The Iowa women’s wrestling team totaled 201.5 team points and secured its second consecutive NCWWC National Championship on Saturday evening. The Hawkeyes ended the weekend with 15 All-Americans and three national champions.
“They deal with a lot of pressures, and we do a great job being able to manage such vigorous schedules, academic schedules, alongside the training schedule,” said Iowa head coach Clarissa Chun. “They’re amazing, and they really all do love each other so much.”
Semifinals
The Hawkeyes got off to a rocky start in the semifinals, with 103-pounders Rianne Murphy and Sterling Dias falling via decision.
Otterbein’s Olivia Shore and Murphy battled it out for the first minute of the match, with both wrestlers feeling each other on the mat. Shore notched a pair of two-point moves to end the period up 4-0. Shore continued to apply pressure in the second half of the match and eventually won convincingly, 8-0.
History was repeated in the next matchup in Dias versus McKendree’s Gabriele Tedesco. After giving up two points in the first three-minute stretch, Dias entered the second period needing a comeback. She secured a point with 41 seconds remaining, but the final efforts weren’t enough to secure the win.
The struggles continued in the 110 and 117 pound weight classes with Ava Bayless and Brianna Gonzlalez dropping their first contests.
Bayless was matched up against Samara Chavez from King University. A back-and-forth first round found Bayless down 4-2 after three minutes. Bayless, uncharacteristically, succumbed to an onslaught of points from Chavez in the first 30 seconds of the second set, resulting in her second fall defeat of her Hawkeye career.
While the type of match was different for Gonzalez and Clare Booe from King University, the result was the same — a defeat.
Gonzalez surrendered a point with 60 seconds remaining in the first set, going into the second period down 1-0. After pushing Gonzalez gave up another point in the early stages of round two, Booe remained cautious and advanced to the championship round.
The Hawkeyes got back to their winning ways to finish the first session, with Macey Kilty, Kennedy Blades, Kylie Welker, and Jaycee Foeller advancing to the championships in the final four weight classes–all victories coming via technical fall.
Championships
Kilty began the championship rounds with a victory over Bella Mir from North Central College. The much-anticipated 145-pound bout was fueled by the brewing rivalry between the two programs, who battled it out in last season’s championships.
Both wrestlers felt each other on the mat in the early stages of the initial period, clinching onto each other as they circled the mat. After getting a point in the middle of the period, Kilty ended the first set with a barrage of two-point maneuvers to lead 5-0.
Mir secured a two-point takedown at the beginning of the second period, but her efforts weren’t enough to conquer Kilty, who won the bout 7-2 and secured the second consecutive NCWWC National Championship for the Hawkeyes.
With the team title already in the bag, Blades faced Kaylynn Albrecht from Mckendree. The former 2024 Paris Olympics Silver Medalist failed a takedown attempt in the early part of the first round but came with an onslaught of offensive pursuit after, collecting 10 points in a variety of ways to earn the technical fall victory.
Wrapping up the championship victors for Iowa was none other than Kylie Welker at 180 pounds, taking on Sabrina Nauss from Grand Valley State. Unlike the previous two matches, Welker captured the match early and often.
She scored all 10 points in the first minute of the match to win her second consecutive NCWWC National Championship and close out another memorable season for the Hawkeyes.