Wolverines Claim Three Medals at U20 Pan Americans
7/10/2026 12:01:00 PM | Wrestling
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The University of Michigan wrestling team was represented with three freestyle medals at the U20 Pan American Championships on Thursday (July 9) at the CEFAN center. Incoming freshman Haakon Peterson and redshirt sophomore Brock Mantanona and claimed gold at 74kg and 86kg, respectively, while incoming freshman Moses Mendoza took bronze at 61kg.
All three posted dominant wins by technical superiority in their medal matches, including 10-0 victories for both Peterson and Mantanona in their championship finals.
Peterson defeated Canada's Ali Karout, 10-0, in the 74kg gold-medal match -- his most lopsided victory of the tournament. He built up a big early lead in the first period with three takedowns and a pair of stepouts and ended early into the second with a single-leg takedown at the 3:35 mark. It was Peterson's third Pan-American gold medal, after winning double gold in freestyle and Greco-Roman at the 2021 U15 Pan-Ams in Mexico.
He went 3-0 in the tournament after a first-round bye and also earned wins against El Salvador's Kevin Aleman Gomez (9-2) and Puerto Rico's Rafael Garcia Morales (4-2).
Mantanona went a perfect 40-0 on the day with four consecutive 10-0 techs. He beat Puerto Rico's Luis Santiago Vargas in the championship match in just 61 seconds -- with a quick throw on the edge and two go-behind takedowns with a gut wrench apiece. Mantanona, previously a U17 freestyle world bronze medalist, totaled 11 takedowns, including three four-pointers, and seven guts and spent just a combined 6:46 on the mat across four matches.
Mendoza bounced back from a narrow quarterfinal loss to defeat Colombia's Jhon Ramirez Munoz, 13-1, in the bronze-medal match. He scored five takedowns, including four as part of a nine-point first period, and ended the bout with a big four-point double leg at 4:13. Mendoza lost his quarterfinal bout, 4-2, to Dean Anderson. He led on criteria in the second period, kept shooting but could not finish and instead gave up an exposure in an extended scramble midway through the frame.
