OREM, Utah – Utah Valley University 125-pound redshirt junior and 2021 NCAA All-American wrestler Taylor LaMont will head to Fort Worth, Texas to compete at this weekend’s 2021 Olympic Team Trials. The winner of LaMont’s weight class will guarantee himself the opportunity to compete for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
The U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials will take place Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Friday and Saturday’s action will air live on NBCSN, Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms.
LaMont, who recently posted the first NCAA All-American finish of his career at the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships by placing fifth in his weight class, will enter this weekend’s Olympic Team Trials seeded fourth at 60 kilos in Greco-Roman wrestling. LaMont earned a spot to compete at the Olympic Team Trials as he is a current U.S. Senior National Team member at 60 kg in Greco-Roman. He is currently No. 3 for Team USA in his weight class after previously placing third at Senior Nationals in December of 2019.
This past fall, LaMont posted a third-place finish at the 2020 U.S. Senior Greco-Roman Nationals in October. He then went on to win U23 Greco-Roman Nationals later in November.
LaMont is an unprecedented seven-time age-group World Team member for the United States after making the Cadet World squad three times (2013, 2014, 2015), the Junior World Team three times (2016, 2017, 2018), and the U23 World Team once (2019). He has also claimed five Fargo titles during his esteemed wrestling career, as third-place finish at the 2018 U.S. Open, and won a bronze medal at the 2016 Junior World Championships, the 2015 Junior Pan Am Games, and the 2014 Cadet Pan Am Games.
During the 2020-21 season for the Wolverines, LaMont posted an impressive 13-3 record on the year. He was also a Big 12 Championship finalist (earned a runner-up finish at the 2021 Big 12 Championships) and earned the first All-American finish of his collegiate career by placing fifth at the 2021 NCAA Championships. After entering nationals as the second highest seed in program history at No. 7, LaMont then reached the championship semifinals for the first time in his career and ended up dropping a hard-fought overtime battle to the eventual national runner-up and third-ranked Brandon Courtney of Arizona State. LaMont then fell in the consolation semifinals to wrestle for fifth. He went on to defeat the No. 2 seed Sam Latona of Virginia Tech for the second time in the tournament, 4-1, to earn the fifth-place finish.
LaMont, who is a three-time NCAA qualifier for UVU, holds a career record of 57-15 in a UVU singlet.
Brunson UVRTC competitor Sammy Jones will also take part at the Olympic Team Trials this weekend. He too will compete at 60 kg in Greco and will enter seeded sixth in the weight class.
The Olympic Team Trials will get underway on Friday at 9 a.m. MT/10 a.m. CT and the opening session will be streamed live on the Peacock App. Friday evening’s challenge tournament finals will then take place at 5:30 p.m. MT/6:30 p.m. CT and will be televised live on NBCSN as well as streamed on NBCSports.com, NBC Sports App and Peacock. Saturday’s challenge tournament consolation rounds will then air on Peacock at 11 a.m. MT/noon CT, while Saturday evening’s championship series will be televised NBCSN as well as streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBCSN App at 5:30 p.m. MT/6:30 p.m. CT.
Coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling will be on Peacock Premium. Viewers can sign up for Peacock at peacocktv.com. Peacock is currently available on the Roku platform; Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD; Google platforms and devices including Android™, Android TV™ devices, Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices; Microsoft’s Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One S and Xbox One X; Sony PlayStation4 and PlayStation 4 Pro; and VIZIO SmartCast™ TVs and LG Smart TVs. Comcast’s eligible Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, as well as eligible Cox Contour customers, enjoy Peacock Premium included with their service at no additional cost.
Full brackets will be released for this weekend’s Olympic Trials on Friday morning.
2021 OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS GRECO-ROMAN SEEDS
60 kg
Ildar Hafizov (U.S. Army WCAP) – sitting to the best-of-three finals
1. Leslie Fuenffinger (U.S. Army WCAP)
2. Ryan Mango (U.S. Army WCAP)
3. Max Nowry (U.S. Army WCAP)
4. Taylor LaMont (Sunkist Kids)
5. Dalton Roberts (NYAC)
6. Sam Jones (NYAC)
7. Travis Rice (NYAC – Illinois RTC)
8. Randon Miranda (NYAC)
9. Joseph Palmer (Cyclone RTC)
