Iowa Women's Wrestling: Early Thoughts on the Hawkeyes
With the start of the 2024-25 season barely a month away it’s high time for me to give a bit of a sneak preview at this year’s Iowa women’s wrestling program.
We did the same for the men’s program 24 hours ago, so it only makes sense to return the favor for another group of Hawkeye wrestlers – this one, which just so happens to be the reigning national champions.
An official schedule has yet to be released as of my typing this story. However, I’d anticipate Iowa getting its dual season underway on Friday November 8th down in Georgia – potentially followed by an open tournament later that same weekend.
As the returning national team and dual champions it’s likely that this Iowa squad will have an even bigger target on its back than did last year’s inaugural group.
Heavy is the ‘Hawkeye’ that wears the crown, I suppose.
The good news is that head coach Clarissa Chun has assembled (and developed) a roster which appears eminently capable of not only warding off all challengers but dominating them with a ruthless efficiency that both Hawkeye fans and wrestling enthusiasts will surely appreciate.
Earlier this summer I broke down the entire 32-woman Iowa roster/depth chart from top to bottom – including team demographics such as remaining eligibility, home states, transfer history, etc.
You may read and/or reference that up-to-date article HERE.
But for this piece I’ll be focusing solely on my projected postseason lineup as things stand today, in addition to another storyline or two to keep your eye on in the months ahead.
*A reminder that NCAA women’s programs may qualify up to 15 athletes for the national tournament – of which only the top scorer at any single weight class gets counted toward their team’s points.
103 pounds – Emilie Gonzalez (RS So) AND Sterling Dias (RS So)
I’ll continue to repeat this wildly impressive factoid until the day it’s no longer applicable to Iowa’s two sophomore lightweight stars:
In two seasons at Iowa, Emilie Gonzalez and Sterling Dias have yet to lose a single match to a collegiate opponent besides each other.
Their combined 73-8 record as Hawkeyes includes a 4-3 series between them (advantage Dias) and a single defeat versus a non-collegiate opponent at an open tournament. That’s it.
Gonzalez, last year’s NCWWC champ at 101 pounds – the first individual champion in program history no less – holds the most recent win. But all signs point to these two clashing on multiple occasions yet again this season, giving NCWWC runner up Dias ample opportunity to flip things back in her favor the next go around.
110 pounds – Nyla Valencia (RS So) AND Ava Bayless (RS So)
It feels strange to say that the Hawkeye wrestler I’m most excited to watch compete at 110 pounds in 2024-25 is not the one coming off a 31-1 national title-winning season.
Ava Bayless won 23 of those matches (74.2 percent) by either tech. fall or pin and was a major component to Iowa prevailing in a razor-thin race for the NCWWC team title.
The thing is a young woman named Nyla Valencia also exists and will be making her official Hawkeye debut after being sidelined by a torn ACL last season.
A past U23 World team representative for Team USA at the age of 18, Valencia returned from her knee injury this past April just in time to A) bonus her way through the Last Chance US Olympic Qualifier, B) finish runner up (for the second time in her career) at U20 World Team Trials and C) compete at the US Olympic Trials held in State College, Pennsylvania.
It was at those Olympic Trials that she wrestled against her teammate (Bayless) for the first time in official competition – winning the match 11-4.
You guys are in for a real treat getting to watch both of these incredible athletes don the Black & Gold singlet this season.
117 pounds – Brianna Gonzalez (RS So)
Another favorite of mine to watch compete, Brianna Gonzalez (twin sister to Emilie) will be the top returning placer at 117 (formerly 116 pounds) this college season.
The 2024 NCWWC runner up only lost two matches a year ago – once to North Central’s Sydney Petzinger at the National Duals (which Gonzalez would later avenge in decisive fashion at both the NCWWC semis and the Olympic Trials) and once to her Iowa teammate Felicity Taylor in the national championship bout.
(Gonzalez had also beaten Taylor a few weeks earlier at the Regional Qualifier.)
Aside from that pair of defeats, she won 34 other matches with 27 of them (79.4 percent!) coming via bonus points.
Gonzalez will be a strong title favorite at 117 pounds entering the 2024-25 season.
She’s also coming off the first World Championship experience of her career, competing for the US U20 squad in Spain earlier this month.
124 pounds – Karlee Brooks (Fr)
The first newcomer on the 2024-25 roster to make this list, Brooks was arguably Iowa’s most credentialed recruit in the Class of 2024.
Not only did she finish her high school career ranked #1 nationally at 120 pounds, but the native Hawaiian’s past credentials already include a U17 World Championships appearance (finishing fifth in 2023) as well as multiple titles won at a variety of high-profile tournaments in the United States.
Brooks – who spent much of her senior season at the US Olympic Training Center as part of the Elite Accelerator Program (EAP) – also challenged herself at a few college opens (winning both) in preparation for her first year at Iowa.
I think she steps into the lineup right away and wouldn’t surprise me whatsoever if she’s in contention for a national title by the time March rolls around.
131 pounds – Skye Realin (RS Jr)
Realin became just the latest in a growing contingent of ‘Hawaiian Hawkeyes’ (including Clarissa Chun) when she announced her transfer to Iowa City a little more than two months ago:
Now, the two-time All-American (5th in 2023 for NAIA’s Central Methodist, 4th in 2022 for national champion McKendree) will look to jump levels as a Hawkeye.
That progression got off to an auspicious start even before Realin’s commitment to the Hawkeyes when she made the U23 World team in April at 59 kilograms (~130 pounds).
She’ll be entering a weight class headlined by her former McKendree teammate – four-time NCWWC champion Cameron Guerin.
While Realin certainly won’t be a title favorite entering 2024-25, she can take some confidence from the fact that she has recent wins over both of last year’s NCWWC finalists at 136 pounds.
138 pounds – Macey Kilty (Sr) AND Nanea Estrella (5th-Year Jr)
Not a week after Realin announced her move to Iowa this July, so too did Macey Kilty.
And while Kilty brings exactly zero previous collegiate experience with her to Iowa City I’ve got a feeling she’ll do just fine.
Before the 23-year-old Wisconsinite officially competes for the Hawkeyes she’ll first look to add to her decorated international resume.
A five-time age-level World medalist (one gold, three silver, one bronze), Kilty is also the reigning Senior World silver medalist at 65 kilograms (~143.3 pounds).
She’ll go for another medal in late October after having recently made Team USA for the second time:
Oh, and days before that she’ll also be competing in the U23 division at 62kg (~136.7 pounds) – where she happens to be a two-time Olympic Trials runner up (2021/24).
Because of her track record at multiple weight classes, it’s tough to predict where she’ll compete collegiately at this point (either 138 or 145).
Either way she’ll be an overwhelming favorite to win the national tournament in March.
Not to be forgotten, Nanea Estrella gets her own shot at redemption after a mid-December injury cut her season short last year.
At the time Estrella was just rounding into form and looked very much like the national title favorite at 136 pounds.
If the 2022 Senior US Open champ is back on top of her game post-injury, she could very well represent the greatest challenge to Kilty. And if the latter happens to compete at a different weight this season…well then Estrella might just snag ‘title favorite’ status for herself.
145 pounds – Reese Larramendy (RS So) AND Ella Schmit (RS So)
As returning NCWWC champion Reese Larramendy (37-3) would’ve already entered the 2024-25 season as the favorite to repeat at 145 (previously 143) pounds.
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That notion was only bolstered by Larramendy having bonus’d her way through nationals last March, making the second U20 World team of her career about a month later and capping it off with a fourth-place finish at the US Olympic Trials – where she competed up a weight class.
Once again, a fellow Hawkeye will be in hot pursuit, as returning All-American Ella Schmit (7th) has shown an ability to both compete with and beat many of the nation’s top competitors around this weight.
The Bettendorf (IA) native is now a back-to-back U20 World Team Trials finalist – finishing second this year to Larramendy after another runner-up performance in 2023.
(And both Hawkeyes have three years of eligibility remaining.)
160 pounds – Kylie Welker (RS So) AND Rose Cassioppi (RS Fr)
Another Hawkeye with a thus far undefeated record against collegiate competition is returning national champ Kylie Welker.
Welker played the role of hero (and closer) at NCWWCs last March when she clinched the team title for Iowa by winning the final bout of the entire tournament:
A change in weight class will be in store this season (either 160 or 180 instead of the old 170 pounds) as will another superstar teammate to presumably fill the other spot.
Regardless, she’ll be a huge title favorite wherever she ends up.
But first, a trip to Albania next month is in store, where Welker will compete for U23 and Senior World titles alongside new teammates Realin and Kilty.
My best guess at this point is that Rose Cassioppi also finds her way into the Iowa lineup at 160 – a weight at which she was a Senior US Open runner up as recently as 2023.
The younger sister of former men’s All-American heavyweight Tony, Rose redshirted during her first year in Iowa City. But lest you think she was sitting on her hands as a freshman the 19-year-old also qualified for the US Olympic Trials thanks to a fifth-place finish this past December at Senior Nationals.
I’m not sure there’s anyone in the country at 160 pounds not named Kylie Welker (or Kennedy Blades) whom Cassioppi couldn’t beat this season.
180 pounds – Kennedy Blades (RS So)
Not long after the Realin/Kilty additions this summer it was Kennedy Blades who made the biggest headlines of them all:
A few weeks later and she’d added an Olympic silver medal to the lengthy list of accolades accompanying her to Iowa City.
Like Welker, Blades is all but a slam dunk to win a title this season at whichever weight the two of them split up amongst each other.
It’s also a slam dunk for Iowa fans to get the chance to watch both of these phenomenal Hawkeyes compete at the same time/place.
207 pounds – Jaycee Foeller (Sr)
It would take a far more proficient wrestling historian than I to contextualize Jaycee Foeller’s (thus far) achingly close proximity to winning an individual collegiate national title.
After jumping ahead 6-0 in last year’s NCWWC final only to lose via fall, Foeller is now a three-time national runner up across stops at McKendree (IL), Central Methodist (MO) and Iowa.
She was 32-7 a year ago in her Hawkeye debut and will almost certainly enter her senior season hellbent on taking that one final step up the podium come March.
National Landscape
To my eye it seems as though seven of the top eight teams at last year’s National College Women’s Wrestling Championships (including Iowa) return strong nucleuses entering 2024-25.
North Central (second), King (third), McKendree (fourth), Colorado Mesa (fifth), Sacred Heart (sixth) and Presbyterian (eighth) will all be incredibly formidable one again – this following a performance at the national tournament in which North Central (plus-16.5) and King (plus-15.5) each blew away the previous highest team scores for a second and third-place finisher respectively.
Not only that, but almost without exception each of these programs have continued to amass talent this offseason via the recruiting/transfer ranks.
And I haven’t even mentioned first-year program Grand Valley State (MI) – which will immediately contend for top five status (at minimum) in its inaugural season.
I’m telling you, folks, Iowa has gotten better but so has the rest of women’s college wrestling.
That’s the beauty of a sport that continues to explode at the youth, high school and collegiate levels.
The 2025 national tournament will have 32 qualifiers per weight class for a total of 320 athletes descending upon Coralville, Iowa – where NCWWCs are being held next March.
Those numbers were 24 (per weight) and 240 (total) a year ago.
In 2023 it was 20 and 200.
That’s a 60 percent increase in the span of just two years while at the same time the level of competition continues to get better and better.
Whether you needed me to sell it to you or not, women’s wrestling is an awesome sport.
If you can tune in at some point this year – or better yet attend one of the home duals at Carver – I’d highly recommend it.
My first in-person experience(s) last season were great environments and an even more compelling product on the mat.
Short Time
That’ll do it from me for this early preview of the Iowa women’s wrestling season.
You can check out my story from yesterday on the Iowa men as well as a recruiting breakdown for Tom Brands’ program regarding the 2025 and 2026 classes.
(A similar recruiting outlook for Coach Chun’s program will accompany this article later today.)
Thanks so much to everyone for reading and continue to follow along as the upcoming season draws closer with each passing moment.
Media Day for the Iowa women is set for October 15th, which will be here before you know it!
I’ll talk to you guys again real soon.
