LaMont Finishes Fifth at World Championships

BELGRADE, Serbia — Utah Valley University redshirt junior Taylor LaMont dropped his bronze medal match to Azerbaijan's Nihad Guluzade on Tuesday en route to recording a fifth-place finish at the U23 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia at 55 kg (121 lbs.).

LaMont opened the 23-and-Under World Championships with back-to-back wins over Moldova's Aritom Deleanu (2-1) and Georgia's Giorgi Tokhadze (6-3) on Monday to advance to that evening's semifinal round. The 2021 All-American and Big 12 runner-up then found himself on the wrong end of a 5-1 contest to Iran's Poya Dad Marz to enter Tuesday's bronze medal match.

On Tuesday in the bronze medal bout, Azerbaijan's Guluzade was the first to get on the scoreboard when he was awarded a passivity point midway through the opening period to go up 1-0. Guluzade then followed it up with a pair of turns to take a 5-0 lead at the end of the first period. The Azerbaijan continued on the attack in the second period, as he scored a takedown followed by a gut wrench to put the bout away by a score of 9-0.

With the loss, LaMont finishes his 2021 U23 World Championship run with a 2-2 record and a fifth-place finish at the 23-and-under World level. This year's championship marked the unprecedented eighth straight time that LaMont has competed for Team USA at his age-group World Championships (he previously competed three times at the Cadet level, three times at the Junior level and now two times at the U23 level). LaMont is a former Junior Bronze Medalist, as he took bronze at the 2016 Junior World Championships.

Also in action on Tuesday was former Wolverine and current Brunson UVRTC competitor Dylan Gregerson at 60 kg (132 lbs.). Gregerson dropped his opening bout of the tournament to Iran's Mehdi Mohsen Nejad by a score of 8-0. Mohsen Nejad is a former two-time U23 World bronze medalist. Gregerson remains alive in the tournament, however, as Iran's Nejad went on to win his semifinal bout and give the former UVU grappler a chance to compete in repechage on Wednesday.

Gregerson will open up his second day of action in repechage at 60 kg against Uzbekistan's Mukhammadkodir Yusupov on Wednesday. Gregerson's repechage round will get underway at 3:30 a.m. MT and will be streamed live on FloWrestling.

U.S. Greco-Roman Results

55kg: Taylor Lamont (Mapleton, Utah/Sunkist Kids WC) - 5th Place (2-2)

• WIN Aritom Deleanu (Moldova), 2-1
• WIN Giorgi Tokhadze (Georgia), 6-3
• LOSS Poya Dad Marz (Iran), 5-1
• Bronze medal match - LOSS Azerbaijan's Nihad Guluzade, 9-0

60kg: Dylan Gregerson (Bluffdale, Utah/Brunson UVRTC)

• LOSS Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran), 8-0
• Repechage on Wednesday vs. Uzbekistan's Mukhammadkodir Yusupov