Taylor LaMont finishes fifth after dropping bronze match at U23 Worlds

Utah Valley redshirt junior Taylor LaMont lost his bronze medal match against Azerbaijan’s Nihad Guluzade on Tuesday that led to a fifth-place finish at the U23 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. 

LaMont, who was wrestling for team USA, competed in the 121 pound weight class. The competition took place from Nov. 1-3 at Belgrade’s Belexpocentar.  

LaMont started out the U23 championships with back-to-back wins including a 2-1 victory over Moldova’s Aritom Deleanu and a 6-3 victory over Georgia’s Giorgi Tokhadze, helping him advance to the semifinals. LaMont was unable to advance once he got to the semifinals as he fell to Iran’s Poya Dad Marz by a score of 5-1. The loss put LaMont into the bronze medal match where he faced off against Guluzade. LaMont lost the match by a score of 9-0 en route to a 2-2 record and a fifth-place finish at the U23 World Championships. 

The 2021 all-american and three-time NCAA qualifier is no stranger to international competition as he has competed on eight consecutive age group world teams since 2013. He has previously represented the United States on three Cadet World Teams (2013, 2014, 2015), three Junior World Teams (2016, 2017, 2018), and back to back U23 world teams (2019, 2021) as there was no 2020 competition due to COVID-19. 

LaMont has medaled in the past including Bronze at the Cadet Pan-Am games in 2014, Bronze in the 2015 Junior Pan-Am games, and a Bronze in the Junior World Championships in 2016. He also won the U23 Nationals back in May in order to compete at the 2021 World Championships. 

LaMont has been wrestling for Utah Valley since 2016 (including a 2016 redshirt, 2018 medical redshirt, and 2020 COVID-19 redshirt) as he hopes to add to his three NCAA qualifiers and a fifth place finish in the 2021 NCAA Championships. LaMont was also the Big 12 runner-up in spring 2021. 

LaMont and the rest of the Wolverine wrestlers season will start on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 9:30 a.m. MT. The team will travel to the UNC Duals to face off against Doane University, North Idaho College, Northwest Kansas Tech, and Big 12 opponent Northern Colorado. The match will be streamed on FloWrestling.