This Week in Women's Collegiate Wrestling (1/22/2025)

There was a lot to cover across collegiate women’s wrestling this week. Here are some of the highlights:

Women’s Wrestling becomes the NCAA’s 91st championship sport

In the most exciting news of the week, the NCAA voted across all three divisions to approve women’s wrestling as a championship sport at their annual convention. The first NCAA women’s wrestling championship will take place in 2026 and will feature athletes from all division levels. There are over 90 teams estimated to be eligible to compete representing more than 1,200 athletes. Coaches, fans, and former and current college wrestlers spoke out on social media to share their excitement for this opportunity for the next generation of college wrestlers. 

Life goes 2-0 in tri-dual

#1 (NAIA) Life hosted a pair of duals on Wednesday against #8 (NAIA) Lindsey Wilson College and #7 (NCAA) Presbyterian College. The Running Eagles won 8 of 10 matches against Lindsey Wilson, losing their only matches at 138 and 145 lbs. Lindsey Wilson’s wins came from Ta’Jai Broadnex getting a pin at 138 lbs over Life’s Morgan Sacharczyk and Kori Campbell getting a close 8-6 decision against Christina Jean.

The Blue Raiders had a bit more momentum against Presbyterian starting things off with 3 wins in a row from Alyssa Archer with a 12-10 decision over Grace York, Reagan Thomas with a pin over Chiara Barbieri, and a forfeit win at 117 lbs. However, from there, it was all Blue Hose, winning the next 7 starting with #5 (NCAA) Alyssa Mahan getting the pin over #18 (NAIA) Sydney Bridenstine. From there, Presbyterian notched another pin, three tech falls, a forfeit, and a 6-0 decision to close things out 31-14.

In the final dual of the night, Life took on Presbyterian and got off to an early lead, claiming the first three matches with two tech falls followed by at forfeit. Alyssa Mahan finally put some points on the board for the Blue Hose with a scrappy 11-8 decision victory over Anna Krejsa. Life rallied back with two more tech falls from #5 (NAIA) Sarah Savidge and #1 (NAIA) Zaynah McBryde. Zaynah was the only McBryde in the lineup for this dual and at 145, Paige Wehrmeister was able to get a tech fall of her own over Christina Jane. From there, Life snagged another decision, a tech fall and a fall to close things out 34-10.

McKendree makes a statement at MoBap Open

#5 McKendree made their mark at the Missouri Baptist Open last Friday, claiming 6 first-place finishes. At 124 lbs, it was Bearcat vs Bearcat as #3 (NCAA) Shelby Moore won an 8-0 decision over teammate Mariah Smith for 1st place. #2 (NCAA) Alex Szkotnicki was the champ at 131 lbs over #10 (NCAA) Cayden Condit of Lindenwood, winning 5-0. Haylie Jaffe, a freshman at McKendree, wrestled unattached in this tournament and won the finals match over teammate #7 (NCAA) Alexis Gomez with an 11-0 tech fall.

At 145, #6 (NCAA) Savannah Gomez had a close one with another tough Lindenwood opponent, outscoring #10 (NCAA) Rebecca Strong just 5-4 for the gritty decision win. 160 lbs was the final all-McKendree finals with Lydia Krauss getting the tech fall over Ruby Rios. To cap things off, Tristan Kelly got a forfeit win in the finals after a dominant tech fall in the semis against #2 (NCAA) Sara Lake of Lindenwood.

Lindenwood claimed 3 champs of their own, starting with Sienna Caruso of Lindenwood in the 103 lb weight class. She took out Lillian Hackworth of Missouri Baptist in the finals. Then at 117 lbs with #4 (NCAA) Caitlyn Jackson winning over #9 (NCAA) Alexandra Waitsman of William Jewell 6-3. Finally, at 180 lbs, #10 (NCAA) Mikayla Rivera got the fall in under a minute against Tanihya Wilson of Indian Hills.

At 110, Quincy claimed victory with Trinity Pendergrass eeking out a 6-2 victory over Samantha Miller of McKendree. Then at 235 lbs, Mariyah Brumley won the hardware for William Woods with a 25-second pin of her opponent Selena Snell of Central College.

Open Season

In addition to the MoBap Open, teams across divisions competed at a number of open tournaments, spreading out a lot of the talent to many different events. #21 (NCAA) Simpson had three champions at the Mike Duroe Open. Marymount just eeked out Liberty 71-70 in team points at the Southern Virginia Open. Champs were pretty evenly split between #15 (NCAA) East Stroudsburg, Western New England, and Ursinus at the Will Abele Invitational. However, at the York Open, 8 schools crowned champions with #10 (NAIA) Missouri Valley being the only school to win two. #7 (NAIA) Indiana Tech cleaned up at the Women’s Spartan Mat Classic with 99 team points and 4 individual champions. And John Carroll got to claim 3 titles at the Purple Raider Open. Northern Michigan had four champs of their own at the Alma Open on Sunday. To wrap things up, winners were split between #8 (NCAA) Simon Fraser, Pacific University, and #17 (NAIA) Eastern Oregon at the Evergreen Open hosted by Evergreen State with each team taking home two titles.

NCAA Powerhouses Battle in Carver-Hawkeye

A lot of wrestling fans were tuned in for the Saturday night matchup between #4 (NCAA) Grand Valley State and #1 (NCAA) Iowa as they dualed in front of an in-person crowd of more than 4,000. Each team looked dominant in their earlier matches against Augustana College with Grand Valley State and Iowa winning 29-8 and 44-1, respectively.

During the main event, Grand Valley got the early upset with #4 Rayana Sahagun battling for the 6-4 decision win over #2 Sterling Dias. A big throw from Sahagun pushed her into the win column and put points on the board for the Lakers. Without #1 Sage Mortimer here, what could have been big points for GVSU turned into 5 forfeit points in favor of Iowa. It would have been awesome to see a rematch between Mortimer and Bayless, but something tells me we will get that chance in the postseason.

At 117 lbs, #1 Brianna Gonzalez continues her insane, undefeated season with the win over Kiley Tabadlo with a tech fall. 124 lbs was another marquee matchup with Cali Leng of Iowa taking on the freshman phenom #4 Aspen Blasko. The two seemed to have all the answers for one another, keeping things low-scoring. Leng ended up winning on criteria in the 2-2 match. Emmilly Patneaud kept things rolling for the Hawkeyes with a pin over Hannah Palise. 

Grand Valley got back in the win column with #2 Katerina Lange getting the decision over Iowa’s #3 Nanea Estrella 4-2. However, Iowa then rattled off big wins from their most decorated run in their lineup. #3 Macey Kilty gets the tech fall over #9 Elleni Johnson, followed by a pin from #2 Kennedy Blades over #20 Clarissa Agostini, #1 Kylie Welker gets the tech fall over Emily Medford, and then #7 Alivia White closes things out with a 5-0 decision win for the Hawkeyes. This was certainly must-watch wrestling between two of the newest teams in collegiate wrestling.
 

Upcoming events for next week

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

Wednesday, January 22

• William Penn vs CMU
• Missouri Valley vs Baker

Friday, January 24

• Warrior Duals

Saturday, January 25

• Warrior Open
• Journeyman Duals

Sunday, January 26

• CCIW Championships
• McKendree Duals