Columbia’s Wyatt Baker earned the 120 kg spot on the Junior Greco World Team when he beat Parker Betts of the Minnesota Storm in Colorado Springs on Saturday night.  Baker topped Betts in the first bout 1-0, 1-1 and then followed with a 1-0, 0-4, 1-0 victory to clinch his berth on the United States team headed to Pattaya, Thailand in September.

Baker, an Anaheim Hills, California native, recently completed his freshman year at Columbia where he compiled a 13-5 record at 285 with seven falls.

Two other wrestlers with ties to the Empire State were finalists at the event in freestyle.  Caleb Richardson of the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club was the runner up at 55 kg.  The Virginia native, who will be a freshman at Cornell in the fall, won the challenge tournament in the morning to earn a meeting with Joey Dance, the victor at the FILA Juniors in April.  Dance won a head to head battle with Richardson at that event and did the same this weekend, taking the first match 5-0, 1-0 and the second 1-0, 1-0.

Colorado’s Dwight Howes, a future upperweight for Hofstra, won the 84 kg challenge event on Saturday and then faced Patrick Downey in the finals.  Downey, representing the NYAC, defeated Howes in three periods in their first bout and followed with a 2-1, 5-4 result.