WRESTLING: NO AMERICAN BADGER IN PARIS

One current and one former University of Wisconsin wrestler participated in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials tournament held April 19-20 in State College, Pennsylvania.

The Trials featured America’s best current and former college wrestlers in brackets for all 18 Olympic weight classes, including six each in men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle, and Greco-Roman (no equivalent women’s competition).

Braxton Amos (Greco-Roman, 97kg)

Background

Amos decided to take an Olympic redshirt for the 2023-24 wrestling season. That allowed him to recover from a serious shoulder injury at last year’s NCAA tournament in addition to his Greco-Roman practice and other preparations for the Olympic Team Trials.

When he was recruited to Wisconsin, Amos was ranked as high as the No. 1 recruit at 220 pounds (high school weight) and was a top 5 overall prospect in all the recruiting services’ rankings. He was a three-time state champion in West Virginia, going 142-0 in his three years wrestling in high school (he was injured one year). He chose Wisconsin over Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Penn State, and Virginia Tech because of the UW’s academics, coaching staff, and rich wrestling legacy.

Taking a “gap year” to wrestle in international tournaments, Amos started his first year in Madison as the 2021 Junior World champion in freestyle and a 2021 Junior World bronze medalist in Greco-Roman - not a bad way to spend a gap year (...and very unusual to medal in both styles). The year did not count against his NCAA eligibility.

Amos took second in the tournament that determined America’s 2020 Olympics (held summer of 2021) representative at his weight class, almost securing a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. He was a member of the U.S. World Team in 2022.

If you’re wondering when we can start talking about his accomplishments as a Badger in NCAA folkstyle (aka collegiate) wrestling, well, I just needed to make sure the stage was set. Braxton Amos has stuffed more international wrestling accomplishments into his two official years of wrestling at the University of Wisconsin than most people do in their entire careers, and the above isn’t even the full list.

At Wisconsin, Amos compiled a 36-19 record on his way to becoming a 2x NCAA qualifier in his freshman and sophomore years. He has been ranked mainly in the mid-twenties, posting a career-best No. 13 pre-season ranking this past season (for which he was on Olympic redshirt).

When not wrestling for the UW, Amos has passed his knowledge and experience on to the next generation through camps in Wisconsin and back in West Virginia.

Olympic Team Trials

Amos is ranked No. 18 in the world at 97kg. Although he competed in one tournament in March in Europe, his injury recovery prevented him from competing at several prior U.S and world events.

Looking to represent the USA in Paris, he was the No. 2 seed at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

In his first match, Amos built a commanding 7-0 lead before a shoulder injury caused him to default. It was the opposite shoulder to the one he injured at the NCAA tournament two years ago.

That’s a pretty deflating end to a full year of recovery and preparation for the Olympics in a tournament where it looked very realistic that he could be America’s man on the mat for Greco-Roman at 97kg in Paris this summer.

Seth Gross (men’s freestyle, 65kg)

Background

We won’t go into the same detail here as Gross’ background has been covered extensively on these pages in the past, but here’s a quick refresher.

Seth Gross was the 2016 national champion at 133 pounds as a sophomore at South Dakota State, the university’s first ever. He took second at the 2017 NCAA Championships as a junior. He was granted a medical redshirt as a senior due to a back injury and transferred to Wisconsin for his last year of eligibility, following his SDSU coaches, Chris Bono and John Reader, to their new home in Madison.

A 27-2 record and 3rd place finish at the Big Ten tournament in 2020 would mark the end of his collegiate wrestling career as the NCAA tournament was canceled that year due to COVID.

He joined the UW coaching staff and has been a key reason for the growth and success of the lower-weight wrestlers on the team.

Olympic Team Trials

Having participated in many U.S. and international tournaments for freestyle, Gross is no stranger to the style and the setting. As the No. 8 seed, Gross looked competitive and almost won his first match, dropping the back-and-forth affair 5-3.

Because the tournament wrestles to “true second” (i.e. brutal backside bracket that seeks to eliminate “favorable seed” advantages), Gross needed to advance 7 times with no losses to be on the U.S. team as the Alternate.

He started out the consolation bracket advancing twice, once with a bye that he followed up with a very nice 10-0 tech fall win. However, the next match ended in a 15-8 loss, which ended his chances to travel to Paris as part of the U.S. delegation.

Other Wisconsin wrestlers

While there will be no Wisconsin Badgers representing the USA in wrestling at the Paris Olympics, a couple of Wisconsin natives made Team USA.

Payton Jacobson (Elkhorn) won the 87kg Greco-Roman tournament and will wear the Red, White, and Blue in Paris.

Macey Kilty (Stratford) took second in the 62kg women’s freestyle bracket, making her the U.S. Alternate for the weight class.

2024-04-23T13:12:41Z dg43tfdfdgfd