ROME, Italy — Fifth-year senior Myles Amine and graduate student Stevan Micic of the University of Michigan wrestling team claimed silver and bronze, respectively, the European Championships this weekend (Feb. 14-16) at the PalaPellicone arena. The event served as the second UWW Ranking Series event and moved both Wolverines into the top four in the world rankings.
Amine went 3-1 at 86kg/189 pounds, falling to Russian’s Artur Naifonov, 4-0, in the gold-medal final on three stepouts and a passivity point. Naifonov was a 2019 world bronze medalist, defeating Amine, 6-0, in that medal match. It was Amine’s second European medal; he previously claimed bronze at the 2019 Euro Games.
Amine won a gritty 2-1 decision over Bulgaria’s Rasul Tsikhayeu in the semifinals. Trailing on criteria late, earned a big passivity point in the last 15 seconds of the second period and fought through a couple late and extended scrambles. He also earned wins over Armenia’s Hovhannes Mkhitaryan, 6-2 on three takedowns, and Germany’s Lars Schaefle, 10-0 with three takedowns and two guts.
Micic claimed bronze at 57kg/125 pounds — his second UWW ranking series bronze in a month — with a 10-0 technical superiority over Armenia’s Mihran Jaburyan behind on four single-leg takedowns and a leg turk. Micic dropped his first match, 7-5, to Turkey’s Suleyman Atli after a four-point throw in the opening 10 seconds proved the difference. He bounced back, however, with two wins in repechage, including a second-period fall against Romania’s Andrei Dokuv — when he was up 5-0 at the time.
Malik Amine and Dave Habat both narrowly dropped their first-round matches at 65kg/143 pounds.
