Photo: Tony Rotundo

Senior World Championships

NLWC wrestlers Kyle Snyder (97 kg), Kyle Dake (86 kg), Levi Haines (79 kg), Roman Bravo-Young (57 kg, Mexico), Zain Retherford (70 kg) and Marcus Blaze (61 kg) went 6-for-6 with medals at the 2026 Senior World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, including three World champions!

 

Kyle Snyder

Kyle opened with a 10-0 technical fall over Alperen Tokgoz (Turkey). In the quarterfinals, he beat Abdulrashid Sadulaev (Russia) on criteria, 4-4, then defeated Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland) 5-0 in the semifinals. In the finals, Kyle beat Arash Yoshida (Japan) on criteria, 4-4, in a bracket where Sadulaev and Hassan Yazdani took bronze and Olympic champion Akhmed Tazhudinov finished fifth. Congratulations to Kyle on his fifth World title!!!

 

Kyle Dake

Kyle went 6-0 in Astana. He opened with a 6-5 win over Batbilguun Naadambat (Mongolia), then teched Paulius Lescauskas (Lithuania) 13-2 and Bolat Sakayev (Kazakhstan) 11-0, and beat Malik Shavaev (Kyrgyzstan) 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he avenged a loss from earlier this year with a 6-3 win over Ibragim Kadiev (Russia), and in the finals he beat Arsenii Dzhioev (Azerbaijan) 3-2. Congratulations to Kyle on his fifth World title, and his first at a third weight class!!!

 

Levi Haines

Levi pinned Mohammed Bouazouni (Morocco) in 1:30, teched Szymon Wojtkowski (Poland) 10-0, and beat two-time U20 World champion Ismail Khaniev (Russia) 8-1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he beat Suldkhuu Olonbayar (Mongolia) on criteria, 3-3, and in the finals he defeated Mohammad Nokhodi (Iran) 4-3. A year after taking World silver, Levi is a World champion, and his win clinched the World team title for Team USA!!!

 

Roman Bravo-Young

Wrestling for Mexico, Roman beat Meirambek Kartbay (Kazakhstan) 5-2 and teched John Leopold (Mauritius) 10-0. In the quarterfinals, he avenged a loss from last year with a 4-3 win over Munkh Batkhuyag (Mongolia) on a late takedown, and he beat reigning World champion Chong Han (North Korea) 4-1 in the semifinals. Roman fell to Spencer Lee in the finals, but he became the first Mexican wrestler ever to reach a World final and won Mexico's first-ever World Championships medal. Congratulations to Roman on his World Silver Medal!!

 

Zain Retherford

Zain pinned Muhammad Abdurachmanov (Belgium) in 1:08 and Iszmail Muszukajev (Hungary) at 4:55, then shut out Kanan Heybatov (Azerbaijan) 7-0 in the quarterfinals. After a 3-2 loss to Ernazar Akmataliev (Kyrgyzstan) in the semifinals, he shut out Lachlan McNeil (Canada) 4-0 for bronze. Congratulations to Zain on his third World medal!!

 

Marcus Blaze

In his Senior World Championships debut, Marcus pinned Emrah Ormanoglu (Turkey) in 3:36 and teched Leomid Colesnic (Moldova) 10-0 before a 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Ahmad Mohammadnezhadjavan (Iran). When the Iranian reached the final, Marcus battled back through repechage, beating Nikhil (India) 9-1 and Assyl Aitakyn (Kazakhstan) 4-2 for bronze. Congratulations to Marcus on his World Bronze Medal!!

 

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 donors and supporters of the NLWC that make these opportunities possible!

 

Congratulations Kyle, Kyle, Levi, Roman, Zain & Marcus!!!