Former NDSU All American Hayden Zillmer advanced unscathed through Freestyle world team trials Saturday and Sunday, and will now wrestle Olympic and World bronze medalist J’den Cox at Final X on June with a spot on the United States World Team on the line.  Zillmer, wrestling out of Minneapolis for the Minnesota Storm, advanced to Sunday’s best of three finals with ease, and then defeated Titan Mercury’s Deron Winn 8-2 and 7-0.  In the first bout, Zillmer found himself behind 2-1 with a minute remaining, but reeled of seven consecutive points to grab the all important first win.  Zillmer took a 3-0 lead into the second period of bout two, but Winn scored a feet to back single leg, followed by another takedown and pushout, to grab a 7-3 lead with two minutes remaining.  The strong Minnesota crowd came to its feet after ZIllmer scored a pushout to make the match 7-4.  From there, the Crosby, MN native dominated, scoring five unanswered and grabbing a 9-7 victory.

Zillmer and Cox are scheduled to do battle join the third installment of the Final X series, June 23 in Lehigh, PA.  At the US Open, Cox defeated Zillmer 2-0.