Ben Davino wins U23 World title; Jayden James and Coby Merrill earn silver and bronze, respectively

Photo: Ben Davino celebrates winning the U23 World Championship at 61 kilograms Saturday evening in Las Vegas. Photo by John Sachs.

By Tristan Warner

LAS VEGAS — Ohio State redshirt sophomore Ben Davino struck gold in Las Vegas Saturday evening, capturing a gold medal in the 61-kilogram weight class at the 2026 Galaxy U23 World Championships. Fellow American men’s freestyler Jayden James, a freshman at Penn State, earned a silver medal at 74 kilograms while Coby Merrill, a freshman at Iowa State, claimed a bronze medal at 125 kilograms.

Davino largely dominated the field in Vegas, earning two tech falls, a pin and a 7-1 victory over the weekend. In his finals bout, the Ohio State Buckeye, who reached the NCAA finals in Cleveland this past March to conclude his redshirt freshman campaign, recorded a fall in the closing seconds while already leading late against Kyrgyzstan’s Lukhan Dokturbek Uulu.

“I mean, it’s awesome,” Davino said in the mixed zone just after coming off the mat Saturday night. “I got my whole family here. Grandma, sister, mom, dad, got dang near the whole Ohio State coaching staff. It means a lot more when it’s at home.”

Davino also discussed how the 61-kilogram field in the United States right now has helped him get to this moment, as he has found himself entrenched in a gauntlet of world-class contenders including the likes of Jax Forrest, Marcus Blaze and Aaron Seidel, among others.

“Those matches built me up to who I am right now. And without losing those matches, I don’t think I would have learned enough to win a World championship today.”

Jayden James, who earned a U20 World silver medal this past summer, won three matches on his way to landing in the gold-medal match Saturday night. James led early but ultimately was defeated in the finals by Russia’s Magomed Baitukaev, 5-3.

“At the end of the day, it’s just a sport I do,” James said after the finals. “It’s not who I am. You never want to have this feeling, and not let alone twice in one summer. But even from U20s to now, I grew a lot just as not even a wrestler, just as a person.”

Coby Merrill, who lost to eventual silver medalist Aleksandre Abramishvili in the quarters, earned back-to-back wins in the repechage to claim a bronze medal at 125 kilograms.

“During this last spring and summer, I just wanted to wrestle a bunch of matches against a lot of high-level opponents,” Merrill said. “Win or lose, I had a lot of takeaways from it, just knowing that I can compete at a high level. And this college season, I know I can do really well in it.”

Team USA will conclude action at the Galaxy U23 World Championships Sunday afternoon, as Luke Lilledahl is still in contention for a bronze medal through the repechage, while 2025 U20 World champ Justin Rademacher will go for gold at 97 kilograms.

Follow along with today’s action through USA Wrestling’s live updates here.

Gold – Benjamin Davino (United States)

Silver – Iukhan Dokturbek Uulu (Kyrgyzstan)

Bronze – Ebrahim Khari (Iran)

Bronze – Sargis Begoyan (Armenia)

5th – Gabriel Whisenhunt (Romania)

5th – Behruzbey Turanmuratov (Uzbekistan)

7th – Tolga Ozbek (Turkiye)

8th – Jiliang Bai (China)

9th – Viktor Iakovlev (Russia)

10th – Vaibhav Patil (India)

Gold – Benjamin Davino (United States) fall Iukhan Dokturbek Uulu (Kyrgyzstan), 6:00

Bronze – Ebrahim Khari (Iran) tech. fall Gabriel Whisenhunt (Romania), 12-0

Bronze – Sargis Begoyan (Armenia) dec. Behruzbey Turanmuratov (Uzbekistan), 14-9