#WrestleRome: 2020 Matteo Pellicone Results

by Derek Levendusky, AWW staff writer

ROME, ITALY – United World Wrestling hosted their first Ranking Series tournament of the season as the whole Senior wrestling world sets it’s inertia toward the Olympics next summer. The women’s divisions of the Matteo Pellicone Rankings Series tournament were held the past two days in Rome, Italy.

Team USA sent a large contingent of our top women to try on their Olympic weights against elite international competition. The U.S. squad is bringing home five medals, including a gold by 50 kg Sarah Hildebrandt, a silver by 68 kg Tamyra Mensah-Stock, and bronze medals by 50 kg Victoria Anthony, 53 kg Katherine Shai, and 57 kg Alli Ragan. All three medal matches at 50 kg featured U.S. women, a testament to the depth we have at that weight.

Hildebrandt looked very comfortable at her new weight, moving down from 53 kg to 50 kg for the Olympic season, defeating U.S. teammate Victoria Anthony 7-5 in the semis. She followed it up with a 4-2 victory in the finals against Romania’s Emelia Alina Vuc, getting a takedown in the last 5 seconds to win it. Anthony went on to win her bronze match over Devi Nirmala of India 4-1.

In a shocking moment, up 8-0 in the finals against China’s Feng Zhou, 2019 World Champion Tamyra Mensah-Stock got taken down and gutted three times to lose by criteria 8-8. She hasn’t lost since the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, where she fell to Koumba Larroque of France 2-1.

After losing her first match, 53 kg Katherine Shai wrestled back to the bronze bout, getting a 7-5 win along the way over Canada’s Samantha Stewart before defeating of Meng-Hsuan Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 10-0 for the bronze medal.

Alli Ragan competed down a class at Olympic weight 57 kg from 59 kg, and rebounded nicely from her one-and-done day at the 2019 World Championships with a bronze performance, winning her medal match by criteria 4-4 against Alina Akobia of Ukraine.

62 kg Kayla Miracle went 3-2, falling in the bronze match, while the other two U.S. women at her weight, Mallory Velte and Macey Kilty, both lost close matches in repechage and ended up 1-2.

Worthy of note, 53 kg Areana Villaescusa lost her first match in heart-breaking fashion, up 8-0 against Germany’s Annika Wendle before getting caught in cradle and pinned at the 5:30 mark to end her tournament. She was not brought back into repechage. 2019 world teamer 68 kg Victoria Francis also lost her first match and was not pulled back into the tournament.

The U.S. women finished in 2nd place as a team behind 1st place Ukraine and ahead of 3rd place Russia.

All Team USA women’s results:

50 kg Sarah Hildebrandt: GOLD
50 kg Victoria Anthony: BRONZE
50 kg Whitney Conder: 5th place
53 kg Katherine Shai: BRONZE
53 kg Areana Villaescusa: DNP (0-1)
57 kg Alli Ragan: BRONZE
57 kg Jenna Burkert: 5th place
62 kg Kayla Miracle: 5th place
62 kg Macey Kilty: DNP (1-2)
62 kg Mallory Velte: DNP (1-2)
68 kg Tamyra Mensah-Stock: SILVER
68 kg Victoria Francis: DNP (0-1)