Iowa women's wrestling recap: Hawks win three titles at NCC Open
A total of 13 athletes from the Iowa women’s wrestling team competed in the ‘A-Division’ at Sunday’s ridiculously competitive North Central College Open.
More than nine hours and 60 (contested) matches later, the Hawkeyes had claimed three individual titles and six additional spots on the podium – plus several other notable results.
It was an excellent showing from Clarissa Chun’s quad overall, led by a trio of national title favorites/contenders in the upper/middle weights.
Nanea Estrella (138), Macey Kilty (145) and Kylie Welker (180) allowed just one combined point against them on Sunday. Of their 14 total matches, only three lasted the full six minutes.
I’ll dive into more detail shortly, but keep in mind these results all came versus a hellacious field of opponents.
All told, the NCC Open had 17 ranked NCAA (top 25) and NAIA (top 20) programs in attendance. Among them, were numbers one-through-five in the latest NCAA Coaches’ Poll. That, plus NCAA #7 and #9, as well as NAIA’s third and seventh-ranked programs would’ve already made for as deep and competitive a tournament as you’ll find.
By my count, 55 different college wrestlers ranked in the top 10 competed on Sunday. Eight of those 55 currently hold the #1 spot at their respective weight class.
And none of those figures include the plethora of elite ‘unattached’ competitors who were also in the field.
You had elite high school prospects. You had redshirting collegians who are already more than capable of being All-Americans. And you had post- and/or non-collegiate entries who are well-known names on the domestic Senior circuit.
Put it all together and there was no hiding on Sunday. Instead, the Hawkeyes stood out in a major way – starting with the trio of aforementioned champs.
Estrella/Kilty/Welker look every bit like title favorites come March
It’s not exactly a stretch to say Macey Kilty and Kylie Welker – both Senior World medalists in late October – are strong title favorites for NCCWC’s (National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships) in a few months.
Yesterday certainly did nothing to dissuade that notion, either.
What is new is another Hawkeye who appears eager to add herself to the ‘favorite’ mix come March.
Third-ranked Nanea Estrella (138 pounds) continued her phenomenal 2024-25 season on Sunday. A 4-0 showing – outscoring her competition by a combined 22-0 – means that she has now won all 14 matches this season by either bonus points (12) or shutout decision (two).
Sunday was her toughest test to date, facing a pair of talented ‘unattached’ foes to close the tournament.
Estrella was never threatened in an 8-0 semifinal victory over freshman Haylie Jaffe (unattached/McKendree) – a 2023 U17 World bronze medalist. She followed that up with a calculated 3-0 decision against Skylar Hattendorf (unattached) in the finals.
Hattendorf – a 2019 U17 World silver medalist – was one of the top ranked high school prospects in the Class of 2022. She’s forgone the collegiate route thus far but has been a fixture on the domestic freestyle scene.
The finals win in particular suggests that #3 Estrella is operating at high capacity – now exactly 12 months removed from a torn Lisfranc ligament in her foot that ended her 2024 season.
Meanwhile, Kilty (still unranked at 145) and Welker (#1 at 180) just keep on rolling.
Kilty notched three ranked/impressive wins, including an 8-0 decision in her final over post-grad Alara Boyd – a previous NCWWC champion, two-time age-level World medalist and Olympic Trials qualifier.
Welker won six-consecutive bouts via shutout tech. fall. The last two of those came against the #4 and #2 ranked wrestlers in the country at her weight.
Yikes.
Freshmen lightweights impress
Freshmen Rianne Murphy and Val Solorio each lost a single match on Sunday. Both of those came against the eventual champion in their respective brackets.
Murphy – #1 at 103 pounds – lost her second-consecutive tournament final, falling 10-0 to Erin Hikiji of the University of Providence (MT).
Hikiji just so happens to also carry a #1 ranking next to her name from the NAIA division. The two-time national finalist was a little too quick and clinical for Iowa’s true freshman yesterday.
Prior to that defeat, Murphy picked up two more impressive wins over NCAA competition – defeating a pair of top 10 opponents via tech. fall and pin respectively.
Bumping up a weight class to 110, Val Solorio was someone I had my eye on entering the weekend.
Her five losses this season had come almost exclusively against premier competition. And that remains true after Sunday’s 10-0 quarterfinal defeat to #3 Samara Chavez (King).
Chavez, a three-time NCWWC All-American (finishing third or better on each occasion) and consistent threat at Senior-level events like World/Olympic Trials would bonus her way through the tournament.
Sandwiched around the loss was an otherwise excellent third-place showing by Solorio – including three wins over foes currently and/or regularly present in the top 10 rankings.
The most impressive of them came against #10 Samantha Miller (McKendree). A four-time All-American, Miller is known as an incredibly dangerous opponent who can end a match in an instant.
But Solorio navigated the ‘minefield’ like a veteran to secure a dominant 11-0 victory.
After Sunday, she’s unquestionably deserving of her own top-10 ranking when the latest polls come out.
The ‘problem’ is, Iowa has two other 110-pounders already in the rankings with #2 Ava Bayless and #5 Emilie Gonzalez. And teams can only have two ranked wrestlers per weight class.
Depth on display at 131/207
Iowa women’s wrestling had placewinners at both the 131 and 207-pound weight classes yesterday in Naperville (IL).
That alone may not be noteworthy for the top-ranked Hawkeyes, but it is when one considers A) the difficulty of this tournament and B) Iowa was without three of its top options.
At 131, both #6 Skye Realin and #9 Emily Frost didn’t compete. And at 207, #1 Jaycee Foeller stayed home in Iowa City as well.
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Even without them, Iowa had the following results among its five entries:
- One runner up, one fifth-place and one sixth-place finisher
- A 13-9 record, incl. a pair of all-Hawkeye matchups *excludes injury defaults
Notable among them was Emmily Patneaud (131) picking up a 1-1 win on criteria versus #8 Cayden Condit (Lindenwood). The senior would also drop a tight 3-1 match to #2 Alexandra Szkotnicki (McKendree) in the consolations before injury defaulting her fifth-place match.
Meanwhile, Iowa had all sorts of action going on at heavyweight.
#5 Katja Osteen, Alivia White and Samantha Calkins all entered a 29-woman field, each having their moments.
The headline result of the day was White’s first-period pin over Osteen in the semifinals. It’s the second time in a few weeks that White has defeated her teammate as they battle for what could be a second spot at 207 in Iowa’s postseason lineup.
The sophomore hit an early throw before settling in for the fall in just 1:05. Her reward was a finals matchup with #3 Sara Lake (Lindenwood), which she’d lose in fairly convincing 3-0 fashion.
Osteen – who called for injury time on numerous occasions throughout the day due to an apparent illness – was pinned once more in the consis before rebounding for fifth with a 9-0 win over NAIA #5 Riley Dempewolf (Indiana Tech).
Other items
I didn’t want to conclude this recap without mentioning two other Hawkeyes as well.
At 124 pounds, Cali Leng continues to do an underrated job. I’ve said numerous times that I expect touted freshman Karlee Brooks to eventually assume the spot, but until/unless it happens that conversation probably needs to go on the shelf.
Leng (now 22-7 this season) put together yet another quality performance to take sixth place at the NCC Open – including a controlled 6-0 win versus NAIA #5 Alyssa Randles (Providence).
The sophomore’s first loss Sunday came against the top-ranked returning national champion. Her second was to #3 Shelby Moore (McKendree), an 8-2 decision during which Leng was pressing hard in the second period for scores. And her third was via fall to North Central’s Janessa George – who’s currently #5 in FloWrestling’s latest rankings.
Leng is an absolute grinder and has been invaluable to the Hawkeyes so far this season.
Up a few weights, freshman Cadence Diduch had herself a strong showing just a week after making her collegiate debut.
The 138-pounder went 5-1 on Sunday, with her only defeat coming against the aforementioned Sylar Hattendorf. Their bout was a rematch of the U20 World team trials final in which Diduch prevailed two matches to one to win the spot on Team USA.
In the consolations, Diduch picked up a trio of top-10 wins over NAIA foes, including a late comeback to defeat #8 (145-pounder) Maci Avila of Midland University (NE), 9-6.
Her final match was her most impressive, however, knocking off #1 Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp (Providence) via 14-3 tech. fall.
Diduch’s prep credentials obviously speak for themselves. But she’s quickly adapting to the college level now, and that’s a great thing for the Hawkeyes.
Short time
We’ve done it. Another marathon open tournament for Iowa women’s wrestling accompanied by another marathon-length article to recap it all.
I hope these continue to be usual resources for anyone who may not have been able to catch most/any of the action live (or otherwise).
Full match-by-match results for all 15 Hawkeyes can be found on TrackWrestling.
*Freshman Mia Goodwin (124 – unattached) and Danni Swihart (138 – ‘B Division’) were also among those competing.
Iowa won’t return to the mat until December 29-30 at the Soldier Salute event in Corvalville. There, fans will be able to see both the men’s and women’s Hawkeye programs compete side-by-side at Xtream Arena.
(Tickets/tournament information can be found here.)
I’ll be back with some more wrestling content in the interim, but I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy holidays while I’m here.
I’m coming up on one year of covering Iowa wrestling here at Hawkeye Report. And I get to do it because 1) my boss, Tom Kakert, is a nice guy.
(A really, really nice guy – if you happen to read this, Tom.)
And 2) because all of you who continually and/or intermittently check out our coverage of the sport make it so that I’ve got a job doing this at all.
So, thank you to everyone. I sincerely appreciate getting to do this and am confident the best is yet to come in terms of the Iowa wrestling coverage you can expect from me going forward.
‘Till next time.
