ITHACA, N.Y. -- Junior Jacob Cardenas won a silver medal at 92kg in freestyle wrestling at the Under 23 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain this past weekend. He was one of three current Big Red grapplers to compete, joining 57kg freestyler Vito Arujau and 60kg Greco-Roman grappler Phillip Moomey.

Cardenas, in his first career international competition, reached the finals by outscoring opponents 19-2. The junior scored an impressive 8-0 shutout of Miriani Maisuradze of Georgia in the semis. He previously won his quarterfinal 7-2 over Baisal Kubatov of Kyrgyzstan and the round of 16 match against Denys Sahaliuk of Ukraine, 4-0. Cardenas fell in the finals 10-0 to Amirhossein Firouzpourbandpei of Iran 

Arujau fell to Bekzat Almaz Uulu of Kyrgyzstan by 11-6 in the round of 16. The Big Red junior took an early 5-0 lead on a step-out, a takedown and a turn, but Uulu scored 11 of the final 12 points to secure the victory.

Moomey won his round of 16 bout at 60kg in Greco Roman over Georgios Scarpello of Germany 7-5 before falling in the quarters to Nurmukhammet Abdulaev of Kyrgyzstan, 8-0. Against Scarpello, Moomey fell behind 5-0 at the break, only to rally with a 7-0 shutout in the second to claim the win. A four-point throw to Scarpello's back near the edge was the key scoring opportunity for the Big Red senior.