Iowa women’s wrestler Reese Larramendy got her revenge.

On Sunday, the 143-pounder took on Life University’s Jamilah McBryde, whom she lost to earlier this season at the 2023 Soldier Salute.

This time, Larramendy landed in the win column with a 12-4 decision.

“They’re a tough team. Less than a month ago, a couple of those matches went the other direction toward Life, so it really was not taken lightly on our end,” Iowa head coach Clarissa Chun said. “It was really nice to see our women work on those things from the Soldier Salute and being able to execute in front of the home crowd.  They feed off that energy and being able to represent here at home.”

Sunday’s rematch was close for a while, as Larramendy led, 3-2, after the first three minutes of action. But in the second period, the Hawkeye started to pull away. Leading 6-4, Larramendy picked McBryde up and drove her to the edge of the mat before taking her to the ground for four points. With just seconds left, Larramendy stayed aggressive and scored a two-point takedown to clinch the victory.

“The game plan the whole time was just staying calm throughout every position, getting my resets in right if we go out of bounds, just getting ready to go back to the center and start fighting again,” Larramendy said. “So we just had a really good game plan going into the match and sticking to it was the biggest thing, and that’s I think why the outcome happened.”

Larramendy said she tries not to focus on past matches, but it felt good to avenge her loss. Looking back, Larramendy is thankful for her defeat at the Soldier Salute, adding it was one of her favorite matches she’s ever wrestled.

“Those matches are hard to come away with a loss, but I learned a lot about myself,” she said. ” I think it’s more frustrating when you feel like you gave them those points instead of them actually earning it, so those are just things that you need to learn.”

Larramendy said the loyalty the Hawkeye fans at Xtream Arena showed to her after the loss further encouraged her.

“After the match, some people even said it sounded like I just won, so that was a really cool thing to experience,” she said.

Those passionate fans showed up again on Sunday, as 6,775 people dressed in Black and Gold came to cheer on the top-ranked Iowa women in their last home dual of the season. The fans got to witness two wins, as Iowa defeated Life, the 2024 NAIA National Duals Champions, 35-6, and Missouri Valley College, 42-0.

Larramendy said it’s hard to describe how empowering it is to wrestle inside Carver, as the fans are into “every single takedown and every single exchange in a match.” She is thankful for the growth of the sport and hopes even more people show up to Iowa’s home duals next season.

“It’s different when you’re sitting on the bench cheering your teammates on rather than when you’re actually out there kind of having to tune everything out as much as possible,” Larramendy said. “Even though that’s still hard to do because those fans are just so amazing.”