Four Penn State-affiliated wrestlers traveled across the world to compete at the latest installment of Real American Freestyle on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions headed to Moscow, Russia, to square off against a quartet of international athletes as part of a larger spectacle that functioned as a competition between American and Russian wrestling.

All four Nittany Lions picked up victories in very different fashions. No live stream was available to American viewers due to Russian sanctions and other complications, but the RAF announced Saturday afternoon that fans can watch a replay next week.

How It Happened

Jason Nolf

Jason Nolf, a three-time national champion in his four-year career at Penn State from 2016-19, continued his wrestling comeback after initially retiring after the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials with his seventh RAF match, having gone 5-1 previously with a recent tech fall victory over Evan Wick for the RAF Middleweight title.

He’d square off with Ismail Khaniev, a 19-year-old two-time U20 World Champion, at catchweight in a non-title bout.

Nolf took the match’s first shot midway through the first period while Khaniev was on the shot clock, but the Russian fought him off until the referee whistled them back to neutral, as Nolf took the lead on the passivity point. Khaniev would lead after one period after a late single-leg takedown and brutal gut wrench just before the whistle for a quick four points.

Nolf fought on the edge for a bulk of the second period, narrowly avoiding a step-out point against him. He fought off one good shot from Khaniev before eventually scoring a takedown of his own with 30 seconds left in the second to narrow the deficit to 4-3 after two.

Khaniev took a 5-3 lead after a passivity point midway through the third, putting Nolf on the shot clock. Trailing in the final minute, the folkstyle wrestling legend tied the match with a single-leg takedown in the final 20 seconds and survived after being put back in neutral to win by criteria, 5-5.

Kyle Dake

Kyle Dake, a four-time NCAA champion with Cornell and two-time Olympic bronze medalist, will be representing the United States and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (NLWC) at this year’s World Championships at 86 kilograms. Before then, the RAF Cruiserweight champion got a tune-up in Russia.

It was against an old Olympic foe, as he faced Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov of Belarus, who beat Dake by tech fall at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, for his title.

It was a quiet match through much of the first two periods. Kadimagomedov, who’s known as Kadik in RAF, scored first on a passivity point against Dake, but the match was evened up at one in the second when Kadik was put on the shot clock himself.

Dake took the lead on a dangerous scramble in the final 30 seconds of the second period, but Kadik narrowed the gap to 3-2 after a subsequent step-out point. The American seemed to get a step double-leg on Kadik early in the third, but the Belarusian countered brilliantly into a go-ahead takedown. Review upgraded it to a four-point move, suddenly putting Dake down 6-4 in the final 90 seconds.

Kadik excellently spent the next minute walling off Dake from any potential attack, but eventually ceded a step-out point with 11 seconds left. Trailing by one at the death, the four-time NCAA champion executed a desperation body lock throw that earned him the two points he needed to take the match, 7-6.

Bo Nickal

The two-time Hodge Trophy winner is much more focused on his UFC career, but he’s now competing in consecutive RAF events as he gets back into the swing of freestyle. Bo Nickal came into this one looking to avenge a disappointing loss to Max McEnelly in Cleveland.

In a battle of guys who’ve mostly put their wrestling careers behind them, Nickal faced off against 2008 Olympic gold medalist Shirvani Muradov, who had been out of the sport for over a decade due to injuries before deciding to make a comeback against an American wrestling legend.

Nickal got on the board early with a sweet single-leg takedown 40 seconds in and maintained that 2-0 lead into the second period, as the two spent much of the period feeling each other out. He finished another takedown early in the second with the exact same move, sprinting out to a 4-0 advantage.

He fought off a Muradov double leg shortly after going back to neutral and countered it into a third takedown. He put the Russian on the verge of a tech fall with a nasty snap-down to go up 8-0 to end the second, but there’d still be fight in the 41-year-old from Dagestan.

Down 8-0 with 1:20 left in the match, Muradov muscled Nickal to his back from neutral to score a quick four points, only to be reversed to make it 9-4. A step-out point would cut the lead back to four, but Nickal silenced the raucous Russian crowd with his fifth takedown with 42 seconds left to go back up by six, eventually winning 11-7.

Kyle Snyder

Kyle Snyder, a three-time NCAA champion for Ohio State and a 2016 Olympic gold medalist, is the reigning world champion and will once again represent the U.S. and the NLWC at 97 kilograms this fall.

In Russia this weekend, he defended his RAF Light Heavyweight championship against Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov, the reigning Olympic gold medalist at the weight class, who beat Snyder in the semifinals, 6-4.

Tazhudinov got on the board with a step-out point in the first 30 seconds and doubled his lead with another after Snyder fought off a single-leg on the boundary late in the period. In the final seconds of the first, Snyder scooped a single-leg and dumped the Bahraini on his back out of bounds for a rare five-point move to take a 5-2 lead.

After a slow start to the second, Tazhudinov finished a double-leg takedown 1:10 into the second, but was unable to turn Snyder. The American picked up a step-out point in the final seconds, going up 6-4 after two.

The third period was full of scrambles as both wrestlers narrowly fought off crucial takedowns, but Snyder was the one who scored the next one halfway through to take an 8-5 lead. Points for grabbing the singlet, a delay-of-game, and a step-out capped an 11-5 win for the reigning world champion.

What’s Next?

In less than two weeks, more Penn State alums will take the mat in freestyle, at RAF 13 in Miami on Friday, September 18 at 8 p.m.

Currently slated to compete is Nolf, who will defend his middleweight championship against four-time NCAA qualifier Julian Ramirez. The event will also feature the RAF debut of five-time All-American and national champion Greg Kerkvliet, who will challenge RAF Heavyweight champion Wyatt Hendrickson for his title in a revival of a collegiate rivalry.