RIO DE JANEIRO—Everything felt right for Andy Bisek on Sunday. After defeating Yurisandy Hernandez Rios of Cuba 1-0 in his opening Greco-Roman wrestling match at the Rio Olympics, Bisek moved on to the quarterfinals of the 75-kilogram (165 pounds) weight class, where he would face Croatia's Bozo Starcevic.
Bisek, of Chaska, controlled the first period but could not score. In the second, he made one mistake—and Starcevic pounced. With Bisek in the down position, Starcevic scored two points on a gutwrench, then held off Bisek for the rest of the match for a 2-0 victory.
That left Bisek to watch his fate play out in the semifinal, where Starcevic had to beat Russia's Roman Vlasov to pull Bisek back into the repechage and give him a shot at a bronze medal. When Starcevic lost a controversial decision, Bisek's day—and his tournament—were over. Jesse Thielke of U.S. also lost in the quarterfinals and did not get into the repechage, leaving the Americans without a wrestler in the medal round on the first day of the Greco-Roman tournament.
"I felt good in my wrestling, my condition, my body,'' Bisek said. "I just made a few mistakes. I should have gotten a takedown earlier in that match. And I should have been able to fight and get him to open up again in the second period.
"I was really confident even after I got turned that I was going to be able to get back to those positions and get a score. But he did a great job of preventing that.''
