Wrestling: Incoming Freshman McDanel Takes Bronze at U20 Worlds

Nebraska signed a monster 2023 recruiting class of 12 guys, none bigger than Camden McDanel.

Nebraska’s top-rated signee on the FloWrestling Big Board at No. 37 overall, McDanel is an Ohio native who is a national and state champion. But now, he’ll be bringing some more serious hardware to Lincoln after securing a bronze medal at the UWW U20 World Championships in Amman, Jordan.

In 2021, McDanel won a national championship at Fargo at 182 pounds. He then went on to fall just one match short of a U17 World Team spot in 2022, but McDanel came back this year by winning a state title and making the U20 World Team.

In Jordan, McDanel was Team USA’s representative at 97kg (just under 214 pounds). In his qualifying round match, McDanel made short work of Toyoki Hamada of Japan, winning via 12-1 tech fall in 2 minutes, 43 seconds.

In the quarters, McDanel got another tech fall as he took out Poland’s Taron Shahinyan in 4:04. Moving on to the semis, McDanel had a hard-fought match against Iran’s Abolfazl Babaloo. McDanel fell to the Iranian 5-1 and fell to the bronze-medal match. Babaloo, who placed earlier this summer at the Yasar Dogu (a senior-level tournament), went on to win in the final.

In the bronze-medal match, McDanel looked impressive with an 8-2 win over Kazakhstan’s Kamil Kurugliyev, last year’s U17 World Champion.

Although he just wrestled at about 213 pounds, McDanel is still set to wrestle in college at 197. I do see him being a bit undersized for a future at heavyweight. After a redshirt season behind sophomore Silas Allred, it’ll be tough to keep McDanel out of the lineup.