Dustin Kilgore Reflects On Chasing His Olympics Dreams In 2012
4/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Related Article in Plain Dealer
By Lance Lysowski
The past year has flown by for Dustin
Kilgore.
On March 20, 2011, the Berea, Ohio native pinned the
then-undefeated Oklahoma State wrestler Clayton Foster to become
Kent State's first National Champion.
A junior for the Golden Flashes at the time, he applied and was
granted an Olympic redshirt year by the NCAA for this past season
prompting a move to Colorado Springs, Colorado to train full-time
and wrestle at the Olympic Training Facility. He has since
spent this past year competing in five different countries, all in
preparation for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which took place in Iowa
City, Iowa on April 21.
The process was rigorous, but Kilgore battled every step of the
way to prove once again that he should not be counted out. He
trained with former Olympic Gold Medalist Brandon Slay and went on
to travel to London, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Ukraine and Poland.
The transition was not easy.
His first few matches against foreign competition didn't go
well.
"It was a big jump going right from the U.S. to international
competitors such as Russians and Ukrainians," Kilgore said.
"It's a whole other caliber of intensity and a whole other caliber
wrestling."
Kilgore did not get discouraged. He kept training and worked
on his freestyle wrestling with the coaching staff. As he was
progressing, the same confidence that drove him towards the 2011
national title grew.
On Oct. 30 2011, Kilgore won the Sunkist Kids Open (Going 4-0) and
placed second at the New York Athletic Club International just two
weeks later. The team began traveling overseas and Kilgore
fell in love with competing internationally. Between
traveling across the world and representing his country as a
wrestler, he was living his dream.
"It's a whole other game from college wrestling," Kilgore
said. "I feel like it's really helped me out a lot because
I've wrestled such great guys and a lot of guys I am wrestling are
previous National Champs or All-Americans. All of the
freestyle I've done—even though it's freestyle—I think
it's going to help my game out a lot for when I go back to
folkstyle."
On Feb. 16, 2012, Kilgore won the Cerro Pelado International in
Cuba and won a gold medal less than two weeks later at the Pan
American Championships in Colorado.
The only difficult part of 2012 for Kilgore was not being able to
wrestle for Kent State. After deciding to take a year to
train for the Olympics, Kilgore decided to take the redshirt for
the 2011-12 season. Kent State won the regular season
Mid-American Conference Championship and finished second at the
conference tournament. Golden Flashes' head coach Jim Andrassy wanted his national champion wrestler to stick around and
compete for Kent State in 2011 but he understood that this was what
Kilgore wanted.
"He always tells everyone that having me there helps everyone out,
which it does, but this is something I want to do for myself,"
Kilgore said. "I want to be a competitor at the world level and
freestyle. The coaches, they completely understand that."
After winning a state title in his junior year at Berea, his
senior year runner-up finish did not match expectations. He
simply used it as motivation in college.
135 victories later, Kilgore is the school's all-time winningest
wrestler and lone National Champion.
"I couldn't be happier with Kent State," Kilgore said. "I
love everything there. The campus is beautiful and I've been
very successful there. The coaches have worked with me so
much to build my character, build my strength and everything about
me. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
In the 96 kilos (211.5 pounds) weight class at the Olympic Trials
in Iowa City, Kilgore defeated Trevor Brandvold, 2-1 in the
quarterfinals before falling to Chris Pendleton, 4-3 in the
semifinals. He picked up another win in the consolation
bracket before eventually placing fourth in the weight class.
Reigning U.S. World Team Trials Champion, Jake Varner won the
event at 96 kilos and will represent the United States in London
this summer.
Kilgore may have missed out in qualifying in 2012, but that in no
way ends his goal of reaching the Olympics. He will continue to
train for the 2016 Games in Brazil after earning his degree in
justice studies and completing his senior year of eligibility with
the Golden Flashes next season.
Until then, he's living his dream and is returning to the life of
a college student in August.
With Kilgore returning for his final season, the Kent State
program will look to remain a top 20 team and he is excited to get
back to work.
"It's just remarkable that I'm going to be going back to school in
the fall time," Kilgore said.
"Summer is probably going to go by just as fast as last summer,
but I'm looking forward to getting back to school and getting back
into the folkstyle and NCAA wrestling."
