This Week in Women's Collegiate Wrestling (2/12/2025)

Highlights this week in women’s collegiate wrestling

NCAA #1 wins gold at Zagreb Open

Kennedy Blades, Olympic Silver Medalist and #1 at 160 lbs for the Iowa Hawkeyes won gold on Friday at the 2025 Zagreb Open in Croatia. Blades completed her tournament with 4 wins, two by pin and two by technical fall. Also bringing home hardware for the U.S.A. was Adaugo Nwachukwu, 3x NAIA National Champion, most recently for William Penn in 2024. North Central alum and current assistant coach Yelena Makoyed brought home gold at 76 kg, as did former Missouri Valley wrestler Jacarra Winchester. Sky Grote, a member of the National team, claimed the top title at 72 kg as well. Arena Villaescusa and Michaela Beck both snagged the bronze medal, to round out a dominant weekend for the women’s team.

Nigerian stars shake up NAIA rankings

Heading into the final weeks before conferences, William Penn made the jump from #6 to #3, right behind #2 Grand View and #1 Life. Most of this jump can be explained with the impressive recent performances by Olympians Christianah Ogunsanya at 117 lbs and Esther Kolawole at 138 lbs, who are now both ranked at #1. 

An upset in Iowa

Speaking of the switch up in rankings, #3 William Penn got an upset dual win over #2 Grand View in a conference showdown on Tuesday. The 25-19 win represents the first time William Penn has come out on top in this matchup, having lost the past 3 times they’ve met. However, these teams looked closer than ever with 5 of 10 matchups featuring two ranked wrestlers.

103 lbs proved to make a big difference in the final score and one of the closest matches between the two teams. For William Penn, #14 Lily Zapata, a freshman, took on #5 Judy Sandoval of Grand View. A big four-point move and a clear edge in aggressiveness helped Zapata get out to an early 7-1 lead. However, Sandoval showed the importance of staying calm in scenarios where you go down early and wrestled back with an onslaught of her own offense, coming all the way back and locking up a leg lace to take the 9-7 lead. From there, the two exchanged points to end the second period tied 11-11. Because this is freestyle and does not go to SV like folkstyle, the match is decided on criteria. Zapata’s two four-point moves ended up being the difference and giving a huge swing to the Statesmen in this pivotal upset win.

At 110lbs, The Vikings take the lead with a forfeit against their #7 Tristan Nitta. Moving on to 117lbs, William Penn sends out one of their new #1s with Olympian Christianah Ogunsanya taking on #9 Mayangelie Colon for Grand View. While Colon got an impressive first takedown, Ogunsanya quickly took things back and continued her undefeated season with a pin at 1:38.

The teams split 124 and 131 with #4 Joanna Vanderwood getting the 9-3 decision over Grand View’s #13 Catharine Campbell. However, #2 Maya Davis for the Vikings got things back on track getting a pin over #6 Devin Patton of WP. Patton actually had the early lead, but Davis brought out her deadly lat drop twice, once for a big four-point move and again in the second period to get the pin. This pulled the Vikings back into the lead 12-11.

William Penn sent out another hammer at 138 lbs with #5 Kendall Bostelman getting the 12-1 tech fall over Adrienna Turner. However, the ability for Vikings to score even in their losses kept the team score more in range keeping the team score at 15-13 even with a big pin for the Statesmen.

From there, a string of talented transfers locked up the dual for William Penn, highlighting how important these added talented wrestlers have been to this late-in-season renaissance of the team, propelling them toward the top of the team rankings. Starting at 138 lbs, the other Olympian from Nigeria #1 Esther Kolawole blanked #6 Krista Warren in a 10-0 tech fall.

Following that, returning national champ at 155lbs, Caitlyn Davis won a gritty match against Emmalee Spurgeon 8-6. This match started with Spurgeon ahead early with a big feet-to-back four-point move, but again, Davis stayed calm and collected, rallying back to get the win in this nailbiter of a match. In the next match, All-American transfer #9 America Lopez won the 180 lb bout over Yarissa Gallo. Gallo strung a few takedowns together late to close the deficit a bit, but not enough to keep Lopez from locking it up for the Statesmen.

Grand View did end the night on top in the 207 lb match with #1 Olivia Brown taking on Phoebe Burt, getting the 10-0 tech fall, but it just wasn’t enough for the dual win. 

This match may have seemed one-sided with William Penn winning 7 of 10, but not only were there so many close matches, but Grand View’s wins came from a pin, tech fall, and forfeit which all mean big team points. Add that to them earning team points in five matches they lost really made things interesting. If 103 lbs would have gone the other way and then one upset going for the Vikings, this would have been another story.

In addition to this just being a great dual between two of the top-ranked NAIA programs in the country, this dual also made history as the first women’s wrestling dual broadcasted on PBS. I hope more and more women’s competitions get broadcasted in places where fans can easily access them, as so many are not broadcast at all, much less on Iowa PBS and via YouTube livestream so fans can watch live and cheer on these amazing athletes.

Upcoming events for next week

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

Wednesday, February 12

• McKendree vs Missouri Baptist

Friday, February 14

• Cumberlands vs Indiana Tech

Saturday, February 15

• Baker Open