Zillmer enjoyed the ride to making 2017 Greco-Roman and freestyle National Teams

Last week at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb., Hayden Zillmer earned a spot on the U.S. freestyle National Team, less than two months after securing a spot on the U.S. Greco-Roman National Team.

He became the first U.S. wrestler since Sam Hazewinkel in 2014 to make both the Greco and freestyle National Teams the same year, which consists of the top-three placers at each weight in each style.

Zillmer has been a stud on the Senior Greco circuit. He finished third in the 2016 Olympic Team Trials at 85 kg/187 lbs. before moving up to 98 kg/216 lbs. At the new weight, he won international silver medals at the Herman Kare International and the Dave Schultz Memorial International, in addition to taking second at the U.S. Open.

At the U.S. Greco-Roman World Team Trials in April at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Zillmer was a 98 kg finalist, but fell in the best-of-three championship series to G’Angelo Hancock, a three-time Junior World Team member and 2016 Junior World bronze medalist.

Although he didn’t take home gold, Zillmer’s summer wrestling wasn’t over.

Leading up to the Greco tournament, Zillmer, who moved to the Minnesota Regional Training Center in Minneapolis in January, was training freestyle twice a week with Tony Nelson, a heavyweight for the Minnesota Storm, on top of his daily Greco training.

Because he saw improvement in his freestyle skills, Zillmer made a plan in early-April to wrestle in freestyle’s Last Chance Qualifier in May to earn a bid for the Freestyle World Team Trials in June.

He also decided to recruit his pal Joe Rau, who won the 2016 Olympic Team Trials and took second at the 2017 Greco Trials. Both had strong folkstyle backgrounds. Zillmer was a Division I All-American for North Dakota State and Rau was a Divion III national champion for Elmhurst.

“I was talking to him after Greco Trials and told him I was going to wrestle Last Chance freestyle and he was like, ‘I’m in. Let’s do this.’ We both had the same amount of training leading up to it. It was only two weeks after Greco Trials, so we took a couple of days off because we were already in shape,” Zillmer said.

At the Last Chance Qualfier in Rochester, Minn., Zillmer sailed to the finals, opening his tournament with a 10-0 technical fall over Dominic Gunderson. His next match was the semifinals, where he stuck Josh Manu in 1:30.

In the finals, he faced Timmy McCall, who he bested in a 6-4 shootout. The win secured his spot in the U.S. Freestyle World Team Trials in Lincoln, Neb., just weeks later. Rau did the same at 86 kg/189 lbs., winning his weight to qualify for Lincoln.  

In Lincoln, Zillmer was given the ninth seed out of 10 competitors, but he admits that it took some of the pressure off and also served as motivation.

“I felt a little bit more pressure with Greco. I was expected to do well as the No. 2 seed. Then at freestyle, I was No. 9. Seedings don’t really matter, but I was thinking that I could definitely prove myself as better than a 9-seed,” he said.

He wasn’t new to freestyle. He wrestled it during his age-group years, winning two Cadet freestyle national championships along with his Greco titles.

Should Zillmer make it out of the challenge bracket, he would face 2015 World champion and 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder, who earned a bye to the best-of-three championship series.

Having the greatest wrestler in the world at their weight might intimidate some wrestlers, but for Zillmer the focus of the tournament was to enjoy the opportunity to wrestle another style.

“At the beginning of the tournament, I just wanted to go out there, wrestle and have fun,” he said. “I knew I could do well. Personally, it meant a lot to me. I wanted to do the best that I could do. I felt really confident going into the tournament because I didn’t have anything to lose. There wasn’t really a whole lot of emotions going through my body at that point. I just wanted to enjoy.”

In his first bout of the day, Zillmer zoomed past Nikko Reyes with a 10-0 tech fall. The quarterfinals put him against NCAA champion for Iowa State Kyven Gadson. The former Cyclone commanded the match, taking a 12-2 win in 3:37 and sent Zillmer to the back side of the bracket.

There, he battled back strong, winning four matches and taking out quality opponents such as Dustin Kilgore and Nathan Burak to win third in the challenge bracket.

He still wasn’t done. He faced challenged tournament finalist Micah Burak for true-third on the National Team.

Zillmer outlasted Micah in a 2-1 bout, thanks to a late first-period takedown, taking true-second in the challenge bracket and earning the No. 3 spot on the 2017 freestyle National Team.

“Through all my training with doubling up on Greco and freestyle some days, your body gets used to wrestling a lot,” Zillmer said. “After a while, I felt good doing all that and learned how to wrestle through the tiredness. I think that made an impact on wrestling that many matches at freestyle Trials.”

He had made his second National Team of the year, a feat not many can say they have accomplished. The most important thing to Zillmer was the experience.

“Overall, it was a great opportunity,” he said. “It was sweet to be able to mix things up a little bit. It’s kind of a little break when you get to wrestle a different style. I just had fun with it. I made some mistakes in the freestyle tournament, and I think if I work on those, that could potentially put me in the championship match. I just have to keep working and good things are going to come.”

For now, he’ll turn his focus back to Greco with the hope of getting more freestyle opportunities as a National Team member.

Regardless, he feels he’s in the perfect place to pursue both disciplines and can’t wait to get back to full practices with some high-caliber training partners in the Minnesota Storm wrestling room.

Now, it’s off to Hungary to meet up with some of USA’s top Greco wrestlers for a training camp in Budapest. Zillmer and the rest of the gang will be back in action on July 1 at the Ljubomir Ivanovic Gedza Memorial in Serbia.

“I feel like I have improved a lot, and I still have a lot to improve. Overall, I’m ahead of where I was last year, and I’m excited for what’s to come.”