Skip to main content
iowa logo

Iowa women's wrestling recap: Hawks dominate Jewell Duals

by:Tanner Lafever•12/07/24•

TannerLafever

Nanea Estrella thumbs up
It was a 'thumbs up' kind of day for Iowa women's wrestling at the 2024 'Jewell Duals' event in Liberty, Missouri. (Photo Credit: Iowa women's wrestling Twitter)

How’s this for a brief summation of the Iowa women’s wrestling team’s day down in Liberty, Missouri?

They came, they saw, they conquered.

Five duals in less than five hours proved to be no issue whatsoever for the top-ranked Hawkeyes.

When you eliminate forfeits (more on that in a bit), Iowa wrestlers won all 35 of their contested bouts. Of those 35 victories, 29 included bonus points – a decent 82.9 percent. And another three were of the shutout decision variety.

All told, in only three matches did an Iowa opponent either survive the full six minutes or score an offensive point themselves.

With the quintet of dual victories today, the Hawkeyes are now 9-0 this season and have won 25-straight going back to last year’s inaugural campaign.

Due to the nature of the blowout performance(s), we’ll hop around a bit to hit the highlights rather than going dual-by-dual. I should also note that the final scores may be a bit different than some you might’ve seen on social media (from myself or the official team account).

TrackWrestling took a while to correct itself to a freestyle dual-scoring system – which I missed until later in the proceedings. So, I’ve done my best amateur mathematician impression to (hopefully) rectify things here once and for all.

A 44-0 win over hosts #25 William Jewell’s ‘B-Team’ opened Iowa’s morning in the Show-Me state, followed by a 39-6 thrashing of #7 Lindenwood (MO).

Next, Iowa breezed past NAIA’s 19th-ranked Missouri Baptist, 41-7, before closing out the afternoon with 36-1 and 34-2 pastings of Fort Hays State (KS) and #25 William Jewell’s ‘A-Team’ respectively.

Here are some headlines from Iowa’s dominant performance:

Perhaps Macey Kilty might finally be ‘worthy’ of a collegiate ranking

A silly principle that persists in the NWCA Coaches Rankings is a refusal to rank athletes who do not have significant collegiate matches under their belts.

Thus, you’ll find the likes of reigning Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades first unranked, and now #2 at 160 pounds in the latest poll.

It’s also why two-time reigning Senior World medalist Macey Kilty has yet to crack the top 10 after her arrival in Iowa City for this season.

After Saturday, it’s possible the Wisconsin native might have finally done enough to earn a number next to her name.

Kilty (who competed at the equivalent of 136.7 pounds in late October at U23 Worlds) went 4-0 with four technical fall victories split between 145 and 160 pounds. Three of those were quite impressive given the context:

At 145, she throttled #10 Rebecca Strong (Lindenwood) – who’d just reached the final of the prestigious Missouri Valley open two weeks ago – by 10-0 tech. fall.

A 15-4 tech. fall over NAIA’s #2 Josette Partney (Missouri Baptist) would follow. That match (at 160 pounds) was probably 15-20 pounds heavier than Kilty’s best competitive weight class. And other than a lapse late in the first period that allowed a four-point takedown, Kilty tore through her much larger opponent with little difficulty.

The same was true to close her day, a quick 10-0 tech. versus a top-10 caliber foe at 160 pounds from William Jewell (MO).

Look, attentive wrestling fans already knew Kilty was world-class, and therefore warrants a #1 NCAA ranking. Now, it’ll be interesting to see just how much the next Coaches Poll course corrects from this weekend’s results.

Diduch debuts, Leng looks strong at 124

For the first time Iowa fans got a look at Cadence Diduch in a Hawkeye singlet.

The Freeport (Ill.) native made her Iowa debut at 138 pounds, securing a pair of quick 10-0 tech. falls thanks to a mean leg lace.

Diduch – the #12 pound-for-pound high school recruit upon graduation – was also a member of Team USA’s U20 World team this past summer.

I expect the freshman to quickly become a fan-favorite in Iowa City with her high-volume offense.

Another impressive performer was (and continues to be) 124-pounder Cali Leng.

The unheralded sophomore has been admirably filling in while (presumably) another star freshmen – Karlee Brooks – descends to the weight class.

Just don’t tell Leng that, as her 3-0 performance today showed once again that she can do some damage at 124 herself.

A 5-0 shutout of #10 Lexi Lopez (Fort Hays State) might’ve been her best result. She’d back it up with a 3-1 victory over Emarie Bolosan (William Jewell) – a quality opponent in her own right.

Foeller/Gonzalez secure top-10 wins

The marquee match of the Jewell Duals (between opponents from any team) came at 207 pounds.

There, Iowa’s #1 Jaycee Foeller met #3 Sara Lake (Lindenwood) for the sixth time in their college careers.

With today’s 6-2 victory, Foeller now owns a 5-1 advantage in the series. She had to work for it though.

Lake led 2-0 at intermission without much in the way over other action between the pair over three minutes. That all changed in the second period, as Foeller converted a snatch single into a leg lace for the 4-2 lead. She’d then tack on a late go-behind score to seal the deal.

It was an excellent response by the three-time national finalist, who seeks to earn her first individual title in her final season of collegiate eligibility.

And finally, top-ranked Brianna Gonzalez continued her undefeated roll this season with another quality win at 117 pounds.

Facing William Jewell’s #8 Alex Waitsman for the second time in less than a month, Gonzalez would win by technical fall once again.

Today’s 10-0 result followed a 12-2 margin from mid-November in Iowa City.

Shout out to the ‘foot sweep’

I can’t in good conscience end this recap without mentioning the best move I saw today.

131-pound senior Emmily Patneaud hit a filthy foot-sweep against Missouri Baptist for a four-point takedown. Not only that, but she’d settle in for the fall just to put the icing on the proverbial ‘cake.’

Patneaud may not be a household name to some Iowa fans, but the 2022 All-American (5th place for McKendree) is legit.

Hopefully today’s fancy finish can serve to highlight that fact to those who may’ve been unaware.

She certainly deserves the recognition.

Forfeits galore

I’ll be honest, I was worried how this event might go after seeing the result of Iowa’s opening ‘dual.’

For some reason, William Jewell elected to field a ‘B-Team’ that would become Victim #1 for the Hawkeyes.

Now, the second entry for one team would’ve been fine in itself – regardless of its results. The problem was that the Cardinals’ ‘B-Team’ sent out all of three wrestlers against the Hawkeyes.

With seven total forfeited matches, the dual probably lasted about 10-12 minutes in real time. And the three bouts that did take place (two pins, one tech. fall) combined for all of 1:39 on the mat.

I’m still not exactly sure what the impetus was to field a ‘B-Team’ if you knew it’d be that shorthanded.

(Oh well.)

Thankfully, only eight other forfeits occurred over the remaining four duals.

Iowa shared blame in half of those – as neither of its 103-pounders (#1 Rianne Murphy and #2 Sterling Dias) made the trip.

Short time

Overall, this was a darn good performance from the Iowa women’s wrestling team as it deals with impending finals and the lure of winter break ahead.

The #1 Hawkeyes will have one final competition before the holidays, as they’ll send some athletes to next Sunday’s North Central Open.

As I explained in my weekend preview, today wasn’t the easiest set up for folks hoping to stream the duals.

Even so, if you missed out in real time or simply want to rewatch the action, the last four duals are available for free at THIS LINK.

Meanwhile, full results can be found HERE.

Thanks again to everyone for reading this recap, as well as those who might’ve followed along today on social media.

It’s a pleasure to cover this sport and this team each week, and I hope you all are enjoying the season as much as I am.

Now kick back, relax, and do whatever it is that ‘normal’ people do with the rest of their wrestling-free weekend.

I’ll talk to you guys again real soon.

You may also like