestler. The numbers were stark. Only three of the 10 Americans -- Max Nowry, Otto Black and Benji Peak -- won a match, no American reached a medal bout and the U.S. finished 31st in the team standings with two points. Iran ran away with the team title with 192 points, crowning four champions and winning medals in nine of 10 weight classes. The lone encouraging sign was 21-year-old Otto Black at 67 kilograms. After falling to eventual silver medalist Aytjan Khalmakhanov of Uzbekistan, Black won 9-0 by technical superiority over Australia's Tsuchika Shimoyamada in repechage and pushed Tokyo Olympic champion Luis Orta Sanchez of Cuba before falling 7-4. Black finished 10th, the best American placement of the tournament.
