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Missouri's J'den Cox wins World Olympic Qualifier, will wrestle in Rio

If you have to go all the way to Mongolia, you might as well come back with a title.

By Bill Connelly
Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Though he won the U.S. Olympic Trials at 86 kg, J'Den Cox still had to travel across the globe to officially qualify to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics. In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, needing to finish in the top three, Cox went undefeated on Saturday and Sunday, winning the trials altogether.

Here are Cox's results:

  • First Round: Defeated Atyan of Armenia via technical fall, 11-0, in the first round.
  • Round of 16: Defeated Timofei Xenidis of Greece via technical fall, 10-0, in the first round.
  • Quarterfinals: Defeated Baranowski of Poland, 4-1.
  • Semifinals: Defeated Ismanov of Uzbekistan, 5-2, to officially qualify for the Olympics.
  • Finals: Defeated Ceballos Fuentes of Venezuela, 6-0.

After mostly dominating the field at both the NCAA Championships and taking down so many big names at the U.S. Olympic Trials, you had to figure Cox's odds of qualifying were pretty good. But he made it look really, really easy. Congrats, J'Den. You have made Missouri incredibly proud.

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