What happens when you knock off the #1-ranked wrestler and defending NCAA champion at a weight (and follow that up by winning a championship over a former All-America wrestler)? Well, aside from winning a title at the Midlands Championships, you get some much-deserved love from the Big Ten:
Gilman defeated defending NCAA Champion Jesse Delgado and defending Midlands champion Jarrod Garnett to win the 125-pound title at the 2013 Midlands Championship. He topped Delgado, 3-1, in the semis before defeating Garnett, 6-1, in the finals. He also registered a major decision in the opening round and a 6-3 win over No. 7 Dylan Peters in the quarterfinals.
He is 11-2 this season with three wins over ranked opponents, two major decisions, two falls, and one technical fall. His only two losses have come against No. 3 Nico Megaludis (Penn State) and No. 4 Cory Clark (Iowa).
It's the first Wrestler of the Week honors for Gilman (naturally) and the first WotW honors earned by any Iowa wrestlers in 2013-14. The last Iowa wrestler to win WotW honors was Tony Ramos, who earned them last February after beating A.J. Schopp via 9-0 major decision. Iowa wrestlers earned Wrestler of the Week recognition five times last year, so this year's group has some work to do to catch up to them.
In addition to the plaudits from the Big Ten, Gilman also earned some national recognition as he zoomed up to #3 in the newly released rankings form InterMat. Gilman was previously unranked, owing to the fact that he was (and might technically still be) #2 on Iowa's depth chart at 125 lbs.
The secret to Gilman's success? It's gotta be the glasses:
They seem to work pretty well for David Taylor, after all:
All in all, it's been a very good week for Thomas Gilman -- hopefully the first of many for him in an Iowa singlet.