MINSK, Belarus — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Stevan Micic and Myles Amine captured silver and bronze medals, respectively, at the 2019 European Games on Wednesday (June 26) at the Sport Palace.
Micic represents Serbia internationally, while Amine wrestles for San Marino. Both are three-time NCAA All-Americans and team captains at Michigan.
Micic fell to Azerbaijan’s Mahir Amiraslanov, 9-1, in the 57kg/125-pound gold-medal match. He was unable to overcome an early four-point takedown in the first and could not finish on a couple deep leg attacks in the second. Amiraslanov also defeated defending world champion Zaur Uguev in the semifinals. It was Micic’s first competition since the NCAA Championships in March.
Micic rallied from deficits in all three of his first-day wins, most notably a 6-5 decision against Turkey’s Suleyman Atli — the current No. 1-ranked wrestler in the world and the 57kg gold medalist at the European Championships in April — in the quarterfinals. He scored two takedowns and a leg turk in the second period to overcome a four-point deficit.
Amine used criteria to earn a 3-3 win over Azerbaijan’s Alexander Gostiev in his bronze-medal match at 86kg/189 pounds. After trailing, 1-0, at the break, he earned a passivity point early in the second before scoring on a high crotch off a restart. Gostiev, a three-time European Championship silver medalist, evened the score with a pair of stepouts but could not overcome Amine’s criteria advantage for the two-point takedown.
Amine was pulled back into repechage when Russia’s Dareun Kurugliev — the eventual gold-medal winner — made the final. He defeated Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski, 6-3, on the strength of two first-period takedowns and a late stepout. Baranowski was the 92kg silver medalist at the European Championships in April.
It was Amine’s first senior-level international medal and the first in wrestling for San Marino. Over his past two tournaments — the first of his senior-level freestyle career — Amine has faced a world and/or European medalist in six of seven matches, going 3-3 in those bouts.
