Iowa women's wrestling adds two premium transfers

This time one week ago the Iowa Hawkeye women’s wrestling program was already in what one would have to consider to be a pretty darn good spot entering the 2024-25 season.

Fresh off their first team National Championship – in their first official year of competition no less – the Hawkeyes were looking to defend their title with a roster that returned 10 All-Americans, seven of whom were 2024 national finalists (including four individual champions).

Not only that, but the returning nucleus was also going to be supplemented by two national title contenders who missed last postseason due to injury (Nyla Valencia and Nanea Estrella), an Olympic Trials qualifier who spent all of 2023-24 in redshirt (Rose Cassioppi), a quartet of sophomores-to-be, each of whom cracked the top 10 of the national rankings at some point last year, plus the addition of two-time All-American heavyweight transfer Katja Osteen (Simon Fraser/U.S. Olympic Training Center).

(Exhales)

Oh yeah, and somehow we’ve yet to include what is unquestionably the top high school recruiting class in America – a seven-woman contingent headlined by no fewer than four different athletes ranked either first or second nationally in their respective weight classes.

Iowa was loaded for bear heading into the coming season, and it needed to be considering the sport of women’s collegiate wrestling has never been stronger nor deeper in the talent dispersed across the country at top tier programs.

It took an incredible performance for the underdog Hawkeyes just to win the 2024 NCCWC team title, and this offseason both the previously established powers (North Central, King, McKendree) and a rapidly improving crop of new/emerging programs (Presbyterian, Fort Hays State, Grand Valley State, etc.) have continued to amass talent in order to make a run at the champs in 2024-25.

This time one week ago it sure felt as though Iowa had done its part to meet/exceed the offseason strides made by those rising challengers.

And now? Well, now the Hawkeyes have left no doubt.

Realin/Kilty supercharge an already formidable group of middleweights

Let’s be clear, it’s not like Clarissa Chun had a lack of tantalizing options at her disposal seven days ago at the 131 and 138-pound weight classes.

The Iowa head coach already had three previous NCWWC/NAIA All-Americans, a true freshman Round of 12 finisher and an incoming U20 World team member to mix and match as she so chose.

One of those athletes – the aforementioned Nanea Estrella – was arguably entering the year as the national title favorite at 138 pounds.

For whatever reason, Chun and her coaching staff decided that they still weren’t quite satisfied with what sure appeared to be an otherwise rosy ‘status quo.’

Enter Skye Realin and Macey Kilty.

Boom. Boom.

Last Friday afternoon Skye Realin became the latest in a growing line of high-caliber Hawaiian talents to join the Iowa program.

Welcome to Iowa, Skye! 🖤 💛 #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/SU1h8U9re6

— Iowa Women's Wrestling (@IowaW_Wrestling) July 12, 2024

A 2023 NAIA All-American (5^th) for Central Methodist (MO), and a fourth-place NCWWC finisher the year prior for national champion McKendree (IL), Realin comes to Iowa City fresh off earning a spot on the upcoming U23 World Championship team for the United States at 59 kilograms (~130 pounds).

In the process she defeated two-time reigning 136-pound NCWWC finalist Yele Aycock (North Central) in a best-of-three series.

Also of note, this past December at US Senior Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas she posted an opening match tech. fall (17-7) over eventual 2024 NCWWC champ Claire DiCugno (King University) – who defeated Aycock in this year’s finals.

Now, Realin presumably steps into the Iowa lineup as the top option at 131 pounds where she’ll need to maintain her grip against what will assuredly be stiff challenges from the likes of two returning postseason starters – sophomores Lilly Luft (5^th at 136) and Emily Frost (Round of 12 at 130).

In hindsight, the addition of an older, title-contending athlete at 131 feels like a nice supplement/security blanket for the pair of 19-year-olds who would’ve otherwise (likely quite capably) held down the spot between them.

But after processing that late-summer roster move for 5-6 days it would be another that wound up blowing my mind completely.

🐤 pic.twitter.com/Rtq9sCi23m

— Macey Kilty (@_macethegreat_) July 18, 2024

Yesterday evening, reigning Senior World silver medalist Macey Kilty announced that she would be completing her academics while wrestling for the Hawkeyes.

The Wisconsin native finished as the runner up at 65 kilograms (~143.3 pounds) in Serbia last September – her first ever appearance at the Senior World Championships.

Prior to that, Kilty had made five age-level World teams in her international career, earning a medal (one gold, three silver, one bronze) on each occasion.

This past April the 23-year-old advanced all the way to the Olympic Trials final at 62 kilograms (~136.7 pounds) for the second time in as many attempts. And just as was the case back in 2021 she’d fall in the best-of-three series to Kayla Miracle – she of her own deep ties to Iowa wrestling, coincidentally.

Her runner-up finish at the trials – in conjunction with her age eligibility – also automatically secured her place on Team USA’s U23 World Championship team at 62kg.

Kilty has never previously competed collegiately, having spent a significant amount of her time since high school out at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

According to her USA Wrestling profile she has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at DeVry University, but it’s unclear as of yet exactly how much competitive eligibility she might have left upon arriving in Iowa City.

Regardless, in the short term Kilty gives the Hawkeyes a heavy national title favorite at whichever weight she decides to compete. 138 pounds would align with her more recent stints at 62kg, while 145 pounds would do the same with 65kg – where she just won her Senior World silver medal.

Funnily enough, prior to Kilty’s commitment Iowa already had a national title favorite/contender at each of those weight classes.

We touched on Nanea Estrella (138) already, but there’s plenty of capable depth behind her too.

Emmily Patneaud is a previous All-American (5^th place) from her time competing at McKendree and incoming freshman Cadence Diduch just ended her high school career as one of the top-ranked pound-for-pound wrestlers in the country thanks in no small part to winning her way onto the U20 World team this past April.

Meanwhile, up at 145 the Hawkeyes bring back reigning 143-pound national champion Reese Larramendy – a two-time U20 World teamer (2022/2024) at 65kg and a recent Olympic Trials fourth-place finisher competing at 68kg.

Not only that, but the sophomore-to-be is joined by returning NCWWC All-American and back-to-back U20 World team trials runner up at 65kg, Ella Schmit.

Simply put, this was a luxury move for the Iowa program, not a necessity – and it sends yet another loud message to the rest of its competitors that the Hawkeyes are not only very much here to stay, but with the intent of dominating all comers who might try to stand in their way.

I’d imagine all the Black & Gold clad fans out there sure must like the sound of that.