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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Friday at the USA Wrestling Olympic Team Trials was a long day of wrestling, but it was a good day of wrestling for former Buckeyes Kollin Moore and Joey McKenna. Moore and McKenna are both set to appear in the Olympic Team Trial finals on Saturday, vying for a spot in this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Moore is in the finals of the 97 kg weight class and waiting for him is the reigning Olympic champion and fellow Buckeye Kyle Snyder. That means Ohio State will have at least one Olympian this summer. McKenna will square-off with Jordan Oliver in the finals of the 65 kg class. The winner of that weight class will still have to qualify the weight for the Olympics at the World Olympic Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 6-9.
Moore was slated to have faced J den Cox as the precursor to the best-of-three versus Snyder, but the two-time reigning world champion at 92 kg missed weight Friday morning and was removed from the bracket. Cox has trained at least part of the time at the Ohio Regional Training Center since early 2020, and his failure to make weight sent shockwaves throughout the wrestling community. He ll face Snyder in the finals. Coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. At 65 kg, McKenna won a pair of impressive victories over high-powered opponents, with a 12-1 tech fall of James Green, the two-time world medalist, and then besting the top-seed, two-time Hodge Trophy winner Zain Retherford in an 8-5 decision with two late takedowns in the second period.