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Payton Jacobson represents Northern Michigan University in Greco-Roman wrestling at Paris Olympics

Northern Michigan University Greco-Roman wrestler Payton Jacobson fights back tears after a victory that earned him a spot on the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics that starts next week. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — Greco-Roman wrestling junior Payton Jacobson of Northern Michigan University won a thrilling best-of-three victory in the championship finals in April that secured his spot on the Team USA Olympic roster and his first Olympics berth for this summer’s Paris Games.

Jacobson, 21, won his Olympics spot in the 87-kilogram (191.8-pound) division despite being the No. 7 seed among the nine challenge bracket wrestlers at the event that was held at Penn State University and included both men’s freestyle and women’s freestyle wrestling.

He worked his way through three matches in the challenge bracket before beating Spencer Woods in the championship finals for the Olympics spot.

Jacobson, a native of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, opened with a 4-0 decision over Richard Carlson of the Minnesota Storm-New York Athletic Club in the challenge quarterfinals.

He followed it up with a 6-0 blanking of Zac Braunagel of NYAC-Illinois Regional Training Center in the semifinals, then won 1-1 on tiebreaking criteria in the challenge finals over John Stefanowicz of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The put him into the championship final against Woods of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, who had earned a bye past the entire challenge tourney and directly into the finals, which changed formats to a best-of-three matches.

Jacobson won the opening match 8-2 before falling 5-2 in round two. Then in the decisive third match, the NMU athlete pulled out a 3-1 decision for the victory.

In that final match, he led by the final two-point margin with 20 seconds to go and stayed in the center and held his ground.

His division in Greco-Roman wrestling is currently scheduled to be held during the last few days of the Paris Games on Aug. 7 and 8, according to the Paris Olympic official website, olympics.com. The entire games are scheduled to run from Wednesday through Aug. 11.

Since his unforgettable win at the trials, Jacobson has spent considerable time overseas training in Porec, Croatia, while also wrestling in a world-ranking event in Budapest, Hungary.

He has also spent time at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for training camp. Recently he was back in Marquette training against athletes from Norway, Switzerland, India and Mexico before he is scheduled to depart for Paris on Monday.

After the opening ceremony on Friday, Jacobson will head to Normandy, France, the following day for more training, then return to Paris a few days ahead of his competition.

Information compiled by Journal News Writer Vickie Fee. Her email address is vfee@miningjournal.net.

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