Vito Arujau wins back-to-back world medals at 61kg with a victory over World and Olympic Champion Zaur Uguev! 🇺🇸🌎🥉 pic.twitter.com/J0uHOfdAUz
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) October 31, 2024
TIRANA, ALBANIA - NCAA All-Americans and Cornell Alumi Vito Arujau (61kg) and Ben Honis (92kg) competed in the bronze medal matches at the Senior World Championships in their respective weight classes.
After losing to Masanosuke Ono, who went on to win gold, Arujau came back to face Zavur Uguev in the medal rounds. Arujau struck first with his first of four take downs at 2:14 in the first period. In the final seconds Arujau added one more take down to extend his lead to five to take the match, 8-3, to earn the bronze.
Honis fell to Batyrbek Tsakulov 8-6 in the 92 kg third place bout. Tsakulov took a 6-0 lead early in the first period with Honis added one take down late in the period to make it 6-2 going into the break. In the second period, Tsakulov started quick with a takedown before Honis added four more points as the round wrapped up, but the deficit was too big to overcome.