Trott Draws Experienced Foe In NCAA Championships First Round
March 13, 2014 | Wrestling
INDIANAPOLIS --- The brackets for the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships have been announced and Gardner-Webb redshirt freshman Austin Trott (Kingsland, Ga.) has learned who he will be facing in the first round next Thursday, drawing No. 15 Daniel Zilverberg, a redshirt senior at the University of Minnesota.
Trott enjoyed an outstanding regular season, posting a 28-7 record while earning the third and final bid to the NCAA Championships from the Southern Conference. The Kingsland, Ga. native strung together an 11-match winning streak earlier this winter, rising as far 17th in the InterMat rankings in his first collegiate season.
Trott is the program's second representative at the NCAA Championships since 2011, joining current teammate Hunter Gamble (McDonough, Ga.), who earned a bid at 174 pounds last year.
The 6-1 redshirt freshman was forced to battle through the consolation bracket at last weekend's SoCon Championships, registering a 15-0 technical fall victory against Davidson's Patrick Devlin in the first consolation round. Following a 5-0 decision against SIUE's Matthew Lester in the semifinals, Trott clinched the NCAA berth in the third-place match with a 14-2 major decision over Campbell's Paul Duggan.
Zilverberg claimed the third-place bid at the Big Ten Championships for Minnesota, capping a 19-13 regular season as a redshirt senior. The Wayzata, Minn. has totaled at least 18 wins in each of the last two seasons, posting an 18-13 mark as a redshirt junior in 2012-2013.
Trott will be the lone representative for the Runnin' Bulldogs at this year's NCAA Championships, which kick off on Thursday, March 20 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla.
