STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club swept the heavyweight spots on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team as Mason Parris and Adam Coon won at 125kg freestyle and 130kg Greco-Roman, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Saturday (April 20) at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center.
Four CKWC members — and five Wolverines — are now qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Parris and Coon join fellow Michigan alums Stevan Micic (57kg freestyle, Serbia) and Myles Amine (86kg freestyle, San Marino) and graduate student Austin Gomez (65kg freestyle, Mexico). It will be the first Olympic Games for both heavyweights as well as Gomez. Coon previously won the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021 but did not qualify his weight for the Tokyo Games.
Parris swept the best-of-three championships series against Hayden Zillmer at 125kg freestyle, winning both matches 7-0 to make his second straight U.S. senior team. Parris, who advanced directly to the finals after claiming world bronze last fall, earned an early passivity shot-clock point before finishing on three takedowns in both matches. He scored on a first-period high crotch and added two second-period go-behind takedowns in the first bout, then broke open the second with three second-period takedowns — a double leg on the edge, a spinout off a Zillmer low single shot and a late go behind to ice it.
Parris, the 2023 NCAA heavyweight champion and Hodge Trophy winner, has medaled in all five of his senior-level tournaments since graduating from Michigan last spring. In addition to his 2023 world bronze, he claimed 125kg gold at the UWW Ranking Tournament in Hungary last July as well as in pair of Pan American appearances and took bronze at the Zagreb Open in January.
Coon rallied to beat Cohlton Schultz in consecutive evening-session matches at 130kg Greco after dropping the first round, 3-1, earlier in the day. He earned a 1-1 criteria win after trading passivity points in the second match and cruised to a 6-1 victory in the rubber match to secure the Olympic berth. Coon earned an early stepout in that bout, added a passivity point and gut wrench from top in the first period then avoided a turn when put down for passivity in the second, instead coming to his feet and quickly earning a go-behind takedown to go up five points with just 90 seconds left.
Coon also defeated Schultz in the Olympic Trials in 2021 but had dropped four consecutive matches to the Arizona State heavyweight since returning to wrestling competition last year. A two-time NCAA finalist and three-time All-American for Michigan, Coon is a two-time U.S. world team member and captured world silver in 2018, pinning his way into the final with four straight falls before falling to Russia’s Sergey Semenov 9-0 in the gold-medal match.
Alex Dieringer also took fourth place at 86kg with a 3-2 record, while Alec Pantaleo and J’den Cox went 1-1 at 65kg and 97kg, respectively.
Cox left his shoes on the mat after falling in the challenge tournament semifinals, signaling an end to his illustrious wrestling career. A two-time world champion at 92kg, Cox won six senior-level medals in all, including bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games.