AKRON, Ohio – Down 1-0 in the best-of-three finals series at the U23 Nationals, Gabriel Townsell posted back-to-back technical falls over Danny Vega to capture the 57kg Freestyle title.
The championship earns Townsell a spot on the United States U23 World Team, which will compete at the U23 Senior World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, October 28-30. The U23 World Champions will automatically qualify for the Olympic Team Trials in April 2020.
Townsell dropped the first match of the finals, 10-0, but stormed back to out score Vega (South Dakota State) 22-2 in the final two bouts. He forced a third match with a 12-2 tech fall in 1:18. In the winner-take-all bout, Townsell registered the 10-0 tech fall in just 52 seconds.
For the weekend, Stanford had three All-Americans. Joining Townsell were Haydn Maley, who was the runner-up in Greco-Roman at 130kg, and Tyler Eischens, who placed fourth in Greco-Roman at 72kg.
Gabe Dinette (74kg) and Trevor Rasmussen (125) had strong showings for the Cardinal in freestyle, both advancing to Sunday and finishing 4-2.
Jared Hill (79kg) notched one of the biggest upsets in the tournament, taking out No. 3 seed Drew Hughes (Michigan State) 9-7 in the Round of 64. Trailing 4-1 after the first, Hill scored eight points in the second period, including two with nine seconds left to notch the win.
Also wrestling in the freestyle tournament for the Cardinal were Eischens (74kg), Foster Karmon (79kg) and Maley (125kg).
