Ashnault earns gold at Pan-Am Championships, earns Olympic Trial bid
Back in May 2019, Anthony Ashnault was all set for his rematch against two-time world medalist James Green in the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. However, Ashnault suffered a knee injury and had to medically forfeit the match, thus hurting his chances at an Olympic qualifying bid.
Since then Ashnault has been rehabbing with the hope that he will have one more chance to earn the bid and today in the Pan-Am’s he did just that.
He is one step closer to qualifying for the United State Olympic wrestling team after a gold medal finish in the 2020 Pan-Am Championships on Monday afternoon.
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Ashnault started off the tournament with a 20-second pin in the first round against Ranico Howard of Barbados and a 2:43 pin in the second round against Brandon Ramirez of Mexico.
After a couple of easy victories in the first two rounds, Ashnault advanced to the quarterfinals where he would then go on to face Cruiz Manning (Canada). He earned a 12-2 tech-fall to pick up his third straight dominating victory of the day.
Although Ashnault still has one more match left to go, he has already clinched the gold medal. For those interested, Ashnault will take on Hugo Leonard of Brazil later tonight at 5pm EST in his final match of the tournament.
The first place finish has earned Ashnault a bid to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where he will join former Scarlet Knights teammate Nick Suriano, as each wrestler hopes to earn a spot on the United States Wrestling team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Trials will be in the Bryce Jordan Center (Penn State) and will take place starting on April 4th.
Stay tuned or more Rutgers Wrestling news right here on The Knight Report!
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