Photo by Austin Bernard, OWrestle.com.

ROUND ROCK, Texas – Kyle Dake punched his ticket to the 2019 Senior World Championships after defeating Alex Dieringer in a best-of-three Final X Special Wrestle-Off on Saturday at Round Rock High School. Dake will be the U.S. men’s freestyle representative at 79 kg.

Dake, the reigning World champion, faced perhaps the second-best 79 kg wrestler in the world in Dieringer and swept the series in two matches.

Click here to watch Kyle Dake’s post-match interview

Both matches were dictated mainly by activity clock points and step outs.

Dieringer was on the board first, drawing a passivity from Dake, but seconds later, Dake scored on a step out. The Cornell grad added one more step out to take a 2-1 lead into the break.

In the second period, Dake extended his lead with a passivity against Dieringer. But the Cowboy scored one more, when Dake was dinged with a caution-and-one for fleeing the hold.

At the end of the first six minutes, it was Dake who won the bout, 3-2.

The second round saw more offensive attacks from both wrestlers, however still no takedowns were scored.

In the first period, Dake was in deep on a couple of shots but had to settle for step outs, taking a 2-0 lead into the break.

Shortly into the final frame, there was an exciting exchange on the edge of the mat that had both Dake and Dieringer one their backs at one point. The officials agreed that the action started after Dieringer stepped out of bounds, giving Dake a 3-0 lead. Dieringer’s corner challenged the call but it failed, putting Dake up 4-0.

In the last 30 seconds, Dieringer registered two pushouts but Dake held on for a 4-2 win.

Dake heads to his second-consecutive World Championships and will wrestle Sept. 21-22 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

FINAL X SPECIAL WRESTLE-OFF AT 79 KG
at Round Rock HS (Round Rock, Texas), Aug. 17, 2019

79 kg: Kyle Dake (Ithaca, N.Y./Titan Mercury WC/Finger Lakes RTC) df. Alex Dieringer (Stillwater, Okla./Titan Mercury WC/Cowboy RTC), 2 matches to 0
Bout one: Dake dec. Dieringer, 3-2
Bout two: Dake dec. Dieringer, 4-1