While pursuing his education, Cross continued his wrestling career by participating in numerous tournaments. He had won two silver medals and claimed three back-to-back titles for his weight division from the national championships. Cross also reached into an international level, when he first competed as a member of national wrestling team at the World Junior Championships in Paris. In 2005, Cross finished twelfth at his first World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and achieved an eight-place finish two years later, in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he received an automatic qualifying berth for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Cross was also a full-time member at the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club in Burnaby, British Columbia, where he had been training for two years with his partner Ivan Diaconu, a seven-time national champion from Moldova, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.