ZAGREB, Croatia – 2014 U.S. World Team member Joe Rau, Minneapolis, Minn. (Minnesota Storm) won a gold medal at 80 kg/176 lbs., the top American performance at the Grand Prix Zagreb Open on Saturday. He was among five U.S. medalists for the day.

Rau scored a pin in the finals against Viktar Sasunowksi of Belarus, who was a member of the 2014 Belarus World Team. Rau finished with a 3-0 record for the day.

Rau opened with a dominant 10-1 technical fall over Michael Wagner of Austria, 10-1 in the quarterfinals. His 6-1 semifinals win was over Viktor Nemes of Serbia, who was fifth in the 2013 Junior World Championships.

“Joe wrestled great. He has been making adjustments in his wrestling and lifestyle and it is really paying dividends. He is developing nicely into a Greco-Roman wrestler,” said National Greco-Roman Coach Matt Lindland.

The USA had four individual bronze medalists, who dropped bouts but battled back to win in the repechage rounds. They were Ryan Mango (Minneapolis, Minn. (Minnesota Storm) at 59 kg/130 lbs., Mason Manville (Colorado Springs, Colo. at 71 kg/156.5 lbs., Geordan Speiller (Oviedo, Fla. (Florida Jets) at 75 kg/165 lbs. and David Arendt (Jacksonville, NC (U.S. Marines) at 130 kg/286.6 lbs.

Mango, the former Stanford All-American, opened with a tight 4-5 loss to finalist Ivan Lizatovic of Croatia. In the bronze-medal bout, he scored an 8-0 technical fall over American William Simpson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Army WCAP).

Manville, the high school star who was a Youth Olympic Games silver medalist in Greco-Roman last year, also dropped his opener, to talented Aleksandr Maksimovic of Serbia, 0-9. In his bronze-medal match, he dominated Vedran Luketin of Croatia, with a 8-0 technical fall.

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courtesy of USA Wrestling