Hidlay takes World title by force, Haines finishes with silver, Carr fifth in men’s freestyle

ZAGREB, Croatia – Modern-day American Gladiator Trent Hidlay set Arena Zagreb ablaze in the final bout of the Monday evening medal rounds. He overcame an eight-point, first period deficit to become World champion at 92 kg in the highlight moment of the 2025 World Championships thus far.

After a couple jury reviews on 50-50 calls put Hidlay well behind on the scoreboard early, he mounted monstrous comeback against UWW athlete Amanula Gadzhimagomedov. Hidlay chipped away at the 10-2 lead before the break, cutting it to 10-5 on the scoreboard. The second period started slow, with no points until the final minute. The floodgates finally opened with Hidlay connecting on three takedowns, including the match clinching four-pointer, in the final 58 seconds.

The finals victory cemented Hidlay’s place in U.S. wrestling lore. He completed his tournament with a 5-0 record, notching signature wins over past World medalists Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan and Miriani Maisuradze of Georgia prior to the electrifying title match.

Hidlay became the second World champion for Team USA this week, joining 86 kg gold medalist Zahid Valencia atop the podium. It’s Hidlay’s first Senior-level World medal. He was a U20 World bronze medalist in 2019 and a U23 World runner-up in 2022.

Greece’s Georgios Kougioumtsidis proved to be a challenging matchup for Levi Haines in the 79 kg gold medal match. Haines struggled to find home with his offensive attacks throughout the contest. Kougioumtsidis utilized timely attacks, none more important than nullifying a second period shot clock with a single leg step out, to emerge with a 3-2 decision.  

Haines’ silver medal run was remarkable, nonetheless. He earned four wins over serious international competition, including a 3-2 decision on 2023 World champion and current European champion Akhmed Usmanov of UWW and a 5-2 win against eventual bronze medalist Khidir Kurban A Saipudinov of Bahrain.

In a highly anticipated bronze medal contest at 74 kg, 2020 Olympic champion and three-time World champion Zaurbek Sidakov of UWW escaped with a last-second, 2-2, decision over America’s two-time age-group World medalist David Carr. Carr looked sharp the majority of the match and built a 2-1 lead going into the final minute. Sidakov hit his sprint and pushed Carr out-of-bounds with five seconds on the clock to steal the win on criteria at the end.

Even in the loss, Carr impressed with a 3-2 record on his way to a fifth place at 74 kg in his first Senior World Championships appearance. His path was one of the more difficult ones in the field taking on three Russian expats plus Sidakov. Carr’s only losses were last-second thrillers to Sidakov and Olympic bronze medalist Cherman Valiev of Albania.

After falling in the quarterfinals and outside of a medal chance, 2024 Olympic silver medalist Spencer Lee wound up with a ninth-place finish in the 57 kg rankings to earn four team points for Team USA.

After eight weight classes, the U.S. has moved up to second place in the official team ranking with 94 team points. Iran currently leads the U.S. by six points heading into the final day of men’s freestyle wrestling. Based on projections for group three, assuming no athletes are disqualified, Iran cannot be caught.

For a complete match-by-match breakdown of the evening session for Team USA in Zagreb, browse our day three match notes.

Earlier in the day, Kyle Snyder advanced to the 97 kg World finals, securing his sixth trip to the final and eighth overall World medal. Real Woods was pulled into the men’s freestyle repechage at 65 kg, while Cristelle Rodriguez and Jacarra Winchester missed out on the repechage at 55 kg and 59 kg in women’s freestyle.

The tournament resumes at 10:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday with men’s freestyle group three (65-97 kg) and women’s freestyle group one (55-59 kg) repechage, plus the women’s freestyle group two (50-57-65-76 kg) preliminary rounds. Audrey Jimenez, Helen Maroulis, Macey Kilty, and Kylie Welker take the mats for the first time tomorrow morning for Team USA. Zagreb, Croatia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The Senior World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.