by Richard Immel, USA Wrestling
TIRANA, Albania – Wisconsin native Kylie Welker punctuated a remarkable run by the U.S. women to its first team title in U23 World Championships history with a first period pin in the 72 kg gold medal match on Friday evening at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall.
As the last match of the event, Welker came out firing against Canada’s Vianne Rouleau. She built a 3-0 lead with a step out and single leg takedown in the first 30 seconds before collecting a near-side cradle from a go-behind takedown, powering it up for the fall in 1:12.
With the win, Welker collected her second age-group World title and third overall World medal. She was a U20 World champion in 2021 and a U17 World bronze medalist in 2019.
Welker joined 50 kg champion Sage Mortimer and 76 kg champion Yelena Makoyed atop the medal stand for Team USA this week in Albania.
Two more Americans competed in the medal round on Friday night but came up short against stingy opponents from Ukraine.
Offense was hard to find for Macey Kilty in the 62 kg final against four-time age-group World medalist Iryna Bondar. Kilty consistently attacked the left leg of Bondar but was only able to convert on a single occasion, as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first period. Otherwise, Bondar countered Kilty’s attacks well, converting three go-behind takedown-to-gutwrench combinations off Kilty’s shot attempts in a 12-3 decision.
With a second silver medal from the U23 Worlds in tow, Kilty now owns six age-group World medals to go along with her silver medal from the 2023 Senior World Championships. Of Kilty’s seven World medals, five are silver. Her single gold and bronze medals were earned at the U17 level.
Both Welker and Kilty will compete next week on these same mats at the Senior World Championships for Team USA.
2022 U20 World finalist Sophia Macaluso finished one win shy of collecting her second age-group World medal. She was upended 8-4 by Alina Filipovych in a competitive bronze medal match to finish in fifth place at 57 kg.
The U.S. amassed 136 team points with three champions, one runner-up, one bronze medalist and two fifth-place finishers to outscore second place Japan by seven points. Ukraine posted a respectable 124 points to wind up in third place.
Prior to this year, the U.S. had never won a U23 World team title in women’s freestyle. Its previous high finish was 2022 where it came in second to Japan. Japan had won every U23 Worlds dating back to the first edition in 2017, except 2021, where it didn’t send a team. Ukraine is the only other nation outside of Japan, and now the U.S., to win this event in women’s freestyle.
The U.S. broke its women’s freestyle medal record at the U23 Worlds with five, topping the 2022 high water mark of four. Three champions is also a new record. Previously, the U.S. women had never had more than one gold medalist at this event.
The U23 World Championships continue at 10:30 a.m. local time with the men’s freestyle group one (50-55-59-68-76 kg) repechage and men’s freestyle group two (57-65-70-79-97 kg) qualification rounds. For those following along live, Tirana, Albania, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.