Northern Michigan University National Training Site Greco-Roman wrestler Otto Black, right, gets Adomas Grigaliunas of Lithuania in a hold during their 67-kilogram match at the Under-23 World Championships held in Novi Sad, Serbia, from Oct. 20-22. (Photo courtesy NMU)

NOVI SAD, Serbia — The Greco-Roman wrestling program at the Northern Michigan University National Training Center accomplished a feat for the first time last week, then repeated it a day later at the Under-23 World Championships that were held in this eastern European country.

On Oct. 21, the Wildcats’ Payton Jacobson, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, won NMU’s first-ever medal at the U23 World’s when he clinched the third-place bronze at 87 kilograms (191.8 pounds).

Then on Oct. 22, Northern’s Otto Black added another bronze at 67 kg (147.7 lbs.).

Additionally, NMU’s Max Black was fifth at 60 kg (132.3 lbs.), while teammates Kaden Ercanbrack and Kenneth Crosby also represented the Wildcats as part of Team USA.

In Jacobson’s run for his title, he defeated Rohit Bura of India on a technical fall, 8-0, downed Gabriel Lupasco of Moldova 7-1 and edged Zaur Shangereev of United World Wrestling 5-3 to reach the semifinals.

That’s when he was knocked out of his chance from winning the championship after losing on a technical fall, 9-0, to Gholamreza Farokhisenjani of Iran.

But it kept him alive for third place and the bronze, which he clinched with a 5-3 win over Lachin Valiyev of Azerbaijan.

In that final match, the wrestlers were tied 3-3 with just over a minute to go when Jacobson converted the match-winning takedown, according to an account provided by NMU Sports Information.

“When I picked him up, I was thinking explode as much as I could,” Jacobson said in the NMU SI news release. “It was the best throw I’ve ever had and it felt phenomenal.

“It’s been a long process to get here, and I had to really push myself to the end.”

His coach agreed.

“He wants those challenges and he gets excited for them,” said NMU NTS Greco-Roman head coach Andy Bisek. “He was ready for those scenarios.”

Otto Black’s medal not only added to the historic day for NMU, but also for Team USA as it had never won multiple medals at the U23 Worlds.

Black took a slightly different route in getting to his bronze, winning his first two matches before losing in the third. Normally, that would have knocked him out from medal contention, but wrestling often using the “repechage” system that lets a loser to a top competitor continue on.

Black downed Adomas Grigaliunas of Lithuania 7-3 and Yanis Guendez Nifri of France by fall, then lost to Mohamed Abdelkerim of Egypt on criteria after they tied 1-1.

Black, who won a U20 medal just a year ago, won his final match over Bagdat Sabaz of Kazakhstan 8-6, and with another wrestler’s injury scratch, that won him the bronze.

In his final match, Black scored first with a takedown-gut combination to jump out to a 4-0 lead. With Sabaz cited for passivity, the lead surged to 5-0 before it was 5-1 after one period.

Black was then called for passivity before scoring a takedown to make it 7-2.

Then with 30 seconds left in the match, Sabaz got a takedown and converted a gutwrench to make it 7-6. At the end of the match, the Kazakhstan side challenged that more points should’ve been awarded on their scoring move, but after a prolonged review, the original decision was upheld with Black getting one more point for the upheld call.

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