Iowa women's wrestling wins its home opener(s) in blowout fashion
The top-ranked Iowa women’s wrestling team lived up to its billing on Saturday afternoon.
Fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena were treated to an undefeated showing across two duals, as the Hawkeyes pummeled visitors Cornell College (IA) and William Jewell (MO) by a combined margin of 90-3.
If scrolling box scores is your thing, today’s read like a video game being played on ‘easy’ mode. That’s not to say it was easy. Things rarely are in the sport of wrestling.
But the best athletes and teams make it look that way. And this Iowa squad – following national dual/team titles a year ago – has its sights set squarely on being the best yet again this season.
Before it can tackle those bigger goals, however, there’s the present to take care of first.
Today, that meant showing little in the way of mercy to a pair of overmatched foes.
#1 Iowa – 47, Cornell College – 0
In just its third season of competition – and without a ranked wrestler in its lineup – Cornell College probably deserves commendation of some sort just for taking this dual against Iowa.
That said, the Rams didn’t just lie down either. A pair of wrestlers even appeared to surprise their Hawkeye foes by getting in deep on early shot attempts – though neither would result in points.
By dual’s end, that was the overriding theme.
Cornell couldn’t score points, and Iowa was racking up a whole bunch of them.
A pre-dual exhibition bout was won via 10-0 technical fall by Iowa’s Ava Bayless. Two forfeits at 103 and 110 pounds would follow, leaving the Hawkeyes in front in the team score (10-0) before a single ‘official’ match had been contested.
The momentum never slowed, with all eight of the remaining Hawks to take the mat winning in tech. fall or pinning fashion – never once taking longer than the first period to do so.
In the process, seven different Iowa wrestlers earned their first career win(s) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
True freshmen Rianne Murphy (forfeit), Val Solorio (forfeit) and Naomi Simon (Fall, 0:27) all moved to 1-0. So too, did sophomore Cali Leng (Fall, 1:01), senior Emmily Patneaud (Fall, 0:49), redshirt freshman Rose Cassioppi (10-0 TF) and junior Katja Osteen (Fall, 0:17) – the latter of which did so via the fastest fall of the afternoon.
The Hawkeyes didn’t allow a single match point, much less a team point. And that should probably do it for the recap of this dual.
#1 Iowa – 43, #25 William Jewell – 3
As expected, the second dual of the day posed far more resistance to the Iowa women’s wrestling team.
The Cardinals have several top-10-caliber wrestlers on their roster and clearly came in with the intent to scrap versus the top-ranked hosts.
Unfortunately (in a purely wrestling sense), this matchup started off in identical fashion to Iowa’s opening dual.
Ava Bayless won another exhibition match via 10-0 tech. fall. Then, William Jewell didn’t weigh in a wrestler at 103/110 pounds, leaving Hawkeyes to win both via forfeit once again.
That led to the lone ranked-vs-ranked matchup of the afternoon between Iowa’s #1 Brianna Gonzalez and the Cardinals’ #9 Alex Waitsman at 117 pounds.
A counter score on the edge by Waitsman would be the first points any Hawkeye had allowed all day. Not to worry, Gonzalez would show her mettle and cap off a 12-2 tech. fall early in the second period.
It was the first of three-consecutive competitive bouts between the teams.
At 124 pounds, Iowa’s Cali Leng trailed 4-2 late in the second period before rattling off a step out and a takedown (to raucous Carver approval) to secure the 5-4 win over Emarie Bolosan.
#7 Skye Realin would follow in comeback fashion of her own at 131 pounds. The Hawaii native retook a 3-1 lead with a second-period takedown before cementing the match via fall at the 5:00 mark of her Carver debut.
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Iowa would roll from there, treating the home fans to its three World/Olympic medalists in the process.
Macey Kilty (145), Kennedy Blades (160) and Kylie Welker (180) each quickly won in tech. fall fashion – the first two in their inaugural home match(es).
A quick fall at 207 pounds by top-ranked Jaycee Foeller put the finishes touches on Iowa’s second blowout win of the day.
Match-by-match results
#1 Iowa 47, Cornell College 0
103 — #1 Rianne Murphy (I) via forfeit
110 – Val Solorio (I) via forfeit
117 — #1 Brianna Gonzalez (I) tech. fall Cheyenne Mulford (C), 10-0
124 – Cali Leng (I) fall Addison Thrash (C), 1:01
131 – Emmily Patneaud (I) fall Kyla Andrew (C), 0:49
138 — #4 Nanea Estrella (I) fall Ciara Bryant-Gomez (C), 2:30
145 — #1 Reese Larramendy (I) tech. fall Jasmine McCaskel (C), 10-0
160 — #9 Rose Cassioppi (I) tech. fall Emily Grassham (C), 10-0
180 — #8 Naomi Simon (I) fall Camryn Aikanoff (C), 0:27
207 — #7 Katja Osteen (I) fall Danyia Warner (C), 0:17
#1 Iowa 43, #25 Willam Jewell 3
103 — #1 Rianne Murphy (I) via forfeit
110 — #5 Emilie Gonzalez (I) via forfeit
117 — #1 Brianna Gonzalez (I) tech. fall #9 Alex Waitsman (W), 12-2
124 – Cali Leng (I) dec. Emarie Bolosan (W), 5-4
131 – #7 Skye Realin (I) fall Shelby Kemp (W), 5:00
138 — #4 Nanea Estrella (I) tech. fall Alanis Cedeno (W), 11-0
145 – Macey Kilty (I) tech. fall Paige Barber (W), 10-0
160 — #2 Kennedy Blades (I) tech. fall Nylease Yzagere (W), 12-1
180 — #1 Kylie Welker (I) tech. fall Athena Willden (W), 11-0
207 — #1 Jaycee Foeller (I) fall Peyton Welt (W) 1:06
Short time
I said in my weekend preview article that Saturday was unlikely to provide Iowa a major challenge.
That’s not what this afternoon was about, though.
It had been exactly 300 days since the Iowa women’s wrestling team last competed inside of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. And they’ll only have one more opportunity to do this season – on Saturday, January 18th.
As the sport of women’s college wrestling continues to grow, Iowa head coach Clarissa Chun hopes those rare occasions will only increase in frequency.
“The goal is to eventually get more dual meets in Carver,” said Chun post-dual. “I think the two is good for where we’re at currently, but there’s programs being added – Delaware State (this past week) – and I hear rumblings of maybe two more D1 programs looking to start too. And we want that.”
The Iowa women’s wrestling program didn’t win both team and dual national championships in its inaugural season just because of the logo on its singlet. Nor did it do so because it owns a stranglehold on all the best women’s wrestling talent (it doesn’t).
It won those titles – each in dramatic fashion – because the program and its athletes/coaches seek and embrace a challenge. ‘Easy’ does not appeal to the Hawkeyes.
The blowout nature of these duals aside, Saturday was about continuing to push the sport of women’s wrestling forward and about Iowa’s own relentless pursuit of excellence.
I think it’s fair to say that both aspects were accomplished as the #1 Hawkeyes moved to 4-0 this season.
