Stephen Buchanan is your 97kg US Open Champion! He won four straight matches, outscoring his opponents 31-5! His dominant run included two technical falls, one fall, and a 5-3 decision in the championship final to secure his place on top of the podium and into Final X — USA Wrestling’s World Team Trials!!

The 97kg field included past Senior World Team Member Hayden Zillmer, U20 World Champion Justin Rademacher, U23 World Bronze Medalist Jonathan Aiello, and U20 World Team Member Connor Mirasola. In his first US Open, Buchanan bullied his way through the bracket and will now face five-time World & Olympic Champion Kyle Snyder at Final X on June 19th, in Newark, NJ.

Spencer Lee hardly broke a sweat in reaching the US Open finals at 57kg. He won three matches in a total of 3 mins and 18 seconds — two technical falls and a fall — before facing the familiar foe, Luke Lilledahl, from Nittany Lion Wrestling Club in the championship final. Spencer controlled nearly the entire bout, tallying up a 4-0 lead. Halfway through the second period, Lilledahl got a pushout followed by a takedown to make the score 4-3. With just 5 seconds left, Lilledahl hit a headlock to secure 2pts and the win.

Patrick Kennedy had a great tournament, only dropping one match to the eventual champ, Chance Marsteller, 0-6 in the semifinals. Kennedy recorded four technical falls and outscored his opponents 53-7 to capture third place! With this top 4 performance, Kennedy earned USA Wrestling National Team designation. These designations are determined annually and provide athletes with varying levels of financial support, training access, and international competitive opportunities from the USA governing body.

Austin DeSanto went 4-2 on the weekend, winning four matches—all via technical fall and out scoring those opponents 41-0! He fell to NCAA runner up Ben Davino (0-3) in the quarter finals and NCAA champion Jax Forrest (0-5) in the bronze medal bout. Marcus Blaze was the 61kg champion over Davino (4-1). 

Spencer and DeSanto can still qualify for Final X and have the opportunity to represent Team USA at the World Championships this Fall. They will both need to compete and win on May 14-15 at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament in Louisville, for a chance to add themselves to the Final X card. 

79kg has a returning world medalist (Levi Haines–Silver) sitting out to Final X. This ends Kennedy’s run to his first senior world team at that weight because the US Open Champion automatically qualifies for the best-of-three showdown in Newark. 

Thank you for supporting our Hawkeyes through another season of wrestling! Looking forward to seeing you all again very soon at our Annual Banquet–Clubmen’s Celebration to pay tribute to all our athletes! 

We greatly appreciate you and your support — GO HAWKS!