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Don't freak out - Iowa in second place after Day 1 of NCWWCs

by:Tanner Lafever•03/07/25•

TannerLafever

Brianna Gonzalez QF win
Iowa advanced 10/15 wrestlers into Saturday morning's NCWWC semifinal round. (Photo Credit: Iowa Women's Wrestling Twitter)

Let corners of Iowa wrestling social media tell it and Friday was a ‘calamitous’ showing for the Hawkeye women at the 2025 National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (NCWWCs).

But let a realist tell it, and the Hawks are doing just fine – despite sitting in second place after Day 1.

After eight hours of wrestling at Xtream Arena, here’s how things stand in the chase for an NCWWC team title:

The favored Hawkeyes began Friday in about as perfect a fashion as one could.

All 15 qualifiers went 2-0 in the morning, thus advancing to the quarterfinals. 27 of those 30 victories (90 percent) came via either technical fall or pin.

Like I said, pretty darn close to perfect.

After a short break between sessions, two-thirds of those same wrestlers would punch their ticket(s) to Saturday morning’s semifinals.

The other five – several of whom fell in tightly contested quarterfinal matches – each remain alive in the consolations for third place.

And still, despite it all, yes, Iowa does trail budding rival North Central by 3.5 points – with long-time powerhouse McKendree not far behind.

(BREATHE, people.)

Perhaps I should’ve done the projected math for this halfway point during my impossibly lengthy tournament preview. Because if I had, it turns out that to this point things are still almost exactly aligned with pre-tournament projections.

Those very same pre-tournament projections had Iowa favored by 42 points, by the way.

So, now that I’ve (hopefully) alleviated some of your yet-to-be-realized anxieties, let’s get to the wrestling itself. Because there was a ton of great action today, and a lot of it involved the Hawkeyes.

Session 1 highlights

It feels odd to say there’s ‘slim pickings’ from a session in which a team registers more pins (nine) than it had matches in which it allowed an opposing offensive point (seven).

But Iowa’s dominance was so routine and comprehensive on Friday morning that many of the ‘beatings’ blend together.

The first Hawkeye to wrestle a full six minutes wasn’t until #4 Cali Leng (124) in the Round of 16.

There, the sophomore overcame a 2-0 deficit at the intermission to defeat Lexy Basurto (Schreiner), 4-2.

A somewhat similar story unfolded at 207 pounds. #7 Alivia White trailed #10 Ella Beam (Presbyterian) on criteria in the second period before rattling off five-straight points to advance to the quarters.

Meanwhile, the toughest early test(s) of the session – at least on paper – were arguably both handed to Emmily Patneaud.

Iowa’s sixth-seeded 131-pounder faced a pair of past All-Americans to start her tournament. She’d vanquish both in impressive fashion.

A 10-0 tech. fall of East Stroudsburg’s Zoe Gress got things started and an 8-3 decision over #11 Cassia Zammit (Presbyterian) backed it up. In the latter, Patneaud gamely avoided danger on several occasions, building a comfortable lead she wouldn’t relinquish.

And even with perfection nearly achieved through 30 bouts, the team score remained competitive:

(Take note of that theme, Iowa fans.)

Session 2 – A hot start/finish

It sure feels like another all-Iowa final could be on the way at the lightest NCWWC weight class.

#1 Rianne Murphy cruised to a quarterfinal tech. fall (10-0) over #8 seed Avery Kibelbek (King). And she’d be followed quickly thereafter by #3 Sterling Dias’ third fall of the day – a 1:54 pin of three-time All-American Jennesis Martinez (Colorado Mesa).

Dias’ continues to look more and more like her dominant self after persevering through a regular season largely set back by a shoulder injury on opening weekend.

Sterling Dias pinned all three opponents she faced on Saturday – including this semifinal stick of #6 Jennesis Martinez. (Photo Credit: Iowa Women’s Wrestling Twitter)

Asked about her sophomore 103-pounder following Day 1, Hawkeye head coach Clarissa Chun summed Dias up in short order:

“I think I’ve said it before – it’s Sterling finding herself again. If anyone knows who Sterling is and what she’s capable of, you are seeing Sterling Dias today.”

At 110 pounds, #2 Ava Bayless continued Iowa’s lightweight dominance by earning her third bonus-point victory in as many tries – whipping over #7 Austria Holland (Adams St) for a quarterfinal pin of her own.

Elsewhere in the lineup, five other Hawkeye stars (all #1 seeds) did their usual work as well.

Brianna Gonzalez (117), Macey Kilty (145), Kennedy Blades (160), Kylie Welker (180) and Jaycee Foeller (207) went unscored upon in four tech. falls and one decision against a quintet of top-10-seeded foes.

‘Lowly’ two-seed Reese Larramendy (145) added a shutout of her own as well – 11-0 over #7 Zoey Lints (Elmira).

But the biggest cheers came for none of them. Instead, they were reserved for #4 Naomi Simon.

The Iowa freshman almost never heard them, however, after getting thrown to her back by #5 Brittyn Corbishley (North Central) in the early going.

But ever the competitor, Simon never relented, scoring eight of the final 10 match points to secure the 9-6 victory.

Said Chun of the Decorah native’s performance, “Oh my gosh. That fight off her back. That will to say, ‘I’m not giving up and I’m coming back.’ Yeah, you should be afraid of her when she gets back on her feet because she’s going to put points on the board.”

Clarissa Chun greets her freshman 180-pounder after Naomi Simon’s stirring quarterfinal comeback victory. (Photo Credit: Iowa Women’s Wrestling Twitter)

Session 2 – A trio of not-so-shocking results

As previously alluded to, Iowa did not go completely unscathed through the quarters as it had Friday morning.

And even though all but one would’ve been projected to occur based strictly on seeds, the results will sting Hawkeye fans to varying degrees.

At 207, Alivia White ran into arguably the tournament favorite, #2 Tristan Kelly.

As chronicled in my NCWWC preview, Kelly – a fixture on the Senior-level domestic/international scene – made the smart decision to bump up (and away) from Iowa’s Kylie Welker at 180.

It’s paid off thus far, as the McKendree athlete cruised to the semis with a 10-0 tech. of the #7 Hawkeye.

Meanwhile, Iowa took tough, albeit hardly unexpected losses back-to-back at 124/131.

 #4 Cali Leng lost an oft-delayed, scramble-heavy match to #5 Aspen Blasko (Grand Valley State) in what was the rubber match between them after splitting two prior meetings this season.

Leng was followed at 131 by Patneaud, who, for the fourth-consecutive time in 11 months proved unable to ‘crack the code’ that is #3 Alex Szkotnicki (McKendree).

Perhaps most notable from the match was Iowa being docked a team point for Patneaud ‘not following end-of-match procedure.’ The reasoning? The Hawkeye exited the mat before Szkotnicki’s hand was raised as the 6-0 winner.

“That’s what they said – end-of-match procedure,” said Chun when asked about the deduction post-session. “It really is kind of a scratch of the head, but at the end of the day, whatever it is, we’ve got to make sure that we’re carrying ourselves to the highest of standards – no matter the outcome.”

Session 2 – A pair that got away

The two toughest losses of the evening probably go to fellow five-seeds Emilie Gonzalez (110) and Nanea Estrella (138).

For Gonzalez – the reigning NCWWC champ at (then) 101 pounds – a bout against three-time All-American Kendra Ryan seemed hers for the taking after a four-point feet-to-back takedown late in the second period.

Leading 5-3, the sophomore went for a gut wrench attempt that the #4 seed Ryan stopped. But rather than a stalemate ruling and no points scored, the mat official deemed Ryan to have earned two exposure points in the sequence.

Said ruling was unclear from both the media table as well as the Iowa corner – where Chun said she initially didn’t see that Ryan had been awarded two additional points. Even so, Gonzalez still led on criteria (5-5), leading her corner to not risk a possible failed challenge attempt.

But shortly thereafter, Ryan – a three-time All-American – got back on Gonzalez’ legs for the match-winning takedown.

And at 138 it was the inverse which proved costly – not a late sequence but an early one. Leading 2-0 in the first period, Nanea Estrella was taken down and twice leg laced for four additional points.

That early deficit (which eventually ballooned to six) proved to be just too much. The Iowa senior rattled off five-straight points to close the second period but simply ran out of time, losing 8-7 to fourth-seeded Paige Wehrmeister (Presbyterian).

As for their head coach’s message to each of the five athletes whose NCWWC title dreams are now gone – how about a famous ‘Ted Lasso’ line?

“Be a goldfish,” said Chun in reference to the oft-recited quote from Jason Sudeikis’ titular character.

She wants her wrestlers, disappointed though they may be, to have a short memory and move on to what’s now in front of them.

“We’ve got to let that (loss) go. Because whatever just happened isn’t going to be helpful (for the next match.”

“They still have a great opportunity in front of them to get the next best thing.”

Setting Saturday’s stage

I want you guys to think of the math of this team race in the manner I’m about to detail.

In order for Iowa’s originally projected 42-point margin to be overcome it’d require several key elements:

  1. Iowa to significantly underperform as to its seeds.
  2. One of North Central/McKendree to drastically overperform as to theirs.
  3. Bonus points to overcome any additional margin.

And guess what? To this point in the tournament, none of those things have occurred.

Four of Iowa’s five quarterfinal losses were all ‘expected’ based on seeds. The other was a five-over-four ‘upset.’

As of now, all 15 Hawkeye qualifiers can still match/exceed their seed(s).

Meanwhile, there is only ONE wrestler among North Central/McKendree’s 29 combined qualifiers who is guaranteed to do so. That singular athlete (thus far) is 138-pound semifinalist Taylor Graveman – seeded seventh but can now finish no lower than sixth.

A reminder of NCWWC scoring procedures.

As for bonus points discrepancy? At the moment of this typing there’s just a three-point spread between the three teams:

(North Central – 42.5, McKendree – 41.5, Iowa – 39.5).

Oh yeah, and the Hawkeyes have all 15 wrestlers still alive in their bracket(s) – 10 in the semifinals, five others who’ll begin tomorrow in the consolation Round of 12.

Those splits for North Central/McKendree are just 7/6 (semis/R12) and 7/4 respectively.

Iowa has more wrestlers left competing to score points plus more of them left where it counts the most – in the semifinals.

(And they’ve got some wrestlers who are pretty good at scoring bonus points, too.)

Look, am I calling this team title race? Heck no, not by any means.

But despite the ‘sticker shock’ of seeing Iowa trailing after Day 1, the truth is things are (thus far) way more aligned with the projected 42-point margin than one might imagine.

Short time

That’ll wrap things up for me on Day 1 here in Coralville.

Day 2 begins Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. (CT) with Session 3. It’ll include semifinals and consolation matches all the way through the 3rd/5th/7th place bouts.

Then we’ll regroup for the finals (Session 4) starting at 6:00 p.m.

You can expect to have a much firmer grasp of the ongoing team race after the semifinals, and progressively more so from there on out.

(That sure sounded a lot more revelatory before I typed it out.)

Thanks as always to you guys for following along, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

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