What's Changed & What Hasn't Since Arujau And Mueller Wrestled In 2017
What's Changed & What Hasn't Since Arujau And Mueller Wrestled In 2017
Some things will be different this time around for Vito and Mueller, and some things will be very similar.
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Vito Arujau defeated Jack Mueller 9-6 in the 2017 UWW Junior World Team Trial semifinals at 60 kg. Now, three years later, they’re meeting back up. This time at Beat the Streets.
Watch 2020 Beat the Streets LIVE on FloWrestling
What's Changed
A lot can change in three years both physically and technically, especially when talking about men in their late teens/early 20s.
Vito Arujau wasn’t even in college yet when the two first wrestled. He was fresh off of his fourth New York state title and still wrestling under the Vougar’s Honors Wrestling Club. In addition to being Vito’s father, Vougar was a World champion and Olympic medalist while competing for Belarus in the 90s. Clearly Vito comes from good genes. Now, Vito has three years of training with the Cornell wrestling team and all of their Senior level athletes. This includes the likes of Kyle Dake, Yianni Diakomihalis, and briefly Jordan Oliver among many others. It would be almost impossible to not improve in that environment.
It took two years of training in that college room for Vito to make the needed improvements to make the Junior World Team. After defeating Mueller in 2017, the New York native fell to Austin Gomez 14-7 in the finals. In 2018, Vito once again made the finals but fell short to Gomez. However, in 2019 Vito didn’t just make the Junior World Team, he won a silver medal. Arujau also picked up a huge win over current World #7 at 57 kg, Akhmed Idrisov of Russia.
Vito wasn’t just improving in freestyle either. The Big Red wrestler earned a All-American status when he finished in fourth place at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
Watch Arujau defeat Oklahoma State’s Nick Piccininni at 2019 NCAAs below.
Mueller’s done quite a bit of improving as well. After finishing in sixth place at the 2017 NCAA Championships, Mueller surprised a lot of people when he made the finals at the 2019 NCAAs (the same bracket Vito took fourth) as a fifth seed. Mueller upset Sebastian Rivera the round after Rivera had defeated Vito.
Watch Mueller defeat Sebastian Rivera in the 2019 NCAA semifinals.
Similar to Vito, Mueller’s progression wasn’t confined to one style. After making the NCAA finals Mueller made the U23 World Team where he made the bronze medal match. The Texas native also tech falled Piccininni at last year’s Beat the Streets Benefit.
Watch Mueller tech fall Piccininni at 2019 Beat the Streets.
This past spring Mueller made the switch from the Cavalier Wrestling Club in Virginia to the NYC RTC in New York where he trains under Olympic champion Kendall Cross and with World champion Frank Chamizo.
What’s Stayed The Same
While these two have both progressed both physically and technically, their wrestling styles have for the most part stayed the same. Vito still wrestles with a high pace and has an incredible single leg. However, Mueller’s chest wrap is still one of the best in the country. That is how he scored four of his six points in their first match. The other two being from his go-to offensive attack; a single leg. Freestyle savants, both of these men also had match ending potential from par terre when they were Juniors and that has not changed.
This was an exciting match back in 2017 and I expect more of the same. How often will Vito shoot? Can he mitigate Mueller’s chest wrap? Will par terre be the difference in the match? We’ll find out Thursday, September 17th.