Thomas Gilman of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club won the 57 kg title at the Last Chance World Team Trials in Rochester, MN. After a bye in the quarterfinals, Gilman defeated David Terao, 9-4 in the semifinals. After surrendering a takedown and a 4-point headlock, Gilman was behind 6-0 to Daniel Deshazer in the finals with :44 seconds left in the first period. In typical Gilman fashion, he went to work with heavy hands and his patented single leg. Gilman was awarded a point as time ran out in the first period for pushing Deshazer out of bounds to make the score 6-1 Deshazer.
In the second period, Gilman continued to attack with a single leg takedown with 2:23 left in the period and he scored another takedown to cut the lead to 6-5 with 1:48 remaining. Gilman then scored the go ahead and winning takedown with :38 left to take a 7-6 lead. Gilman fought off several shots in the remaining seconds of the match to secure the win, 7-6.
Gilman has now qualified for the World Team Trials in Lincoln Nebraska on June 9-10 at 57 kg. Hawkeye Wrestling Club members Bobby Telford (Hwt), Nathan Burak (97 kg), Chris Dardanes (61 kg) and Nick Dardanes (65 kg) have already qualified for the ladder tournament. By winning the U.S. Open, former Iowa Hawkeye Tony Ramos has already qualified for the finals of the World Team Trials at 57 kg. The ladder tournament of the World Team Trials will be on June 9 and the best of three finals will be on June 10.
I will have coverage of all the HWC and Iowa wrestlers competing at the WTT on Facebook and Twitter.
