Senior World Championships

NLWC wrestlers PJ Duke (70 kg), Levi Haines (79 kg), and Kyle Snyder (97 kg) had outstanding performances at the 2025 Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia from Sept. 13-16. 

Kyle Snyder

Kyle looked spectacular on his way to winning another world title. He defeated Cristian Sarco Colmenarez (Venezuela) by 10-0 technical fall, Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland) by 5-0 decision, and Arash Yoshida (Japan) by 9-1 decision to reach the finals. In a rematch of last year's world bronze medal match, Kyle came out on top this time in a hard-fought 3-2 decision over Amirali Azarpira (Iran). Congratulations to Kyle on his World Gold Medal!!!

Levi Haines

Levi started the competition with a 5-2 win over Khidir Kurban A Saipudinov (Barhrain) and a 10-0 technical fall over Bumgee Seo (Korea). In the quarter finals, he had a huge 3-2 buzzer beater decision over 2023 World champrion and current European Champion Akhmed Usmanov (UWW), and in the semifinals, he defeated Suldkhuu Olonbayar (Mongolia) 4-1. In the finals, Levi dropped a hard-fought 2-3 decision to Georgious Kougioumtsidis (Greece). Congratulations to Levi on his World Silver Medal!!

PJ Duke

PJ, the reigning U20 World Champion, finished 1-1 at the World Championships. He defeated Shuang Chen (China) by 11-0 technical fall in his first match but dropped his second match by 7-11 decision to the defending World champion Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kazakhstan). When Kaipanov lost in the semifinals, PJ did not get the chance to wrestle back for bronze. Congratulations to PJ Duke on a fine performance at the World championships!!!

Special thanks to the NLWC coaching staff for the tremendous time and effort that they put into preparing and coaching the NLWC wrestlers. Thanks also to the many fine training partners in the Club's Olympic RTC practices who helped prepare these wrestlers for the World championships. And not to be forgotten, a special thank you to the many, many, many donors and supporters of the NLWC that make these opportunities possible! 

Congratulations PJ, Levi, & Kyle!!!