Gopher Wrestling Club’s Hayden Zillmer, in his first Senior World Championships appearance, earned two wins to advance to the quarterfinals. There, he dropped a 9-4 bout to two-time Olympic medalist and three-time World champion Geno Petriashvili from Georgia.
Zillmer was eliminated from the tournament when Petriashvili was upset in the semifinals by Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur of Mongolia, failing to pull Zillmer into repechage.
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota’s regional training center will have a new head coach at the helm, as Gopher Wrestling Club announced on Monday afternoon that Troy Steiner will take over as head coach.
The announcement comes at the heels of former head coach Dustin Schlatter’s resignation to pursue opportunities outside of the sport, as Gopher Wrestling Club is set for a busy end to the freestyle season with athletes competing in both the Senior World Championships and U23 World Championships later this fall.
Steiner, who was a 1992 NCAA Champion and a nine-time U.S. freestyle national team member, returns to the Gopher wrestling room with nearly 30 years of coaching experience. He previously spent a one-year stint in Minneapolis from 1996-1997, where he acted as an assistant coach for the Gophers as well as the state freestyle coach for Minnesota Storm.
MINNEAPOLIS – After 17 years in the Minnesota wrestling room, Gopher Wrestling Club (GWC) head coach Dustin Schlatter has decided to step down to pursue other opportunities outside of the sport, as announced by the club on Friday afternoon.
Since taking the helm of the regional training center in May 2018, Schlatter helped lead GWC to its first Olympic gold medalist and first World Team member, and has had at least one athlete qualify for Final X to compete for a World Team spot in each year of his tenure. In the previous Olympic cycle, Gopher Wrestling Club qualified eight athletes for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials under Schlatter.
Most recently, Gopher Wrestling Club has become the standard at the 125-kilogram weight class by housing the best heavyweight wrestlers in the nation the past two seasons. In 2021, Gable Steveson won the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics with a win over Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili, before Hayden Zillmer punched his ticket to the 2022 World Championships in Serbia with a best-of-three series win over Nick Gwiazdowski at Final X this past June.
Gopher Wrestling Club’s Zillmer takes out two-time World bronze medalist Gwiazdowski
NEW YORK, N.Y.. – There were 14 more members of the 2022 U.S. Senior World Team set on Wednesday night, punching their ticket to Belgrade, Serbia for the 2022 Senior World Championships, five in each of the men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman and four in women’s freestyle.
It was a wild night of action in the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, as Final X New York was held before a large and boisterous crowd. Three of the best-of-three championships series were pushed to a full three matches, including one featuring one of the greatest wrestlers in history, 2012 Olympic champion and five-time World champion Jordan Burroughs at 79 kg in men’s freestyle.
Burroughs won his opening match against Chance Marsteller, who was competing in his first Final X finals. However, in the second bout, Marsteller showed had great tactics and exceptional defense, and secured a 2-2 criteria decision over Burroughs.
In the deciding third match, Burroughs got things going well with a step out point to lead 1-0. He added two more step outs in the first period to lead 3-0 at the break. In the second period, Burroughs scored his patented low double leg takedown on the edge for a takedown for a 5-0 lead in the second period., which held up the rest of the way. Continue reading at teamusa.org →
The U.S. World Team Trials Final X events took place on Friday, June 3 in Stillwater, Okla., and Wednesday, June 8 in New York City.
The winner of each Final X Championship Series will represent Team USA at the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, September 10-18.
The pair of Gophers will travel to Spain to Represent Team USA later this fall for U23 World Championships
GENEVA, Ohio – A successful weekend of wrestling at the U23 World Team Trials saw a pair of Gophers qualify for the U23 World Championships, as both Michial Foy and Aaron Nagao won their brackets to earn a World Team spot.
Action got underway on Friday morning with Greco-Roman competition, as Michial Foy won his weight class at 87-kilograms to earn his spot on the U23 World Team. Foy, who was a late addition to the 87kg field, started the day with a trio of wins to reach the best-of-3 finals against Vincent Baker, including a technical fall in the quarterfinals and a fall over the top-seed in the semifinals.
In the finals against Baker, Foy would fall in match one by a score of 5-3 but would concede a point the rest of the way, sweeping the final two matches with a pair of dominant 8-0 technical falls en route to the gold medal at 87-kilograms.
MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota wrestling program will be well represented in Geneva, Ohio this weekend, as a total of 18 Gophers will be competing in the U20 and U23 World Team Trials this weekend at the Spire Institute.
The group of Gophers will be headlined by three returning starters from last year’s team, including Cael Carlson who will be pulling double duty this weekend, as he is registered for both Greco-Roman and Freestyle competitions this weekend.