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Two Iowa alums win titles at World Team Trials challenge tourney

by:Tanner Lafever•05/17/25•

TannerLafever

Taylor-Woods Edit
Felicity Taylor (left) and Real Woods (right) pushed Iowa's Final X tally to seven. (Photo Credits: Justin Hoch/USA Wrestling)

Five past/present Iowa wrestlers had qualified for Final X prior to this weekend.

After two days of competition in Louisville, Kentucky, two more Hawkeyes have joined that group.

First up, Felicity Taylor won her World Team Trials (WTT) Challenge Tournament crown in the women’s 53-kilogram division. Not long after, Real Woods earned a title of his own – topping a loaded nine-man field at 65 kilograms.

Both wrestlers were already Hawkeye greats thanks to their collegiate accolades.

You’ll find Taylor’s name on the wall in the Iowa practice room courtesy of her 2024 NCWWC title. Woods’ is there as well, thanks to a pair of All-American honors – including a 2023 NCAA runner up finish.

Now, they’re continuing to win big on the Senior freestyle scene. And with their triumphs, each is just a best-of-three series away from making their first Senior World Championship team.

So yeah, it was a pretty good weekend for Iowa wrestling.

This is your 2025 WTT Challenge Tournament recap – where we’ll break down the Taylor/Woods title runs, plus the efforts of five other Hawkeyes who took the mat in Louisville.

Taylor’s title sets up all-Hawkeye Final X showdown

Making guarantees is often a futile endeavor for a sportswriter, but in this case, I’ll confidently proclaim the following:

Iowa will have at least one wrestler on the Senior US women’s World team.

How can I be so bold? Well, because one of two Hawkeyes must win the spot at 53 kilograms. After all, they now make up the entirety of its Final X qualifiers.

Felicity Taylor joined Iowa teammate Brianna Gonzalez by way of a dominant showing at WTT.

Felicity Taylor poses with her Final X ‘ticket’ alongside US Women’s National Team head coach – and Iowa alum – Terry Steiner. (Photo credit: Justin Hoch/USA Wrestling)

For the second time in three weeks, Taylor faced 2025 NCWWC champion Sydney Petzinger (North Central) in a semifinal.

At the US Open, the Hawkeye prevailed in a competitive 5-2 decision. This time around, the term ‘competitive’ would apply far less.

17 seconds into the bout, Taylor hit this impromptu fireman’s carry for a four-point lead:

She’d follow with a pair of leg laces to double her lead once again, then polished things off with another first-period takedown to cement the 10-0 technical fall.

The victory set up a match against #3 Sage Mortimer – a 2024 U23 World champion (at 50kg) and 2025 NCWWC champion – who’d bonus’d her way to the finals as well.

Known for her physicality and aggression, Mortimer came out hard charging to take a 1-0 lead. But the entire tenor changed 1:20 in, when Taylor converted a huge double leg to pull ahead:

A subsequent leg lace doubled her score, and another shot converted near the edge added to it once more.

Now leading 6-1, Taylor found her easiest takedown of the match on a simple snap-down, go-behind. But the Hawkeye alum wasn’t finished yet – locking up a trap-arm gut wrench and exposing Mortimer twice to seal the deal.

A failed challenge by Mortimer’s corner made the final margin 13-1.

Woods wills his way to hard-fought title at 65 kilograms

Iowa’s second champion of the weekend did not have the benefit of wrestling just two matches, nor winning any of his three via early termination.

Nope, Real Woods did it the hard way, defeating the number four, one and two seeds to earn the title at 65 kilograms.

A victorious, albeit battered Real Woods shakes hands with US Men’s National Team head coach – and Iowa alum – Bill Zadick. (Photo Credit: Justin Hoch/USA Wrestling)

The 2024 Hawkeye alum had to reverse a case of déjà vu in his opening bout. Competing against Aden Valencia – younger brother of Iowa women’s wrestler, Nyla – Woods was in an eerily similar position to the US Open, when twice he lost late leads to the talented Stanford freshman.

This time (after losing another lead with just 0:40 to go), it was Woods who barely beat the buzzer. Needing a takedown with seconds left, he almost ‘fell’ into this low double to get the quarterfinal win:

And that was just to reach the semifinals, where he’d face back-to-back NCAA champion Jesse Mendez (Ohio State).

To my knowledge, the two had only met once previously – a 6-3 win by Mendez in the 2024 Big Ten semis.

In this freestyle foray, Woods got off to a picture-perfect start. With Menez on the 30-second activity clock, Woods converted a go-behind off his opponent’s shot. But it was the three gnarly gut wrenches he ripped to follow it up that really made the sequence sing:

Leading 9-1 at the break, a two-point shot/score mid-way through the second period was enough to secure the necessary breathing room in an 11-9 win.

That set up a final against another familiar foe – college rival Brock Hardy (Nebraska).

Six times the pair met as collegians, with Woods owning a 5-0 advantage until dropping their last meeting 7-6 in the third-place match at 2024 NCAAs.

Not that this latest stage wasn’t sufficient motivation, but perhaps Woods had a little extra juice to get his revenge.

He sure started that way, quickly converting a low single for the 2-0 lead. That two-point lead would soon become six, as Woods took Hardy feet-to-back with a head-pinch near the edge.

Coupled with a second-period takedown and turn, the early advantage keyed another win for the bruised and bloodied former Hawkeye – this one a 10-6 decision to earn his spot at Final X.

Tough tests only for future Hawkeye Bo Bassett

If the theme of this Challenge Tournament wasn’t already clear, easy matches/lesser competition aren’t exactly a dime a dozen.

The same was true for Iowa’s top-ranked 2026 commit, Bo Bassett, he on the opposite side of the 65kg bracket from Real Woods.

And like Woods, Bassett also reached the semifinals with a gritty win.

His victory came against Beau Bartlett in a battle rife with an almost impossible degree of alliteration. And after a six-minute brawl it was Bassett who got his hand raised in a 1-0 nailbiter.

The lone score of the match game during this first-period sequence in which Bassett gamely defended a Bartlett single leg, so much so that the latter stepped out of bounds while attempting to break down the high school junior.

From there, hard hand-fighting and positioning was the name of the game, as Bassett stood toe-to-toe with the three-time time Penn State All-American (3rd/2nd/3rd at 141 pounds from 2023-25).

Interestingly, it appeared that Bartlett believed he was winning 1-0 in the final moments. But if true, that lapse in judgement was almost five-and-a-half minutes in the making dating back to the original score.

Next on the docket, Bassett faced the aforementioned Brock Hardy – a 2025 NCAA runner up.

And in classic ‘watch the actual match, don’t just look at the scoreboard’ fashion the 18-year-old Bassett fell via 12-7 decision to the 25-year-old Cornhusker.

In summation: Bassett lived on the legs, but against a funky opponent like Hardy that can still prove costly.

Trailing 2-2 on criteria at the break, Bassett was exposed no fewer than four times off his own attacks in the second period.

And while he (admirably) never relented, some extra caution/patience may’ve served the youngster a bit better in this one.

Now on the backside, Bassett’s final bout of the weekend came in a clash of number one high school prospects. In this instance, it was Marcus Blaze (#1 in the 2025 Class) who prevailed over the top-ranked junior, 5-1.

Unlike the Hardy match, Bassett had a far tougher time getting to the legs of the defensively excellent Penn State signee. But even so, he led 1-0 (activity clock) with 0:15 to go in the first period.

That’s when Blaze struck for what would’ve been ‘just’ a quick go-behind takedown – only for Bassett to get a tad overambitious with his defense and give up a four-point score instead:

Against a wrestler as good as Blaze – U17 World champ (2023) and U20 World bronze (2024) – that hole was always going to be tough to climb out of. And despite numerous attempts, Bassett only locked around a leg on 1-2 occasions in the second period – converting neither.

(You can watch the full match on YouTube at this link.)

The final four

We’ll close with some thoughts on Iowa’s four other entries in Louisville.

The lone placer among them was Marlynne Deede, who took fourth at 76 kilograms (women’s freestyle).

The 2024 NCWWC champ reached the semifinals with an opening 11-0 tech. fall, then ran into eventual champ, Dymond Guilford.

After being pinned in the semis, the former Hawkeye met a current one, Naomi Simon. And with two takedowns and a trio of leg laces it was Deede who moved on.

Now wrestling for the biggest consolation ‘prize’ (there were no 5th/7th place matches at WTT), Deede lost a 4-3 decision.

In a US Open rematch with Tristan Kelly – a U20 World bronze medalist and 2025 NCWWC champ – fortunes were reversed. Out in Las Vegas, Deede prevailed via first-period pin. But this time Kelly managed to overcome an early takedown to take ‘Round 2.’

Elsewhere among the Iowa women, Emily Frost (2-2 at 59kg) and Naomi Simon (1-2 at 76kg) saw mixed results.

You’ll never believe this, but both of Frost’s wins came via headlock. The second of them capped a white-knuckle sequence in which Frost went from imminent takedown allowed to match-winning pinfall secured:

Naomi Simon had a thrilling pin of her own at 76kg, storming back from a 6-0 deficit to get it.

The freshman countered a shot by 2024 NAIA national champion Ashley Lekas, then, takedown secured, worked for the fall.

It was a nice bright spot in a day otherwise filled with hard lessons for the 18-year-old – who also lost to Kelly in the quarterfinals (10-0).

And finally, it was a rare event to forget for Michael Caliendo (men’s freestyle, 74kg).

Against Terrell Barraclough and Ed Scott – recent graduates of Utah Valley/NC State with fifth-place All-American honors topping their collegiate accomplishments – the Hawkeye senior-to-be never quite looked like himself.

Sure, there were some costly freestyle-specific errors (a style in which he hadn’t competed since 2022, mind you). However, both opponents also got to Caliendo’s legs with way more regularity than Iowa fans have grown accustomed to watching.

Combine those elements – plus an atypical lack of crispness from Caliendo’s own offense – and an 0-2 showing was the result.

Short time

With the challenge tournament completed, the only (Senior-level) domestic event left on the calendar is Final X on June 14th. And with seven Hawkeyes qualified you can be sure I’ll have wall-to-wall coverage next month.

In the meantime, Men’s U23 Nationals/U20 World Team Trials will be held two weeks from now in Geneva, Ohio. I’d expect some combination of Iowa wrestlers/recruits to be in attendance.

Until then, I’ll be back if any breaking news should crop up pertaining to either Hawkeye program.

Thanks as always to everyone for reading and/or following along with my coverage these past few days. There are no dull moments/tournaments when it comes to Iowa wrestling – this weekend being just the latest example. And it has been my genuine pleasure to try to capture it all in this latest recap.

‘Till next time, thanks again!

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