Bout at the Ballpark, a Unique Wrestling Doubleheader, Coming to Globe Life Field in Arlington in 2022
Editor's Note: This article was originally published Oct. 12, 2021. The story was updated Jan. 26, 2022, to include information on additional matches added to the event.
USA Wrestling has announced that in addition to the USA vs. Iran men’s freestyle competition that is included in the Bout at the Ballpark on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, there will be a major women’s international freestyle dual meet and a featured international Greco-Roman bout.
This unique event will also feature an NCAA Div. I dual meet between the two most successful programs in history, Oklahoma State University and the University of Iowa.
Two of the world’s best women’s freestyle nations will battle when Team USA faces Mongolia, in a six-match dual meet at the Olympic weight classes.
The United States will be led by 2016 Olympic champion and three-time World champion Helen Maroulis at 57 kg. Maroulis became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic title in wrestling at the 2016 Rio Olympics, then became the first U.S. women to win two Olympic medals with her 2020 Olympic bronze at the Tokyo Games. Maroulis won World titles in 2015, 2017 and 2021. She also boasts a 2012 World silver medal and a 2014 World bronze medal.
She will be joined on the team by 2019 World champion Jacarra Winchester, who will compete at 53 kg, the weight class where she also earned a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.
2021 World silver medalist and 2020 Olympian Kayla Miracle will wrestle for Team USA at 62 kg. Two-time Senior World team member and two-time Junior World champion Victoria Anthony is slated to wrestle at 50 kg.
Rounding out the U.S. women’s team are 2021 Junior World champion Kennedy Blades at 68 kg and two-time Senior World Team member Victoria Francis at 76 kg.
Mongolia will bring a talented team, with a mix of proven veterans and emerging young stars. Two of the Mongolian athletes competed at the 2020 Olympic Games, Namuuntsetseg Tsogt-ochir, who was fifth at 50 kg and Bolortuya Khurelkhuu, who was 10th at 57 kg. Both Tsogt-ochir and Bolortuya Khurelkhuu have been placewinners at past Senior World Championships.
Narangerel Erdenesukh, who has competed on five Mongolian Senior World Teams and was a 2010 Junior World bronze medalist, will wrestle at 62 kg. Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan, the 68 kg entry, was a 2018 Junior World silver medalist and 2021 U23 World bronze medalist. Rounding out the Mongolian team are rising young talents Khulan Batkhuvag at 53 kg and Ariunjargal Ganbat at 76 kg.
Additionally, there will be a special Greco-Roman showdown at 97 kg, where 2021 World bronze medalist and 2020 Olympian G’Angelo Hancock will face a top Greco-Roman star from Iran.
The final lineup for the Iranian men’s team will be announced shortly.
The Oklahoma State-Iowa collegiate meet, plus the United States-Iran men’s freestyle and United States-Mongolia women’s freestyle will take place simultaneously on two different mats beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. This will mark the first time a senior-level international meet and an NCAA meet will operate in this format.
Bout at the Ballpark will be the first event at Globe Life Field, the Home of the Texas Rangers, to feature an international competition. The two wrestling mats will be located between the areas of pitcher’s mound and second base and will be placed on raised stages to improve sightlines from the seating bowl. Floor seating will be added with the Globe Life Field capacity expected to be at least 27,000 for the matches.
Tickets for Bout at the Ballpark start as $15 and are available at texasrangers.com/wrestling.
The event will be broadcast live by FloWrestling.
U.S. women’s freestyle team
50 kg – Victoria Anthony (National City, Calif./Sunkist Kids)
53 kg – Jacarra Winchester (Colorado Springs, Colo./USOPTC/Titan Mercury WC)
57 kg – Helen Maroulis (Rockville, Md./Sunkist Kids)
62 kg – Kayla Miracle (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids)
68 kg – Kennedy Blades (Broadview, Ill./Wyoming Seminary/Sunkist Kids)
76 kg – Victoria Francis (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury WC)
Mongolia women’s freestyle team
50 kg – Namuuntsetseg Tsogt-ochir
53 kg – Khulan Batkhuyag
57 kg – Bolortuya Khurelkhuu
62 kg – Narangerel Erdenesukh
68 kg – Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan
76 kg – Ariunjargal Ganbat
U.S. Greco-Roman entry
97 kg – G’Angelo Hancock (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids)
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REV Entertainment is a subsidiary of Rangers Baseball Express, LLC, and was founded in August 2021 as a result of the success of Rangers Events, which had served as the exclusive booking agent for all non-MLB game day events beginning in 2012, first at Globe Life Park in Arlington (now Choctaw Stadium) and since 2020 at Globe Life Field. Since opening in March 2020.
About Globe Life Field
Globe Life Field is not only been the home of the Texas Rangers but has also hosted numerous sports and entertainment events sinces its opening in Match 2020. These include the Major League Baseball NLDS, NLCS, and World Series and Wrangler© National Finals Rodeo in 2020 and the State Farm College Baseball Showdown, over 30 total college and high school baseball games, approximately 50 college and high school graduations, the Hella Mega Tour featuring Green Day, Fallout Boy, and Weezer, and Chris Stapleton in Concert in 2021. This fall, the building hosted ten football games, the Lockheed Martin Commanders’ Classic presented by USAA between the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy and nine high school regular season and playoff contests.
About FloSports
Founded in 2006, FloSports is a venture-backed subscription video streaming service dedicated to sports, offering live and on-demand access to hundreds of thousands of competition events across 25+ vertical sport categories in the US and abroad. FloSports’ vision is to give underserved sports the love they deserve. With a growing library of more than 300,000 hours of premium content including news, expert commentary, films, documentaries and more, FloSports has established itself as an innovator and leader in sports streaming. FloWrestling is one of FloSports’ highest performing vertical sport categories and is the industry-leader for dedicated youth, collegiate and professional live event programming, news, analysis and original content. In 2020, FloWrestling saw over 73 million minutes of original content watched and over 16 million minutes of FloWrestling’s owned & operated live event programming watched. For more information, please visit: flosports.tv.
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