Kilgore Earns Wild Card Bid to World Team Trials
5/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
KENT, Ohio - On Thursday, Kent State's Dustin Kilgore was awarded a wild card bid to the 2011 World Team Trials to be held June 10-11 in Oklahoma City. Kilgore was one of two wrestlers in the 96KG (211.5 lbs) weight class to earn a wild card.
By placing third at the FILA University Nationals, the 2011 NCAA champion came up one spot shy of earning an automatic bid, but his recent progress at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs was enough to win over the approval of the U.S. coaching staff.
"I think the coaches were pretty impressed with him," KSU coach Jim Andrassy said. "They told me ahead of time they wouldn't make a decision on him until they saw him. And Dustin has only been in Colorado for a bit, but apparently they've seen enough to know what he's capable of."
Kilgore will continue to train in Colorado until the World Team Trials, where he will join former teammate Danny Mitcheff (55KG), who earned an automatic qualifying spot by placing third at the U.S. Open.
Wild card nominations were reviewed and approved by a three-member sub-committee headed by the chairperson of the Freestyle Sport Committee.
