Iowa women’s wrestling fourth-year grappler Nanea Estrella dominated her opponents in the Iowa Duals at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, going a perfect 2-0 and helping the Hawkeyes to a resounding home triumph.
No. 1 Iowa topped William Jewell and Cornell by a combined team score of 90-3, with each wrestler winning their respective bouts in the process.
But Estrella’s win wasn’t just any win. The match also marked Estrella’s long-awaited return to the mat after battling multiple foot injuries. These nagging issues would have made it easy for Estrella to call it a career, but she didn’t give up.
Hailing from the beautiful shores of Makawao, Hawaii, Estrealla began her collegiate career at Menlo College in Atherton, California. After spending one season with the Oaks, she traded the scenic beaches for corn fields and moved to Iowa ahead of her sophomore campaign in 2021-22.
To the casual observer, this would have been a strange choice. But a future without wrestling was never in Estrella’s mind, and it all paid off on Saturday.
Estrella performed a masterclass against Cornell College wrestler Ciara Gomez-Bryant, defeating her opponent by fall at the 2:30 mark.
The Hawaii native followed up her first victory with a 11-0 technical fall win in just under a minute of play in the first period — resulting in a loud eruption from the Hawkeye faithful.
After the dual, head coach Clarissa Chun praised the 138-pounder for persevering through her nagging injury.
“I see growth,” said Chun. “You know, she’s grown from last year to this year. As far as her patience, her injury last December was not a new injury she sustained. She had a very similar injury on the other side of that, so when it happened it was pretty devastating to think that she had to go through it again.”
The recovery process was not an easy one for Estrella — as she had to completely relearn basic human functions post-injury, a task that is not only hard for the average person but an extremely difficult task for a Division-1 athlete.
Estrella described her recovery process in detail, showing how grim her injury was.
“It’s been really tough. Just basically relearning how to walk again relearning how to run, put pressure on my feet, just doing foot exercises and activating my feet and my legs in waves that I never knew that I could do before.”
For Estrella, getting back to live action on the mat made all of the blood, sweat, and tears sustained during recovery worth it.
“There’s been a lot of challenges just working through multiple injuries and trying to find the right mindset to be able to come back,” said Estrella. “Just getting stronger and realizing I’m not as good as I was before but I’m working to get better.”