By Richard Immel
USA Wrestling

ANATALYA, Türkiye – The U.S. added a pair of medals at 125 kg to its haul on the final day of men’s freestyle wrestling at the 2026 Yasar Dogu International, a gold medal from Jordan Wood and a silver medal from Greg Kerkvliet.

The Lehigh Valley Wrestling RTC teammates were the class of the heavyweight division as they both navigated to the gold medal match with apparent ease.

Wood doubled up on falls in his two preliminary bouts, impressively logging just 2:14 in mat time. His signature win came over reigning U23 World champion Abolfazl Mohammad Nezhad of Iran in the semifinals.

Kerkvliet posted a pin and two technical falls, shutting out his three opponents on the scoreboard along the way. In the quarterfinals, Kerkvliet notched a 10-0 win over 2024 Olympian Ibrahim Ciftci of Türkiye. He followed it up with a 12-0 technical fall against three-time age-group World medalist Hakan Buyukcingil of Türkiye.

The much-anticipated championship match was not wrestled. Instead, Wood took the win by forfeit.

Also competing in the 125 kg bracket from the U.S. was Christian Lance. He dropped his opener to Buyukcingil, 3-2. Buyukcingil pushed through a step out in the final moments to steal the win over Lance.

With Sunday’s results added in, the U.S. secured five total medals at the Yasar Dogu. Quincy Monday was the gold medalist at 74 kg in yesterday’s group, plus James Green at 74 kg and Beau Bartlett at 65 kg added on bronze medals.

An archived live stream with matches from each day of the Yasar Dogu can be found on the Türkiye Wrestling Federation YouTube channel.

2026 Yasar Dogu International  

At Antalya, Türkiye, January 11  

U.S. Men’s Freestyle Results  

125 kg – Greg Kerkvliet (Imperial, Pa./Lehigh Valley Wrestling RTC/Titan Mercury WC), silver medal  

WIN I. Yagan (Türkiye), fall, 1:04

WIN Ibrahim Ciftci (Türkiye), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Hakan Buyukcingil (Türkiye), tech. fall, 12-0

LOSS Jordan Wood (United States), forfeit

125 kg – Jordan Wood (Gilbertsville, Pa./Lehigh Valley Wrestling RTC/New York AC), gold medal  

WIN M. Celik (Türkiye), fall, 1:11

WIN Abolfazl Mohammad Nezhad (Iran), fall, 1:03

WIN Greg Kerkvliet (United States), forfeit

125 kg – Christian Lance (Nixa, Mo./Nebraska WTC/Titan Mercury WC), dnp  

LOSS Hakan Buyukcingil (Türkiye), 3-2