Anthony Ashnault is back.

The Rutgers national champion tore through the 70-kilogram freestyle bracket Monday at the Pan-American Championships in Ottawa, securing his second straight gold medal at the event and qualifying for April’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Penn State.

The event was Ashnault’s first competition since he suffered a knee injury during last spring’s World Team Trials. Ashnault was not cleared for competition following surgery until right before December’s senior national tournament, so he was not able to compete there.

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Ashnault still has one bout to wrestle Monday evening, but he has already secured a first-place finish in his five-man bracket after going 3-0 earlier in the day. Ashnault pinned Barbados’ Ranico Howard (0:20) and Mexico’s Brandon Diaz (2:43) and registered a 12-2 technical fall over Canada’s Cruiz Manning. Ashnault will wrestle Brazil’s Hugo de Lima Viana, who he beat by technical fall last year, in his final bout in the round robin bracket. Seventy kilograms is roughly 154 pounds.

Ashnault is expected to bid to make the U.S. Olympic Team for this summer’s Tokyo Games at 65 kilograms, which is roughly 143 pounds, since 70-kilograms is not an Olympic weight. Ashnault, Rutgers’ first four-time All-American, won his national title at 149 pounds after spending most of his college career at 141 pounds.

Ashnault lost to James Green, a Willingboro High state champion and world silver medalist, by technical fall in the first bout of a best of three final series last May at the world team trials. The knee injury Ashnault suffered in that bout forced him to forfeit out of the tournament. Ashnault had previously lost to Green, 8-4, at the Beat the Streets exhibition two weeks before team trials.

Rutgers’ other national champion, Nick Suriano, will also compete at the Olympic Trials on April 4-5 in State College. Suriano is expected to compete at 57 kilograms, or roughly 125 pounds, after finishing fourth at the weight at the senior national tournament. Suriano has one year of college eligibility remaining but has not indicated what his plans are after his Olympic redshirt season ends.

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James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.