This Week in Women's Collegiate Wrestling (1/2/2025)

Soldier Salute and Midlands Recap

To wrap up 2024, we saw two huge tournaments in collegiate wrestling, Soldier Salute and Midlands, concluding over the weekend. Many teams will return to competition with NWCA Collegiate Duals next week, so this was a great opportunity for teams to test their depth at different weights to prepare.

Soldier Salute

The Soldier Salute, held in Coralville, Iowa, took place from December 29 to 30. It featured tough competition from #1 (NCAA) Iowa and #1 (NAIA) Life. Whenever these two teams compete in any capacity, there are always fireworks, and Iowa barely eked out the first-place finish with 5 champions compared to Life’s 3. #7 (NAIA) Indiana Tech put up a strong showing as well, coming in third. 

At 103, unattached high school wrestler from Wyoming Seminary, Jaclyn Bouzakis secured the tech fall over Life’s #2 (NAIA) Katherine Hernandez. Life also had a head-to-head matchup in the 3rd place match, but did not wrestle-off between Brianna Funakoshi and Macie Anderson. 

At 110 lbs, freshman for Life#1 (NAIA) Anaya Falcon continued to show her absolute dominance at the weight with a 16-5 tech of Iowa’s #2 (NCAA) Ava Bayless, the 2024 NCWWC National Champ. Falcon has seemed pretty untouchable and this separation from the returning champ shows just how much of a threat she is across divisions. In the 3rd place match, Iowa did let some teammate competition play out between #5 Emilie Gonzalez and Valarie Solorio. Earlier in the tournament, Bayless got the win over Gonzalez, and here Gonzalez won the 6-2 tech over freshman Solorio. Regardless of outcomes here, the depth for the Hawkeyes points to a bright future at the weight.

At 117, we got the first of a few Iowa vs Life finals matches. Here, Iowa secured a 6-0 decision with returning NCWWC finalist #1 (NCAA) Brianna Gonzalez over Life’s #5 (NAIA) Salyna Shotwell. Gonzalez seemed to control this match, having defensive answers to Shotwell’s attempts and slick point-scoring of her own to keep it out of reach.

At 124, we saw another win from an unattached wrestler as former North Central All-American Mateah Roehl got an 11-0 tech fall over talented freshman from Indiana Tech, #3 (NAIA) Rose Kaplan. Down the line, we saw #6 (NAIA) Ariana Martinez of Life with a 12-2 tech fall over Devlynn Albrech (HS) for 3rd place and #8 (NAIA) Anna Kresja for Life securing 5th place with a tech of her own against Iowa’s Cali Leng.

131 brought another exciting Life vs Iowa matchup, this time with Life having the upper hand. #2 (NAIA) Sarah Savidge got the 10-0 tech over Emily Frost. This was a repeat of the result from U20 Nationals this past spring where Savidge beat Frost, 13-4. 

Iowa freshman, Cadence Diduch showed out here at 138 lbs claiming the title over #3 (NAIA) Samantha Barragan of Texas Wesleyan in a nail-biter 8-6 decision. Diduch separated early with six unanswered points, but had to score late and hang on after Barragan answered back with six of her own. Barragan was on quite the run in the tournament taking out Iowa’s Lily Luft and Life’s #8 (NAIA) Zaynah McBryde to make the finals. Looking at the brackets, it was not my prediction for the finals, but both wrestlers gritted out through a stacked weight class to have one of the most exciting final matchups of the evening.

145 lbs was more Iowa v Iowa action, with #3 (NCAA) Macey Kilty winning her 8-1 matchup against teammate #1 (NCAA) Reese Larramendy. Larramendy had a huge win in the semis over #1 (NAIA) Jamilah McBryde defeating her 13-0 after several close matches between the two. Kilty, who is a 2x Senior World Medalist had an incredible tournament, winning twice by tech fall, with one coming in about 40 seconds. Larramendy is a returning NCWWC champ for the Hawkeyes, but this win will likely put them at #1 and #2 in the rankings, with Kilty finally taking the #1 spot.

Similarly, at 160lbs, Olympic Silver Medalist #2 (NCAA) Kennedy Blades teched her way to the finals where she matched up with NAIA #1 Latifah McBryde who already had a pin and a tech on the day. This was the most exciting finals by far given Blades' slick scoring ability and incredible defense paired with McBryde’s dangerous positional wrestling and big move potential. Although things got interesting a few times, Blades was able to secure the second-period tech, 13-3 to claim another first-place finish for the Hawkeyes.

At 180 lbs, fans saw another Hawkeye finals with returning champ #1 (NCAA) Kylie Welker taking on freshman #7 (NCAA) Naomi Simon. Both had two techs to land in the finals including Welker’s win over Margaret Graham of Life. In the finals, it was all Welker however as she recorded her 3rd tech fall of the day.

At 207 lbs, Life fans got to see one more win over an Iowa opponent as freshman #3 (NAIA) Savannah Isaac gritted out a close 2-1 decision over Iowa’s 2024 NCWWC runner-up #1 (NCAA) Jaycee Foeller. This upset was a nail-biter, and while low-scoring was a captivating way to end the tournament. Iowa ended up claiming the team title with 215.5 team points, while Life came in second with 199. Any time these two teams square up, it brings out some amazing competition and results keep shifting back and forth. For fans of either team, this was a great showing with standouts from Indiana Tech and #14 (NAIA) Texas Wesleyan making their marks as well.

Midlands

The spread between top teams at Midlands was more divided with #3 (NCAA) North Central winning first place as a team by a commanding lead. Their 165 team points were followed by only 70 team points from the second-place team, preparatory school Wyoming Seminary. Just a half point behind them with 69.5 was #7 (NCAA) Presbyterian College. Similar to Iowa, North Central had several teammate matchups in the finals, with the Cardinals representing 9 out of the 20 finalists. Additionally, they had 12 wrestlers finish in the top 3. For the purpose of this article, I will be focusing primarily on results from collegiate competitors.

Starting at 103 lbs, we had our first of several all-NCC finals with #6 (NCAA) Brianne Graves eking out the 3-2 decision over 2x All-American and 2023 champ, #10 (NCAA) Madison Avila. While you do have to take teammate matchups with a grain of salt, this does shine a light on the available talent for the Cardinals at this weight. Earlier in the season, Graves and Avila had similar tournament success and met in the finals of the Adrian Invite with Avila getting the win at the time. With both ranked in the top 10, North Central is spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting a starter at this weight for duals.

At 117 lbs, #2 (NCAA) Sydney Petzinger of North Central won 9-0 against opponent #4 (NCAA) Caitlyn Jackson of Lindenwood. Petzinger is a 3x All-American and went 5-0 on the day with every match except for the finals being a bonus point win. Jackson was Lindenwood’s highest placer on the day and had two tech falls before running into 2024 National Finalist Kaelani Shufeldt (unattached), whom she beat in a close 3-2 decision. 

Moving on to 131 lbs, Aurora’s U20 world medalist #3 (NCAA) Alexis Janiak took down Virginia Foard (unattached) in a 4-3 decision in the finals. Foard has similar international success with 2 age-level Pan Am golds under her belt. Lindenwood’s Cayden Condit took 5th place at the tournament where she had a tech fall and a fall before losing the decision to Foard, then getting a two-minute pin on the backside for the 5th place spot on the podium.

At 145 pounds, #7 (NCAA) Sydney Perry of North Central got the 6-3 decision win over teammate Sarina Bertram. Both had matches against other teammates along the way to the finals with Riley Aamold and Clare Waite also finishing in the top 5 at 145 for the Cardinals. This of course does not factor in #4 Bella Mir who also competes for North Central who did not participate in this tournament. This may be the weight with the most depth for the Cardinals.

Presbyterian claimed their lone title of the tournament at 160 lbs, with talented freshman #4 (NCAA) May Cuyler shaking things up with a 10-7 decision against North Central’s previous multiple-time All-American #7 (NCAA) Tiera Jimerson. This match was electric with back-and-forth action leaving the two tied 4-4 heading into the second period. Jimerson struck first when action resumed, but Cuyler answered right back with 2 of her own. Jimerson scored a point, but Cuyler had the answers, tacking on 4 more with under 10 seconds left in the match. Cuyler improves to 16-1 on the season and only looks to be honing her craft. She will continue to be a dangerous podium threat come March.

In another North Central finals match, #5 (NCAA) Shenita Lawson got the better of #3 (NCAA) Brittyn Corbishley with a pin in the finals between the two Cardinals. This is another weight with two top-5 ranked wrestlers for North Central and it showed in the dominance each wrestler had getting to the finals. Corbishley had two falls plus a decision and Lawson had a tech fall, fall, and decision before the two met up. Corbishley was actually up on Lawson headed into the second, but Lawson caught Corbishley shooting to put her on her back. Both wrestlers are lethal if they find the positioning they are going for, and in this match, that favored Lawson.

North Central finished strong at 207 lbs claiming the 1st, 3rd, and 5th place spots with #10 (NCAA) Dasia Yearby, Traeh Haynes, and Caroline Ward winning respectively. Yearby took out returning All-American teammate Haynes in the semis to move on to the finals where she pinned Jade Herzer of UW-Stevens Point in just under 40 seconds.

Wrap up

Things are still slow as winter break for students continues until mid-January, but teams have to be ready to hit the ground running when schedules resume as National Duals are the first thing back for most. I plan to preview it once brackets are released. So far, we know these are the teams planning to compete:

NAIA: Baker University, Campbellsville University, Doane University, Grand View University, Hastings College, Indiana Tech, Life University, Lourdes University, Missouri Baptist University, Oklahoma City University, Southern Oregon University, Texas Wesleyan University, University of Cumberlands, University of Providence, University of Saint Mary, William Penn University

NCAA: Adrian College, Aurora University, Colorado Mesa University, Elmira College, Emmanuel College, King University, Lock Haven University, McKendree University, North Central College, Presbyterian College, Sacred Heart University, Schreiner University, University of Iowa, University of Mount Olive, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Wartburg College

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.

• Soldier Salute VIEW RESULTS
• Midlands VIEW RESULTS

Upcoming events for next week

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

• Saturday, January 4 - Red Lady Open