Virginia Tech Wrestling's Ryan Burton and Bo Bassett Win Titles at U20 Pan American Championships

Virginia Tech wrestling continued its impressive offseason freestyle campaigns this week, as sophomore Ryan Burton and class of 2026 signee Bo Bassett each swept their respective divisions at the U20 Pan American Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both wrestlers breezed their way through the competition, surrendering just two points in seven bouts between them. The pair's efforts helped the US team win every division in the event.

Burton looked right at home in Rio for his international debut, going 4-0 in dominant fashion at 79 kg. Just one of his bouts lasted longer than one minute.

• 10-0 TF vs. Santiago Mendez (Chile), 0:55
• 10-0 TF vs. Sergio Muniz (Mexico), 1:20
• 10- TF vs. Nikolas Blake (Peru), 0:45
• 10- TF vs. Loki Bigras (Canada), 0:55

Bassett, no stranger to international competitions, put on a similarly impressive performance, cruising to a 3-0 mark at 65 kg. Like Burton, only one of his matches surpassed the one-minute mark:

• 12-2 TF vs. Diyaal Johal (Canada), 1:04
• 10-0 TF vs. Yandel Morales (Peru), 0:46
• 12-0 TF vs. Fernando Peña (Mexico), 0:23

The duo's latest tournament victories come just under two months after they won titles at the U20 US Open in April. Both wrestlers, along with 2026 NCAA third-place finisher Aaron Seidel, later earned places on the U20 US World Team that's set to compete at the World Championships on August 16-23 in Bratislava, Slovakia. It marked the first time in program history that three Hokies secured places on the U20 World Team.