OMAHA, NE — Three Cornellians entered the World Team Trials this weekend, two of which had to compete in the challenge tournament to earn a spot in the best-of-three finals on Sunday.

In the 63 kg Greco Roman bracket, Phillip Moomey '24, started off strong in the quarters match-up against Corbin Nirschl. Moomey defeated Nirschl by VSU (tech fall) 9-0. Moomey then was tasked with facing off against Ildar Hafizov in the semi-finals. Hafizov defeated Moomey by VSU (tech fall) 10-0 and knocked Moomey out of the World Team Trial tournament.

Heading into the 61 kg Men's Freestyle bracket, former Big Red wrestler Nahshon Garrett '16 was looking to fight his way through a tough field of competition to get back to the best-of-three finals and secure a rematch with fellow Cornellian, Vito Arujau. This battle started off in the quarters against Liam Cronan. Garrett dominated this bout winning by VPO 9-0. In the semi-finals Garrett was put up against Marcus Blaze. Blaze took out the former World Team Trial finalist defeating Garrett by VPO 5-0.

After defeating Garrett, Blaze then moved on to the 61 kg Men's Freestyle Challenge Tournament Finals where he was locked in a tight battle against Daton Fix. Despite the back and forth bout Blaze was able to pull through winning by VPO1 3-2.

With Garrett winning the challenge tournament Saturday, he will move on to face off against the 2023 World Champion, yet another Cornellian, in Arujau.

Arujau accepted his automatic berth in the best-of-three championship series at the World Team Trials. This will be Arujau's first competition since winning the 2024 NCAA title with Cornell at 133 pounds. His last international event was his 2023 world title run. Arujau looks to defeat Blaze in Sunday's best-of-three series.

Blaze comes into this bout after recently winning a U20 World bronze medal at 61 kg and qualifying for the 2024 Senior National Team at 57 kg. 

Here is the tentative schedule for Sunday's events:

Sunday, September 15 

10:00 AM: Consolations, Consolation Semifinals, 3rd Place and Round 1 (2 out of 3) Finals  

2:00 PM: Round 2 (2 out of 3) Finals *Round 3 if necessary 

The winner of each weight class will represent Team USA at the Non-Olympic World Championships in Tirana, Albania October 28-31.

Wrestling fans can watch all of the Senior World Team Trial action live on FloWrestling.