WARSAW, Poland — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Alec Pantaleo claimed silver at 70kg, while Derek White took fifth place at 125kg at the Poland Open, which concluded on Thursday (July 21) at the Arena Ursynów. It was Pantaleo’s second time reaching the event’s final; he captured gold last summer.
Pantaleo fell 3-2 to Armenia’s Andreasyan in the 70kg final after some confounding officiating in the second period. He scored the bout’s lone takedown, a single leg early in the first period, but was called for passivity three times — and put on the shot clock twice — over a 90-minute window in the second despite continuing to make the only offensive attempts.
He opened the tournament with a 2-1 win over Georgia’s Zurabi Iakobishvili, the 2017 world champion at 65kg, on passivity points in the first and second period; Iakobishvili also scored on the shot clock. Pantaleo added a 6-2 win over Ukraine’s Oleksiy Boruta in the semifinals, scoring takedowns on a first-period go behind and double leg in the second with additional points on a stepout and the shot clock.
White posted a 2-2 record en route to a fifth-place finish at 125kg. He earned the best win of his freestyle career with a 2-1 decision against China’s Zhiwei Deng. Down on criteria after a shot-clock point apiece, he scored a stepout with a minute left then held center to hang on against the two-time world medalist. He fell to Poland’s Kamil Kosciolek in the bronze-medal match.
