Double gold for James, Ryan in wrestling

MAJURO, Marshall Islands—Wrestlers James Attao Greene Jr. and Ryan Babauta are bringing wrestling back and with style as they don their necks with bling in the form of two gold medals each on both days of wrestling competitions in the 2024 Micronesian Games.

On the first day last Saturday, Greene took to the mats and blew all his competition away in the freestyle 79-kg division for the first gold for the NMI National Wrestling Team in the Games.

The 17-year-old shared the mat with men older than him and dominated the field. He went undefeated in all three of his bouts—and in the first of two rounds as well—all by technical superiority, meaning he scored 10 points more than his opponent, and in this case, he defeated silver medalist and Marshall Islands’ J.R. Leban, 12-2.

Bronze is Sebastian Peralta also from the Marshall Islands.

He then shed some weight after the competition as he competed in the Greco-Roman 77-kg division yesterday. Even with that, the Idaho fly-in cruised undefeated to the gold medal once again for his second gold in the competition.

He won the first of two rounds as well, all by technical superiority—once he scores 8 points more than his opponent, the match is stopped like a fall, which is why they also refer to it as a technical fall. He defeated Jeton Anjain, of the Marshall Islands, 9-0, by technical superiority and lasted 1:39.

Anjain settled for silver, while Pohnpei’s Paulus Barnabas was bronze.

Greene said of his first competition in the freestyle, “I can’t say I’m surprised because I’ve been working pretty hard for this. It was fun overall,” He then said that it’s just his second year in the freestyle division and that “the competition was a little bit better than I was expecting. I think I was the youngest one in my weight class since this is a senior division, so I felt like I did pretty good.”

On how he felt winning gold, he said, “It feels good.” Representing the NMI for the first time in the Micro Games, he said, “I’m proud to represent. I will wrestle hard the next few days for us.”

With his win yesterday, he said, “I am proud of myself. This is my first time back in Greco in about eight years. I mean, I’m not surprised because of the work I put in here with my partner Ryan and others, but I was a little nervous coming here because I wasn’t really used to it. But I felt good overall.”

For Babauta last Saturday in the freestyle 97-kg division, he recorded three wins by fall/pin, all coming in the first round of each two-round bout. Babauta pinned Skarlee Rengul of Palau in the finals match to secure gold for NMI.

Renguul settled for silver, while bronze was Kosrae’s Kenfield Mike.

In the Greco-Roman 97-kg division yesterday, Babauta went undefeated with three wins again by fall/pin, all coming in the first round of each two-round bout. Babauta was winning 8-2 when he pinned Ken Predrick of Pohnpei in the finals match to grab his second gold medal for NMI.

Silver was Kosrae’s Kenfield Mike and bronze was Pohnpei’s Ken Predrick.

Babauta, who competed and won bronze in the 2015 Oceania Wrestling Championships also in the Marshall Islands, said after his first day of competition, “the competition is great. It’s always a humbling feeling to come out here to the Marshall Islands and represent the CNMI against other topnotch wrestlers here in the Micronesian region. For me to come out here, and put my last name, my island, my people, my culture and represent our island in the sport of wrestling has always been an honor for me.”

With yesterday’s gold, he said he actually competed with a slight injury to his left knee. Even with that, he said, “other than that, everything went according to plan. These guys relied on their strengths, so all I had to do was just to time it, pick my position, and just go from there—trust the process, trust my coaches, and my teammates. I believe everything happens for a reason and it happened pretty good.”

The boys will take on the last event of wrestling—beach wrestling—today and try for a sweep of gold in their divisions. They are joined by coach Rick Bauer and team manager Jason Tarkong.