Dingo in Vegas at the World Championships (Day 3)

Don't put it past the Iranian to lose on purpose to eliminate Metcalf. It happens more than you know.

Another TD....and a leglace...10-2....will join Maroulis in wrestling for gold...the only 2 US wrestlers left.

Wow, the large Iranian contingent is stunned and angry after #1 seed Mohammadipah was pinned on a double-leg to his back by Chamizo.

Repechage hold no interest for me since all Americans not wrestling for gold are eliminated

Maroulis will face #4 Ologonova (RUS)

Gray will face #7 Zhou of China

So, 2 of the 3 US favorites have clinched no less than silver, which brings the American medal count to 3, a very modest total, to be honest.

Don't put it past the Iranian to lose on purpose to eliminate Metcalf. It happens more than you know.

Wow, that would be absolutely brutally insane. Mohammadipah WAS one of the most obnoxious wrestlers I've seen all week, along with fellow Iranian Hamid Soryan. I'm a fan of Iranian wrestling, too, but gotta call a spade a spade.

I could almost envision throwing a match in a grand prix or open tourney, but at the world championships? That would be a whole new level

The backroom collaboration would surprise you. Think back to the GR 120kg gold medal match. You saw Lopez all day. Do you think that match was legit?

It was weird, for sure. The only logical counter, I suppose, is that the Turk was the last man to beat him in 2011. To be honest, he is a freak of nature and it's hard to see anyone beating him if he's going full steam.

On a more local note, Maroulis wins the first US gold by tech fall. Hope she finds an Olympic weight that works for her. She is such a talent

Maroulis is one of my favorite wrestlers in the world to watch. Period. She's just slick as can be. Well deserved!!

Adeline Gray joins Maroulis atop the podium with a tech of her Chinese opponent. 2 golds today for the US gives them 3 medals in total

All right, Day 3 is in the books. 2 gold medals is nothing to sneeze at, yet it's hard not to feel a little disappointed in the team's overall performance today. Metcalf, in particular. At any rate, tomorrow is a new day, as the saying goes. 4 weight classes will be contested tomorrow, including Indiana's own Reece Humphrey's. Hump, as he's known in these parts, was a 3 time state champion, an NCAA runner-up, 3 time World team member, and killer break dancer. The women wrap up with Leigh Jaynes-Provisor, and phenom Kyle Snyder and old hand Jake Herbert will put their best foot forward.

Here are the weight classes up tomorrow:

Women's Freestyle

60kg/132 lbs. Leigh Jaynes-Provisor Vs. Madina Bakbergenova (Kazakhstan) -- This non-Olympic weight will be unpredictable, as many top contenders abandoned this class to try out Olympic weight classes. Still, it counts in the medal standings, and #12 Jaynes-Provisor has an outside shot at a medal. A three time World member, she is known for an unusual wrestling style and is riding high after winning the Dave Schultz this year. While Bakbergenova isn't ranked, Kazakhstan's women have shown themselves to be gritty and technically sound. Like many women's weight classes, Japan should figure in the podium finishers. #1 Taybe Yusein of Bulgaria is the preliminary favorite, as she is a returning bronze medalist at World's. Russia's Svetlana Lipatova and Ukraines' Oksana Herhel are also top contenders. Expect China, Mongolia and Azerbaijan to be competitive as well, but more than anything, expect the unexpected. Here's hoping Jaynes-Provisor can nab the US another women's medal.

Men's Freestyle

61kg/134 lbs Reece "Hump" Humphrey Vs. Daulet Niyazbekov (Kazakhstan) -- Three time World team member and former OSU and Lawrence North standout Reece Humphrey opens up against #7 Niyazbekov. The ultra-athletic and dynamic Humphrey is known for big moves and being a dangerous opponent. Despite not being ranked, he is a legit medal candidate. Like women's 60kg, this is not an Olympic weight class, so there's a lot of movement out of this class. What that means is that Hump has an even better shot than normal at making the podium. He has two top-10 finishes in Olympic weight classes, so the sky is the limit for the pride of Indianapolis. Standing in his way, aside from Niyazbekov, are #1 Aleksander Bogomoev (Russia), #2 Volodya Frangulyan (Armenia) and #3 Bekhan Goigereev (Russia). For me personally, this is the highlight of the entire competition.

86kg/189 lbs Jake Herbert Vs. Sandro Aminashvili (Georgia) -- 5 time World team member Herbert is ranked #18 and opens with #11 Aminashvili. Herbert is a former World silver medalist and is plenty capable of making the podium again this year. Aside from sporting a very powerful mullet, Herbert had to really step it up just to make the US team this year, as the dynamic Ed Ruth pushed him hard. Herbert is very experienced and won't be fazed by the environment or the moment. The cream of the crop at this weight, however, is 19 year old Abdul Rashid Sadulaev. Sadulaev is already a World champion and has won just about everything he's entered. Among the very best wrestlers on the planet at any weight class, he's a huge favorite to win gold here....but wait, there's more. As if having a bull moose like Sadulaev in your weight class isn't bad enough, there's also Reineris Salas Perez of Cuba, a veteran who has extensive credentials at the highest level. Whoever Iran throws in there will be a favorite as well. Herbert is really, really good, but he has his work cut out for him, starting with his first match.

97kg/213 lbs Kyle Snyder Vs. Pavlo Oliinyk (Ukraine) -- America's version of Sadulaev is Snyder, who is fresh off of besting Jake Varner a couple of times. Yes, Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner...that one. Unlike Sadulaev, Snyder is on the lower end of the top-20 (#15), but he's also not been scouted like Varner and other veterans, giving him somewhat of an advantage against his competition.#11 Oliinyk will provide a stern test for the young phenom, and Snyder will have to compete at a very high level just to win a match in his first World appearance. He's in a loaded weight class, much like Herbert. #1 Khetag Gazumov (Azerbaijan, 2012 Olympic champ), #2 Abdusalam Gadisov (Russia, 2014 World champ), #13 Abbas Tahan (Iran) are all big names at this deep weight. Snyder has a chance to make a big name for himself around the world.

Can't wait for tomorrow's action....send Hump good vibes from Indiana, folks

By sheer luck and happenstance, I rode down the elevator with none other than Indiana's own Benji Dolly and family, here to support Alex O'Dolly. I would think this has to be considered good luck

86kg is up, and Sadulaev has already teched his poor, unfortunate opponent from Japan. He is indescribably good.

Herbert avoids a qualifier match, which is fortunate in this brutal bracket.

Finland's Heino beats Armenia's Murtazaliev. Why is that relevant, you ask? Because Heino wrestles for the Campbell Camels.

oh yeah, that Japanese wrestler, Matsumoto, is #13 in the world, and the 19 year old Sadulaev walked through him like he wasn't there. He has a chance to be one of the alltime greats

Snyder also avoids the extra match at 97kg...Hump does not

97kg Nathaniel Rose of Trinidad and Tobago winner by tech over Valdez of Mexico. Rose wrestles for the University of Buffalo

Hump is up...Man, I'm nervous

Scoreless after 50 seconds. Hump gets a passivity warning......gets a single, trying to suck it in....Kazakh stalls his way out.....Almost immediately at the restart, Niyazbekov gets a single of his own, and finally sweeps Hump's leg out to take a 2-0 lead....Crap

Stepout against Reece, losing now 3-0....then a big body lock TD followed by a gut, to take a 4-3 lead. There's the Humphrey explosion...4-3 at the end of the 1st period

Back at it...stepout against Hump...4-4....Hump with a HUGE throw...it's challenged, but it should stand......the crowd is huge today and they're roaring for Hump....9-4 for Reece. What a performance so far.

Reece relentless with his leg attacks, but the Kazakh is slippery and almost reverses Humphrey....Niyazbekov with a single to cut the lead to 9-7. Reece wrestles a little balls out sometimes when maybe it would be better to be more conservative.Looked like a pushout for the Kazakh, but they gave him 2.....9-9...Nice spin around for Reece, 11-9...30 seconds left. another pushout 11-10...14 seconds now...6 seconds left...wow that was stressful....HUMP WINS!!!!

Herbert up now on mat D sporting a beautiful mullet. Scoreless. Herbert gets power doubled by the Georgian, trails 2-0

Wow.... it ended 11-11 Hump gets it with the nasty 4 point throw (criteria). That was an awesome match.

Herbert down to start the 2nd period. Herbert clearly frustrated by the defense of Aminashvili. Aminashvili in deep on the legs, Herbert tries to stall out...can't 4-0....Gets a pushout, still trails 4-1

Jaynes-Provisor with a quick TD and a couple of rolls. Leads 6-0. and another TD, 8-0

Matty, I couldn't agree more. Hump was spectacular, and terrifying there at the end.

Jaynes-Provisor wins easily by tech. She benefits from #2 Lipatova of Russia being upset by BLR's Ivanova

Herbert is getting slaughtered now 6-1. Just can't score on this guy. Loses handily 6-1

So, the US is down to 3 'live' wrestlers, with Herbert quite a ways away from repechage. This is another strong medal hopeful for the US that didn't get it done.

Thanks for all the updates. Theyrrr GREAT! I was getting nervous reading through your commentary for Reece. 

Cuba's Salas, #2 in the world, is down 4-1 with a minute left..45 secs...he's in trouble

Thanks Mr. Cash. I can't tell you how nervous I was because he had the match in hand,  but it seemed like the Kazakh was getting a pushout or single leg at will. Reece basically had to elude him for the last minute, not scoring at all and all the while the Kazakh is getting a point here, 2 points there. It helped that we all knew Reece had the criteria locked up with that huge throw....but damn.

Salas of Cuba loses in a huge upset to Ceballos Fuentes of Venezuela.

Alex Dolly is now up against an opponent from American Samoa...this is winnable

Tom, Just watch his next one here: unitedworldwrestling.org

Updates are awesome too!!! Wouldn't get a bit of work done if I were to watch all day. Thanks!

Boy, that Alex Dolly has really filled out. He was always stocky, but he's pretty massive now at 86kg. Pushout for Alex, leads 1-0. I realize I'm pretty nervous about this one, too. Always been a big fan of the Dollys. He seems to be a step quicker than his opponent. Tries a blast double, forces his opponent out, gets 2...leads 4-0. Really, he's in complete control. Gets another TD, rolls him back and forth....wins in 1:21 by tech fall. Can't do much better than Alex O'Dolly just did. He'll face the winner of Macedonia/Azerbaijan next. It's Khatiyev of Azerbaijan....gonna be a tough one

Sadulaev up again, pins his opponent in 30 seconds. He is absolutely incredible. Turned 19 4 months ago and likely to become a 2 time world champ today

86kg Heino of Finland 3-2 over Jaoude of Brazil. Campbell Camels have a wrestler one match from the quarters.

Big Kyle Snyder up now against #11 Oliiinyk of Ukraine. Scoreless through a minute and a half.

Oliinyk stalling, so put on the shot clock and didn't score. Snyder up 1-0.

Still 1-0 at the break. Snyder showing off good positioning and impressive strength. Kinda sounds like Jake Varner to me. They're back at it. Lots of tying up, hand fighting, occasional head snaps. It's clear that  the Ukrainian is waiting for Snyder to be in poor position so he can counter. Oliinyk back on the shot clock, doesn't score. 2-0 for Snyder. Pretty impressive that this teen can garner enough respect that the Ukrainian is willing to stall and give up 2 points in doing so. Oliinyk nearly takes Snyder down by the edge of the mat, settles for a pushout, cuts the lead to 2-1

Snyder with a single, trying to suck it up, ....fights off Oliinyk's attacks, wins 2-1. Huge win for the 19 year old

Snyder's next opponent will be even more challenging. #8 Baran of Poland is next

University of Buffalo freshman wrestler Nathaniel Rose of T&T is about to be teched by Bolukbasi of Turkey

Reece is back up....he faces Batbold of Mongolia. Apparently Batbold is a fairly common Mongolian surname.

Reece a little more tentative t his time out, keeping some distance and biding his time.. Scoreless through 30 seconds....scoreless through a minute. Passivity warning against Batbold.

Batbold is a 2013 World silver medalist, so he's no one to be overlooked. Now Hump gets his second passivity, gets put on the shot clock....gets taken down, trails 2-0. Not an ideal start for Reece

Batbold is stalling  big time, but no call. Then he pokes the hell out of Hump's eye. Not a fun 1st period for Reece. He could be in trouble. Trails 2-0 at the beginning of the 2nd period.

Batbold is lightning quick, takes Reece down again...4-0...less than 2 minutes left...Reece in big trouble..Reece slips...loses 6-0. Horrid officiating, but honestly, the Mongolian was just better this match. Very disappointing.

2 US wrestlers in control of their destinies, Snyder and Jaynes-Provisor. Hump will need the Mongolian to upset the #4 and #1 wrestlers in the world to get to repechage. A tall order, but Batbold looked tremendous against Reece.

Alex Dolly down 4-0 very quickly to Khatiyev of Azerbaijan. Khatiyev is extremely quick for his size, and it's causing big problems for o'Dolly. Down 8-0 not even a minute in. Now Dolly in on a leg, Khatiyev fights him off.  Khatiyev wins by tech 10-0. 1-1 for Dolly at Worlds is pretty impressive.

Kind of awesome that Reece Hump was followed by Alex Dolly on the same mat at the World Championships. 

Reece may have just gotten a little help. #1 Bogomoev (RUS) was just upset by a pushout with 3 seconds left by UKR's Shuptar.

The announcer mentioned Indiana several times, including saying "we have back to back wrestlers from the state of Indiana". Pretty cool. Would've been even cooler if this was the tourney where Reece put it all together. You can see the ability and the fact that he can do things that many of his opponents cannot...but he just has a hard time bringing the consistency. Still a huge accomplishment to make his 3 world team and all I can do is hope that the Mongolian keeps wrestling at such a high level. He gets #4 Lomtadze of Georgia next.

Snyder up after 3 more matches on Mat D.

Herbert eliminated from repechage. Aminashvili just lost 2-0 to Turkey's Yasar. Very disappointing performance from Herbert. You don't cultivate a flowing mullet like that expecting to go 1 and done.

Campbell's Heino off to a tough start against Irnaian Karimachia. It's 8-0 just after a minute gone.

Heino gets teched quickly by the Iranian. Things not going well for Americans and US collegiate wrestlers.

Sadulaev up again for Russia. They're listing his accomplishments on the PA and it sounds like he's almost never lost internationally.

By the 1 minute mark, he had taken down his opponent and gutwrenched him 3 times, making it look very easy. 8-0 and the match just started. Kind of hard to believe not only what he's doing but how easy he makes it look

The Mongolian was deep on a single, Sadulaev effortlessly shucks him off, takes him down, gets his tech fall in just over 2 minutes.

Snyder up after the current match on D ends.

Jaynes also up after current match on B. She should be competing slightly before Snyder

Holy crap, 97kg Russian Gadisov just ran his German opponent out of bounds and slammed him on the area beyond the mat. Took him a while to get up. It was nasty looking, glad Kehrer is ok

Jaynes is up now...check that, the announcer just informed them and everyone else that quarters won't start til R16 matches are complete.

Here comes Snyder. Big, difficult match for the teenager

Sweet low single for Snyder...can't get the TD, but gets a stepout point, leads 1-0. Great, aggressive start. Gave the Pole something to worry about.

Snyder still leads Baran 1-0. Baran now on the shot clock. A chance for Snyder to go up 2-0...he does....2-0 Snyder leads after 2:30

Snyder drawing a lot of Passivity calls from his opponents. That speaks to a certain feat and respect his opponents have, plus their belief that if they wait, he will make a mistake. So far, that's proven to be a bad strategy for beating Snyder. 2nd and final period underway as Baran seemed to take his sweet time coming back to the center of the mat

Quick feet for Snyder, as he counters Baran and spins around for a huge TD. Leads 4-0 against the #8 guy in the world. So impressive thus far

1:45 left...Snyder up 4-0...gets a single high in the air, completes the TD...leads 6-0. Great offense for Snyder this match. Just over a minute left and Snyder is up 6-0

Baran almost got deep on a double, Snyder hipped out impressively. The Pole is clearly flustered by the athleticism of Snyder...10 secs.....he wins 8-0

Snyder will face unranked Diaz of Venezuela next. Considering Snyder won the Pan Am games this year, you have to like his chances to advance to the semis. Outstanding job by Snyder

Now Jaynes is up, facing Hungary's Barka for a shot at the semis

Jaynes really showing a lot of offense. Gets a TD and a turn, to lead 4-0. She's been outstanding on top in par terre. Barka is a former World bronze medalist

Barka returns the favor with a TD. 4-2 Jaynes advantage. Jaynes really working the head of Barka. It looked like Jaynes had a TD, but Barka caused a stalemate. Crowd didn't like it. Could've been more, but Jaynes will have to be content with a 4-2 edge going into period 2.

Jaynes attempted a throw and slipped. Restart. Barka gets a TD, ties it at 4-4, but leads due to criteria. Jaynes needs to bring it now. Just over 2 minutes left

Running out of time....4-4, just over a minute left. The Hungarian is sitting back, countering every attack by Jaynes. Jaybnes slides around, get s a big 2....20 secs left. What a clutch TD..being challenged. I didn't notice in real time, but Jaynes also got a tilt, it appears. Looks like challenge was won, but just took tilt away. Jaynes adds a late TD, wins 8-5. CLUTCH

Mongolian Batbold up now at 61kg against #4 Lomtadze of Georgia. Reece needs him to win this and the next match, and then Hump will be in  repechage.

Lomtadze with a quick TD and a gutwrench....4-0 Batbold in an early hole. Not looking great for Hump.. No sooner than I type it, then Batbold gets a TD and a big throw...4-4 tied now, with Batbold in control of criteria. Batbold is as quick as anyone I've seen all week. Lightning fast reactions. Tied 4-4 to start the 2nd period

Still 4-4, 90 seconds left...Push out by Lomtadze, to take the lead 5-4. 1 minute left ....Huge TD for Batbold on the edge of the mat, leads 6-5. This is a great match. A big throw for the Mongolian! 10-5 Batbold leads....15 seconds. Reece still alive. Now, Batbold must beat #11 Shuptar of Ukraine for Reece to make it to repechage. The Mongolian is wrestling exceptionally well.

#1 Sadulaev techs another opponent, this time in 2:30. Pure dominance against grown men

Snyder is up now, facing Diaz of Venezuela. He has to be considered the favorite

Big TD on the edge by Snyder as the fleeing Diaz wasn't able to escape...2-0 for the young stud

Pushout for Snyder....leads 3-0...ankle pick (Varner's pet move) and a 5-0 lead

Snyder up 5-0 at the break. Gets in a low stance to restart the action. Diaz with a sweet single, Snyder hops out of bounds, score is now 5-1. Another sly ankle pick, leads 7-1. The poise, timing and technique of Snyder is remarkable

Rinse and repeat, another TD for Snyder, leads 9-1

Snyder wins his quarters match by TECH...will face #10 Musaev of KGZ or #13 Tahan of Iran for a spot in the finals

Looks like it will be #13 Tahan with a TD with literally 1 second left. Insane lapse of concentration for  the KGZ wrestler

Iran vs. USA for a spot in the finals

Semis are all set.

here comes Leigh Jaynes-Provisor. She has a stout challenge in #3 Herhel of UKR. If she makes it to the finals, she will have earned it. Very quickly Herhel headlocks her and pins her. Very anticlimactic. Jaynes will wrestler for bronze