This Week in Women's Collegiate Wrestling (12/19/2023)

Senior Nationals

There was a light schedule this week for college women’s wrestling outside of Senior Nationals, so this week’s recap will be focused on highlighting some of the collegiate athletes who qualified for the Olympic Trials at the tournament.

For context, there are several events throughout the year that wrestlers can compete in for a spot at the Olympic Trials held at Penn State in the Spring. Placing in the top five at Senior Nationals is one way to qualify.

Let’s look at each weight and see which current college wrestlers will be heading to the Trials based on their finishes over the weekend.

50 KG

All 5 top placers at 50kg are currently on college rosters. Starting with the champ, 2-time All American Sage Mortimer, who is having her first season at Grand Valley State. Fans got to see an exciting finals match between former teammates when Mortimer took on Samara Chavez of King University. Chavez went up early 7-0 with a big takedown on the edge and a tough throw-by followed by points from a gut-wrench turn. Down big, Mortimer came out swiftly in the second with a huge headlock move to get 4 points of her own. However, she put herself in danger giving up a reversal and exposure to Chavez. Mortimer was able to get another 4-point move later in the period but was down by one with 15 seconds left. Looking for a push-out on the edge since she would have criteria in a tie, Mortimer ended up getting a takedown with 5 seconds left on the clock. After Chavez’s team lost the challenge, Mortimer ended up winning 12-10.

This was a very exciting match that showed a lot of the styles that make each of these opponents so difficult to wrestle. Mortimer was able to capitalize on a lot of attempts from Chavez, but Chavez was also tricky with some of her moves, patiently waiting for opportunities in the hand fighting, ties, and scrambles she found herself in with Mortimer. It would be exciting to see these two face off again either in collegiate competition or later in the Olympic process.

In the 3rd place match, North Central’s Kendra Ryan ended up winning the 4-4 decision on criteria against Kaelani Shufeldt of Lock Haven. The two were actually tied 4-4 in the quarterfinals with Shufeldt having the criteria advantage before putting Ryan on her back for the pin. Each wrestler faced tough competition throughout the tournament, including Shufeldt beating Mia Palumbo in consultations to make it to the 3rd place round.  

Palumbo, a two-time NAIA finalist who now wrestles for William Penn lost by close decision to Erin Golston in the quarterfinals. Palumbo wrestled back and made it to the 5th place match where Golston, who had already earned a spot at the Trials by winning the Bill Farrel open, forfeited the match.

53 KG

2x All-American Sydney Petzinger of North Central earned a 5th place finish to qualify for the trials. Petzinger, who is ranked #2 (NCAA) at 116 lbs had an early win over Salyna Shotwell of McKendree, but then lost to former Olympian and World Team member Haley Augello to move to the consolation bracket. Petzinger got a pin in her first consolation round, but dropped her next match to Areana Villaescusa. However, she ended her tournament with a 12-5 decision to secure her spot.

57 KG

The 57kg weight class produced a top 5 that featured two McKendree wrestlers. Shelby Moore is in her first year with the Bearcats and was a top-ranked recruit out of high school. Moore placed fifth in last year’s U17 Worlds. Moore notched a few impressive wins in this tournament including a quarterfinals win over last year’s NAIA champ Carolina Moreno of Southern Oregon University. Moore lost in the semis to eventual champion Amanda Martinez, a 2x All-American who actually now coaches at North Central. Moore then went on to beat teammate Cam Guerin to make it to the third-place match where she won by injury default. While teammate matches can be a bit odd due to the familiarity of the wrestlers, Guerin is a 3x NCAA champ, so the win for Moore is no small feat. Along with Guerin’s 4 pins on the day and 5th place finish, this showing by the Bearcats clearly demonstrates the depth at this weight for McKendree. 

Guerin’s loss in the quarterfinals came to a tough opponent in Cristelle Rodriguez of Doane. While just in her sophomore season, Rodriguez has an impressive international record including a 2023 U20 World Team spot she won after a best-of-three series with the aforementioned Shelby Moore. Rodriguez injury defaulted out of the 3rd place match with Moore here, but had 4 tech falls and one decision on the day.

62 KG

King wrestler Aine Drury placed third at 62kg after a tough lineup of ranked components. One of her standout wins was against Iowa’s Nanea Estrella, who is ranked #2 at 136 lbs. Drury, a former California Community College champ, pinned Estrella in just over two minutes in the semifinals. At that point, Estrella ran into Ashlynn Ortega, who now coaches at King, and went on to finish second. On the back side, Drury took out the #3 (NAIA) at 136 lbs Andrea Schlabach of Grand View and SaVannah Cosme who just finished 3rd at U20 Pan Ams. In the 3rd place match, Drury got a big win 6-4 against U.S. National Team member Maya Letona. Drury was a real standout at this highly competitive weight, and will be looking to continue making a splash as part of the King roster in March.

68 KG

At 68kg, Chey Bowman of King University who is ranked #3 at 155 lbs had a dominant run to the finals. After she won her first three matches by pin, tech fall and pin, she faced former NAIA champ Kaylyn Albrecht in the semifinals. After Albrecht went up 4-0 early, Bowman was able to get to her own offense and secure a takedown. Even though she was down by two points heading into the second period, Bowman dominated the rest of the match, winning 6-4.

Bowman’s forfeited to 2x senior world medalist Mallory Velte in the finals.

76 KG

76kg is where Iowa claimed their two qualifiers in #1 at 155 lbs Marlynne Deede and Rose Cassioppi. Deede’s biggest win of the day was against Skylar Grote who was a U23 Nationals champ in 2020 and made it to Final X last year at 72 kg. Grote is a fierce competitor, but Deede looked confident in her 5-3 decision. Grote was constantly taking shots and getting powerful snap downs, but Deede was ready defensively for most of the attacks and scored her points from exposure during scrambles. 

In the finals, Deede had a tough match with eventual champ Precious Weiser. Weiser is a 2x US Open champ and made it to Final X in 2019. Deede was only down 0-1 going into the 2nd period, but Weiser hit a beautiful throw with an underhook to take Deede straight to her back for the pin. Deede really showed a lot of discipline and patience in her matches throughout this tournament. Some of the top wrestlers at this tournament proved to be a test for her, but more times than not she came out on top. 

Rounding out the collegiate competitors who qualified at this tournament is fellow Hawkeye Rose Cassioppi who finished in 5th. Unfortunately for Cassioppi, she crossed paths with Deede in her second match of the day. While the final score was only 6-3, Deede seemed to have all the answers. On the backside, Cassioppi took out #6 at 170lbs Cara Broadus in an impressive 10-2 decision. Cassioppi looked strong and had good momentum throughout the match, but definitely could have separated even more given how often she got to her shots. With the other upper weights Cassioppi trains with, in the Hawkeye wrestling room, she will surely make the adjustments she needs to look even better than she did at this tournament.

Desert Duals

Even with eight tough wrestlers at Senior Nationals, the Iowa Hawkeyes still swept the Desert Duals against tough competition.

The team won 34-11 to Adams State, only giving up points via forfeit. In their dual against #8 Simon Fraser, the Hawkeyes narrowly got the win 24-23. Again, the Hawkeyes had forfeits at three weights, but also dropped a tech at 123 lbs when Ava Rose took on Simon Fraser’s #8 Victoria Seal. Simon Fraser also picked up a tough ranked win at 130lbs with #7 Marquesis Haintz getting an impressive tech fall over #10 Emily Frost. Another ranked match was at 155 lbs when #1 Reese Larramendy of Iowa teched #10 Paige Maher. Finally, Iowa got the upset at 191lbs when #7 Alivia White got a pin over #4 Julia Richey. 

Iowa got another close win against #4 Colorado Mesa with a final team score of 25-20. Fans missed a chance to see ranked matches at 109lbs, 116lbs and 136lbs where Iowa gave up forfeits. The only other ranked match was at 101 lbs with #2 Sterling Dias getting a 6-0 decision over #8 Isabella Morales. 

Any of these impressive matchups could be avenged at NCWWCs if the brackets lineup, but Iowa has really been showing out for their first season.
 

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

Senior Nationals - VIEW BRACKETS

Eagle Duals VIEW RESULTS

Desert Duals VIEW RESULTS