Three Hawkeyes set for Pan-American Championships

Final exams and the end of the spring semester are just a few days away at the University of Iowa – but before a trio of Hawkeyes can tackle that challenge, they’ve flown down to Mexico for a test of a different sort.

I’m referring to the 2025 Senior Pan-American Championships, of course. There, in Monterrey, the three greatest wrestlers in the (brief) history of the Iowa women’s program will all compete for the United States.

📍Mexico pic.twitter.com/NxBnd1hs1N

— Iowa Women's Wrestling Club (@IowaWWC) May 8, 2025

Kennedy Blades, Macey Kilty and Kylie Welker are all reigning NCWWC champions and World/Olympic medalists. And in just over one month’s time they’ll all compete at Final X – a best-of-three series victory from securing their place on Team USA for the 2025 World Championships held in Croatia this September.

But first, an opportunity to win a Continental Championship against the best of the rest from North/South America.

Not only that, but success in Mexico will give them a leg up for future (greater) championship ventures to come.

From USA Wrestling:

“The 2025 Senior Pan American Championships is part of the UWW Ranking Series, which is used to determine seeds for the Olympic Games, the Senior World Championships and the Senior Continental Championships, and also determines the UWW Best Athlete of the Year awards.”

An improving wrestling region outside of the U.S., Pan-Ams can be a bit sporadic in terms of the size/depth of the fields at various weight classes. That said, several challenging opponents could await these Hawkeyes over the next two days (Friday/Saturday).

Macey Kilty (65 kilograms)

We haven’t seen Macey Kilty in official competition in almost two months – when she capped her lone season with the Hawkeyes as a national champion.

Macey Kilty caps off her undefeated season with a 7-2 decision and a @ncwwc National Championship at 145 lbs 🤩#B1GWrestling x @IowaW_Wrestling pic.twitter.com/q00vssze2e

— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) March 9, 2025

This weekend, she’ll be in one of the smaller fields (65 kilograms) at Pan-Ams. And based upon her international accolades – incl. back-to-back Senior World medals – she’ll be the heavy favorite.

Kilty has familiarity with one of her upcoming opponents in this round robin format, blasting Canada’s Miki Rowbottom (11-0) at this event in 2024. She (sort of) has history with another, too.

Last October, Kilty was set to wrestle Mexico’s Alexis Gomez in their opening bout of the 2024 Senior World Championships. But Gomez never took the mat in Albania, forfeiting the match instead to the American – who’d go on to win a bronze medal.

It appears the matchup will materialize this go around. Gomez was a 2023 NAIA runner up at Grand View (IA) before finishing her career at McKendree this past season, where she DNP’d at the national tournament.

Simply put, I’d expect Kilty to breeze through this field with relative ease. She’s proven herself to be a world-class wrestler at the Senior level. Her competition at this event has not yet done the same.

Kennedy Blades (68 kilograms)

The next Hawkeye entry could face slightly more resistance in her efforts to secure Pan-Am gold.

Slightly.

As she continues to transition to the 68-kilogram weight class, Kennedy Blades has looked every bit (if not even better than) the wrestler who won Olympic silver at 76kg in Paris.

Blades rolled through the US Open last month – going unscored upon in three bonus-point victories. That performance echoed a similarly dominant run in her first foray at 68kg on the Senior level.

In February, the Chicago native won the ranking series event at the Zagreb Open.

Competing for the first time internationally at 68kg (albeit with a two-kilogram allowance), she was unstoppable in Croatia.

Four matches. Two pins. Two technical falls. Zero points allowed. Zero matches lasting beyond the first period.

At Pan-Ams, a pair of three-woman pools will determine the eventual semifinalists. Joining Blades are a pair of experienced Senior-level competitors.

Venezuela’s Nathali Josefina Griman Herrera appears to be the most dangerous foe. And it wouldn’t surprise if she and Blades ultimately met again in the finals.

Herrera owns wins in her career over a pair of Americans with multiple World Championship medals to their name(s).

In 2017, she bested Mallory Velte (2018/2022 World bronze) on criteria, 6-6. And two years ago she had probably the best performance of her career – pinning Kayla Miracle after building an early 8-0 lead.

Miracle has repped the U.S. in back-to-back Olympics at 62kg and medaled at consecutive World Championships (silver in 2021-22).

That said, every other meeting (and there’ve been many) between Herrera and Velte/Miracle have been decisive wins for the Americans. And Herrera is just 2-4 in her career at the Senior World Championships.

So, while dangerous, I wouldn’t predict a massive upset by the Venezuelan veteran this weekend.

Also in Blades’ pool is Grabriela Pedro Da Rocha. Another season Senior-level athlete, the Brazilian is 0-3 lifetime at the Senior World Championships.

Canada’s Vanessa Keefe is the next-most credentialed competitor – finishing fifth at U23 Worlds two years ago.

Again, danger certainly lurks in the form of Herrera, but I’d expect Blades to continue her dominance down in Monterrey.

Kylie Welker (76 kilograms)

The headline weight for women’s freestyle is unquestionably 76 kilograms – where Iowa’s Kylie Welker storms into the field following her own dominant US Open performance.

Said performance was punctuated by a first-period tech fall of Yelena Makoyed – one of the best wrestlers in the world at 76kg.

Many (including me) already viewed Welker as a serious World title threat prior to that outcome. And if the feeling has only strengthened since, it can be stamped with further authority this weekend.

Welker faces a traditional eight-person bracket in Mexico, including a pair of athletes who wrestled in bronze medal matches at the 2024 Olympics.

Following what figures to be an easy opener against Argentina things pick up in a hurry.

A semifinal against Canada’s Vianne Rouleau would run back the (72kg) gold medal match from the 2024 U23 World Championships.

Welker won that bout with ease, building a quick 7-0 lead before pinning Rouleau.

But the more likely semifinal matchup would be against Genesis Rosangela Reasco Valdez (Ecuador) – with whom Welker is also quite familiar.

The two first met in 2021 in the bronze medal match at U23 Worlds. There, Welker prevailed via first-period fall thanks to a feet-to-back counter throw.

Since then, Valdez has continued to ascend, taking fifth at Senior Worlds in 2022 and matching it with a fifth-place finish at the Olympics last summer. In Paris, the Ecuadorian’s only defeats came against the eventual gold medalist from Japan (2-0) and then in the bronze medal match (2-1).

Between those top-five finishes, Valdez also knocked off Welker – winning 9-7 in November of 2023.

She possesses an explosive blast double that the Hawkeye will need to be prepared for should they meet again this weekend.

Advance to the final and another premier matchup (likely) awaits in Milaimy De La Caridad Marin Potrille (Cuba).

Potrille’s age-level accolades (2019 U20/U23 World champion) always hinted at Senior-level success, but it took the Cuban a minute to really make her mark.

She’s more than established herself by now – taking fifth at Senior Worlds in 2023 followed by Olympic bronze in 2024.

Potrille even split matches with Kennedy Blades last summer. She won in convincing 13-4 fashion in July at the Grand Prix of Spain, then saw the Hawkeye turn the tables in Paris a month-and-change later as Blades prevailed 4-3 in their Olympic quarterfinal.

A finals matchup against Welker would arguably offer the highlight bout of the entire tournament. And if Welker were to win it you won’t be able to run fast enough to catch up to the bandwagon I’m driving at full speed all the way to the World Championships later this year.

How to watch

All the action at Pan-Ams will be livestreamed on FloWrestling.

Each of Blades (Friday, May 9^th) and Kilty/Welker (Saturday, May 10^th) will compete via identical schedules on their respective dates:

*all times Central Standard

11:00 a.m.

• Preliminaries

2:00 p.m.

• Semifinals

3:00 p.m.

• Repechage

6:00 p.m.

• Finals/Medal Matches

Short time

That’ll do it for me here.

I’ll have a recap of all the action once things have concluded down in Mexico. I’ll also be providing intermittent updates on social media when I can.

Hopefully you guys get a chance to tune in and watch this trio of world-class Hawkeyes – plus the rest of Team USA if you can swing it.

The ultimate goal for Blades/Kilty/Welker in 2025 was never the individual collegiate titles they won back in March. It’s to be the very best on the planet come September at the World Championships.

We may be four months away from that destination, yet. But Pan-Ams represents another step towards it – and a valuable checkpoint to boot.

We’ll see if the trio can pass its latest with the same flying colors they’ve been displaying since last year.

(I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they just might.)

Thanks as always for reading, and I’ll talk to you again real soon.