Northern Michigan University Greco-Roman wrestler Max Black acknowledges the crowd after winning at a previous meet. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MONTERREY, Mexico — Greco-Roman wrestlers at Northern Michigan University continue to make history on the national and international stage.

The latest feat occurred Thursday when a pair of Wildcats became the first NMU athletes in any sport to win gold medals at the Pan-American Championships in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

Max Black at 60 kilograms (132.3 pounds) won all four of his matches for his gold, while former Olympian Payton Jacobson went 4-1 in coming up victorious at 87 kg (191.8 lbs.).

Only two weeks ago at the U.S. Open and Senior World Team Trials in Las Vegas, Jacobson was named USA Wrestling Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year and NMU’s Andy Bisek earned the same group’s Greco-Roman Coach of the Year for outstanding performances in the past 12 months.

The aforementioned Jacobson made a big splash in U.S. Olympic qualifying last summer, when as the No. 7 seed in his weight division, he defeated each of the top four seeds in successive matches to earn his trip to Paris to compete for Olympic medals in early August. Bisek was his personal coach in his journey to the Olympics.

After Jacobson’s 16th-place finish on the world’s biggest stage for Greco-Roman wrestlers, he placed fifth and also third for a bronze medal in a pair of tournaments in Eastern Europe the following two months.

On Thursday, Black won his gold medal with a trio of convincing technical falls among his four matches.

He shut out Pedro De Souza Rodrigues of Brazil 8-0, then outscored Andres Gonzalez Andrade of Panama 14-5.

Black’s third match was his toughest, a 3-1 victory over Yonaiker Bravo Martinez of Venezuela, before he posted another shutout in the finals, a 9-0 triumph over Alexis Rodriguez Hernandez of Mexico.

Jacobson’s path was a bit more complicated.

He lost his opening match 7-5 to Luis Avendano Rojas of Venezuela, and as NMU Sports Information termed, that put him behind the 8-ball.

NMU SI explained that the bracket was pooled before being divided up for the semifinal, so he was able to continue on.

He did that, winning three matches in a row to qualify for the championship. Those three wins were an 8-0 technical fall over Carlos Espinosa Castro of Peru, 5-3 over Sodrokov Kodzokov of Brazil and another 8-0 technical fall over Ariel Alfonso Rodriguez of Honduras.

In the finals, he posted yet another shutout, this time a 6-0 win over Rojas, the Venezuelan he lost to in his opening match.

The NMU athletics website, nmuwildcats.com, doesn’t list any more meet for the Northern Greco-Roman team, though NMU SI has kept the community informed when wrestlers compete.

Story contents based on a Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.