This Week in Women's Collegiate Wrestling (12/11/2024)

Week 5

Highlights and Takeaways

After a bit of a hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday, women’s college wrestling was back in action with a number of exciting opens and duals. Here are a few highlights:

Dual highlight: Grand Valley State vs North Central

This dual was circled on my calendar since schedules were announced for the potential fireworks between the veteran-led North Central team coming off their second-place finish against Iowa last year at NCWWCs and the new kids on the block, Grand Valley State, entering their inaugural season with heavy-hitting transfers and big recruits. Despite the score being a bit more lopsided than I am sure the Lakers would hope for, this dual was still filled with exciting matches from start to finish.

At 103, you had the matchup between #5 Rayana Sahagun of Grand Valley facing the returning champ and #6 Madison Avila of North Central. While Avila was able to control the center early and force a step-out point to go on the board first, Sahagun scored a big takedown, originally called for four points. Coach Norton had to use an early challenge, but was effective in limiting the damage to a 2-point takedown. Avila was able to score another step out, but an additional takedown from Sahagun was able to put it out of reach. This match felt more folkstyle than a lot of the freestyle matches you see in college with the amount of scrambling and defensive scoring allowed before the wrestlers got reset. Avila certainly had more shots and was in deep a few times, but Sahagun had strong hips defensively and was able to capitalize and score or at least wade off the attacks from her opponent.

At 110, you had the marquee match between all-star #1 Sage Mortimer for Grand Valley against 3x All-American #4 Kendra Ryan. These matches, historically, have favored Mortimer, who was 4-0 against her opponent before this matchup. That streak continued here with a 9-2 decision for Mortimer, and while the score seems one-sided, it often felt closer watching. Mortimer went on a seven-point run early, but there was a clear shift in the second period when Ryan got a takedown of her own and was seemingly slowing Mortimer’s offense and finding some of her own. However, the shift came too late to pull off a come-from-behind win and tallied some more points for the Lakers.

A forfeit in favor of the Cardinals meant fans did not get to see #2 Sydney Petzinger on the mat, which led into the match at 124 between national champ #1 Amani Jones for North Central and freshman phenom #4 Aspen Blasko for Grand Valley State. These two met at the Adrian Invitational and Blasko kept things close with a 5-2 loss that was pretty back and forth, and this match was a real rollercoaster as well. Jones went up early with six unanswered points from some hard-earned takedowns. Right at the end of the first, Blasko scrambled to a takedown of her own and then caught Jones as she was wrestling up to her feet and was able to go feet to back for four right as time expired for the first period. All tied, up heading into the second it felt like Blasko might have had the momentum advantage, but Jones, the seasoned pro, caught her in a go-behind attempt. In their next exchange, Jones was working a takedown and ended up with exposure, almost pinning Blasko and scoring two. That exchange ended in injury time for Blasko with her appearing to hold her lower back after the exchange. Blasko wrestled hard for the remaining time, but was not able to come back again to flip the script on these exchanges. However, I would not be surprised to see this matchup again.

It seemed like North Central was picking up some momentum heading into 131 where #2 Sara Sterner of North Central scored big for her team with an 11-0 tech fall against #20 Hannah Palise of Grand Valley. There was a moment where Grand Valley challenged a takedown call, but did end up losing that challenge. Sterner was consistent in the hand fight and getting to her offense in a variety of different ways against the talented Grand Valley State junior.

Not to let things get too out of hand, the returning NCWWC champion #2 Katie Lange of Grand Valley quickly found a powerful double to take Emma Grimm of North Central to her back. After one roll through on the legs, Lange found the leverage to stick Grimm on the mat and get a pin and much-needed team points for the Lakers. 

The score was 14-12 in favor of North Central headed into one of the more interesting matchups on paper between #8 Elleni Jonson of Grand Valley State and #4 Bella Mir of North Central, who transferred from Iowa. Mir’s gritty, MMA background proved to be the winning style here as she snagged a single leg, scrambled to her feet, and got a big trip for her first score of the bout. Johnson tried to respond, getting to a leg herself, but Mir was able to turn this exchange into a scramble that almost had her in good position before the two got stood up. From there, a series of headlocks, tough hand fighting, throw-bys, and big mat returns were the script for Mir to take this 10-0 tech fall victory over her opponent. 

At 160 lbs, #10 Tiera Jimerson scored the only pin for the Cardinals over #17 Clarissa Agostini, and at 180 lbs, #3 Sabrina Nauss returned the favor with a pin for the Lakers over #7 Brittyn Corbishley of North Central. While the 160 lbs bout was fairly one-sided before the pin, at 180 lbs, 3x All-American Corbishley showed off a bit of her senior experience with some big moves early to challenge the freshman and #1 recruit at the 190 lb weight class in high school, Sabrina Nauss. However, once Nauss got a feel for her opponent and got to a favorable position, she locked up a strong cradle to take her to her back. This match was maybe my favorite to watch, as both of these wrestlers had the strength and big-move potential to take this win. However, even with the pin, there was no path to the dual victory for the Lakers as headed into the final match of the evening, the Cardinals were up 23-17 in the team score.

At 207, the Cardinals did not send out their normal starter and 3x All-American #2 Traeh Haynes. In her stead was Caroline Ward, competing against Aaliyah Grandberry of Grand Valley. This match came down to a penalty point and lone takedown from Ward, who was then able to hold off Grandberry’s flurry of attempts, to secure the 3-0 decision.

While the Cardinals could have easily scored five points with returning All-American Sydney Petzinger, seeing a forfeit at that weight really can be hard to overcome for team points. I’d love to see some of these matchups again, and just goes to show the talent of both the transfers and highly touted freshmen on this new Grand Valley squad. North Central has been a powerhouse under the leadership of Coach Joe Norton and the seven seniors (usually eight in the lineup here. While Grand Valley definitely made it interesting, the Cardinals walked away from this one with a resounding win. This one was an exciting watch from start to finish.

Tournament highlight: Patriot Duals

Once again there were a number of stacked tournaments that happened over the weekend, splitting up some of the top-ranked teams across different competitions. However, there was no shortage at the Patriot Duals with teams including #2 (NCAA) King, #1 (NAIA) Life, #7 (NAIA) Campbellsville, #5 (NAIA) Indiana Tech, #4 (NAIA) Cumberlands, #24 (NCAA) Tiffin, RV (NAIA) Siena Heights, RV (NAIA) Lourdes, Liberty, #18 (NAIA) Lindsey Wilson and #13 (NCAA) Emmanuel. 

Many of these teams split their rosters into two squads to ensure even more mat time for their deep rosters. King ended up winning the tournament, going undefeated in seven duals across two days. They were followed by Indiana Tech, Tiffin University, and one of the two Life University squads. 

I wanted to highlight specifically the matchup between King and Life (Green), as it was one of the most competitive duals of the tournament. At 103, King’s #8 (NCAA) Avery Kibelbek won by tech over Katherine Hernandez of Life. A very entertaining 110 lb match saw #1 (NAIA) Anaya Falcon of Life take out #3 (NCAA) Samara Chavez of King with a pin after almost four minutes of wrestling. King got two big ones in the following weights with #3 (NCAA) Melanie Mendoza winning a 6-2 decision over #5 (NAIA) Salyna Shotwell and #2 (NCAA) Montana Delawder getting a nailbiter 13-12 win over #6 (NAIA) Anna Krejsa. In that match in particular, it seemed that both wrestlers really had each other figured out, with the first period being eight unanswered points from Delawder followed by a flurry from Krejsa in the second to tie it up. From there, it was a suspenseful back and forth in what ended up being a gritty fight to the finish. King took the next three at 131, 138, and 145 with #9 (NCAA) Anna Dicugno, Alicen Dillard, and #1 (NCAA, 138 lbs) Claire DiCungo getting wins over their unranked opponents. At 160, Life fan-favorite #1 (NAIA) Latifah McBryde won via forfeit, a common occurrence at this tournament, followed by another King win at 180 pounds from #9 (NCAA) Alexa Garcia, getting the pin in just over a minute over Anetra Witherspoon of Life. Life was able to put a few more points on the board at 207 with Savannah Isaac getting a quick pin of her own over Kenisha Jacsaint of King. The final score was 18-28, securing a first-place finish for King. 

There were several more impressive performances at this tournament, including a flawless day for #2 (NAIA) Emma Walker of Campbellsville who was undefeated over the weekend with 4 tech falls, three falls, and a forfeit. Among her wins with a pin of #1 (NCAA, 138 lbs) Claire DiCungo of King. #4 (NAIA) Stefana Jelacic of Lourdes had a similarly impressive weekend, and although she had four of her nine wins come via forfeit, she also had all tech falls and falls against her opponents as well. 

Also at 110 lbs, #1 (NAIA) Anaya Falcon of Life was undefeated including her win over #3 (NCAA) Samara Chavez and a tough Allison Hancher of Indiana Tech. A Tiffin standout came from Ciara Riner, whose only loss on the weekend was to Skyley Hanna of Indiana Tech. She had a big win of her own against King’s #9 (NCAA) Anna DiCungo with a pin after three and a half minutes. 

Finally, it’s always impressive when a wrestler moves to another weight for a dual, and #1 (NAIA) Latifah McBryde of Life made the jump from 160 lbs, where she competed for the rest of the tournament, up to 180 lbs in the team’s dual against Indiana Tech and secured a tech fall victory for her team against Grace Doering.

Results this week in major NCAA, NCWA, and NAIA competitions

Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of all collegiate women’s competitions.

• Grand View 37 over Baker 6
• Grand View 37 over Missouri Valley 10
• Patriot Duals VIEW RESULTS
• William Penn 27 over Missouri Valley College 19
• Jewell Dual Tournament VIEW RESULTS
• Doane Open VIEW RESULTS
• Carthage Classic VIEW RESULTS
• Chadron State Open VIEW RESULTS

Upcoming events for next week

Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of all collegiate women’s competitions.

Friday, December 13

• WASP Open

Sunday, December 15

• North Central Invite