The United States swept the team titles across all three styles at the 2018 Pan Am championships over the weekend in Lima, Peru, but amid those excellent efforts, there were a handful of question-raising individual results and takeaways that need to be unpacked for Team USA.

Thomas Gilman Is Vulnerable At 57kg

This point was more so reinforced than revealed. After starting his senior-level career 15-0, Thomas Gilman is just 8-5 in his last 13 matches. Part of that is wrestling against tougher competition, but part of it could also be regression to the mean.

What is concerning about those losses is the nature of them. He lost 6-4 to Reza Atri of Iran at the World Clubs Cup in December, someone Gilman beat 3-0 in the second round at worlds. At the World Cup last month in Iowa City, he once again lost to Yuki Takahashi of Japan in basically the same manner that Takahashi beat him in the world finals. Also at that World Cup, he lost to Giorgi Ediserashvili of Azerbaijan due to chest wraps. This past weekend, that same Edisherashvili won his second straight European title.

But back to Pan Ams: Gilman left himself vulnerable to Reineri Andreu Ortega’s single leg because he likes to stay in the middle and battle in collar ties, not moving his feet much. While there’s no question that Gilman is world class, if he can keep his feet more active and clean up his shots a little, he’ll be a consistent threat to medal at the world level.

WATCH 2018 WORLD TEAM TRIALS LIVE ON FLO

Logan Stieber Is Befuddling

On Tuesday's FRL 288, we spent quite a bit of time discussing Logan Stieber's results from the last month. He loses to Takuto Otoguro of Japan at World Cup, then the next day beats Haji Aliyev. At the Open, he falls to Jaydin Eierman in the quarters but otherwise techs and pins his way through. Then at Pan Ams, he gets horsed around the mat for four-plus minutes by Alejandro Valdes Tobier of Cuba but then does Logan Stieber things and storms back to win 10-9 on a couple takedowns and a trap arm.

There is no question that Stieber is and always has been a hammer—his credentials speak for themselves. But he’s been wrestling for at least 20 years and is transitioning up to a new weight class. Stieber can score on just about anyone, but there is a level of inconsistency now that is worrisome. It could just be a rough patch and that the Stieber we see in October is good enough to medal.

WATCH 2018 BEAT THE STREETS LIVE ON FLO

David Taylor Tested By The Cuban

The evolution of David Taylor continues. He has grown into his 86kg weight class, and he has picked the best parts of what made him so dangerous in folkstyle and molded them into freestyle. But sometimes he still struggles with world-class leg defense in hyper-strong wrestlers. I’ve mentioned this in the past: Taylor’s stiffest competition comes from “aliens,” the likes of Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Dake, and J’den Cox.

Cuba’s newest 86kg star is in that mold. Yurieski Torreblanca Queralta has now wrestled Taylor twice, and Queralta has held leads on Taylor both times. At the Yarygin, he was up 4-0 with 90 seconds to go, and in Peru, he was up 2-0 right near the end of the first period. Like most Cubans, Torreblanca is so defensive in his style that it’s hard to see him beating Taylor, particularly if DT can do what he hasn’t done and score the first takedown of the match.

WATCH 2018 WOMEN'S NATIONALS LIVE ON FLO

Pan Am Games Really Matters

Every four years, the Pan American countries host an event that carries a little extra importance. Each sport holds its own individual Pan Am championships throughout the year, but the Pan Am Games the year before the Olympics brings them all together.

For wrestling, this past weekend was the first of four qualifying events to put together the eight-person brackets for the Pan Am Games next August. The competition only uses the 18 Olympic weights, six per style. Of those, Team USA qualified 11: one in Greco-Roman, four in women's freestyle, and all six in men's freestyle.

However, it also impacted the 12 non-Olympic weights. There were just 58 wrestlers between those fields, an average of fewer than five competitors per bracket. Most countries were only interested in putting their resources in the Olympic weights, and it left open the opportunity for American domination. The stars and stripes won medals at all of those weights, winning eight golds, three silvers, and a bronze.