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Welker wows as Iowa goes 3/3 at Pan-American Championships

by:Tanner Lafever•05/10/25•

TannerLafever

Kylie Welker
Kylie Welker's title at 76 kilograms was one of three championship efforts by Hawkeyes at Pan-Ams. (Photo Credit: Tony Rotundo)

It was mission accomplished for Iowa wrestlers at the 2025 Pan-American Championships.

What other description is there when all three Hawkeye entries win individual titles? In fact, ‘mission accomplished’ probably sells short an effort in which those entries went a combined 10-0, outscoring their opponents 86-13 while registering five tech. falls and a pin.

After two days of competition in Monterrey, Mexico the Hawks are flying home with some extra (precious) cargo.

How exactly did it all go down? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Kennedy Blades (68 kilograms)

As predicted, Iowa’s first champion of the weekend won in dominant fashion – outscoring four opponents by a combined margin of 38-8.

Even so, it was a stylistic ‘sandwich’ of sorts for Kennedy Blades during her run to a title.

In the middle – two matches against Grabriela Da Rocha (Brazil) and Virginia Jimenez Fernandez (Chile) – single legs and slide-byes proved to be her preferred attacks. Other than a single step out point Blades went unscored upon, ending both bouts long before the final buzzer.

Meanwhile, the ‘bread’ of Blades’ Pan-Am performance was two matches against the same foe – Venezuela’s Nathaly Griman Herrera.

As I wrote in my preview, Herrera is a long-time veteran on the Senior level who does have a few elite wins on her resume. And she certainly used every bit of savvy to slow the young American whenever she could.

In their opener, Herrera led 1-0 at the break with Blades having taken few, if any committed shot attempts. That quickly changed, however, as Blades hit a pair of her signature blast doubles as part of six unanswered points to pull away for the 6-2 decision.

Herrera led 1-0 early in their final as well, but that advantage too, was short lived. Back to the blast double Blades went – converting a quartet of them in beautiful fashion, including a pair of four-pointers.

A technical fall seemed all but certain until she got careless on the edge and was thrown for four. But she’d respond with two more takedowns after the break to cement a dominant 14-5 victory.

Blades spoke with USA Wrestling HERE about her title run at 68 kilograms.

Macey Kilty (65 kilograms)

Efficiency is the word that most comes to mind when describing Macey Kilty’s outing in Monterrey. As in, what’s the least amount of time a wrestler could spend on the mat en route to gold?

Match #1 lasted all of 33 seconds for the Iowa senior thanks to a takedown + leg lace (x4) combination.

Match #2 was (somehow) even shorter. After being exposed following a quick shot off the opening whistle, Kilty quickly adjusted and stuck her Brazilian opponent for the fall in a crisp 0:23.

Comparatively speaking, the two-time Senior World medalist lollygagged in her final bout of the (round robin) tournament at 65 kilograms.

It took the Hawkeye an eternal 1:20 to finally put away Miki Rowbottom (Canada) via 10-0 tech. fall.

As she’s wont to do, physicality and fundamentals served Kilty wonderfully in her de facto title bout. An early single-leg takedown led to a subsequent gut wrench for two more points. A second score (of the snap-down, go-behind variety) led to a second turn – this time a pair of leg laces to end the match.

It almost feels dismissive to fall back on a ‘simple, business-like’ description as to how Kilty won this title. But that’s exactly what it was. And that’s often how the best wrestlers in the world make it look, too.

Kylie Welker (76 kilograms)

To complete Iowa’s trifecta of Pan-Am champions, the toughest path to gold was forged by Kylie Welker.

An opening quarterfinal win (8-2) over Argentina’s Linda Machuca proved to be straightforward enough – even if there was a moment of consternation when the Argentinian stepped over a Welker gut wrench attempt and momentarily held the American on her back.

Aside from that brief scare, Welker seemed mostly content to wrestle out the final few minutes pretty conservatively.

No such trepidation cropped up in the semifinals, however – even as the competition took a major step up.

There, across from Welker stood Ecuador’s Genesis Reasco Valdez, a fifth-place finisher at both 2022 Worlds and the 2024 Olympics. The two also had a prior history, splitting matches in 2021 (Welker) and 2023 (Reasco Valdez).

Right off the whistle, the Ecuadorian gave Welker her best shot – hitting a blast double that has given plenty high-level wrestlers around the world fits, including American legend Adeline Gray. But on this day, somehow the 21-year-old Hawkeye managed to defend through the position for a stalemate.

That was as close as Reasco Valdez got, too. Welker scored off a heavy snap-down to make it 2-0, then parried a lengthy double-leg attempt, going behind to double her lead.

Far from satisfied with the four-point advantage, she immediately transitioned into a gnarly leg-lace (x3) to complete the tech. fall.

Welker used this air-tight leg-lace to finish off her tech. fall win over last year’s fifth-place Olympian at 76 kilograms. (Photo Credit: Tony Rotundo)

For context, Reasco Valdez allowed five total points across three matches (and eighteen minutes of wrestling) at the Paris Olympics.

On Saturday in Mexico, Welker doubled that tally in a mere 1:18.

That left a (surprise) finals matchup against Brazil’s Thamires Marins Machado.

The relative journeywoman had competed at 68/72 kilograms throughout her Senior-level career with no eye-catching results to date. But that all went by the wayside this weekend, as she ran down the reigning Olympic bronze medalist to punch her ticket to the finals.

Once there, she frustrated Welker too. The Iowa sophomore generated the lone two scoring opportunities of the first five minutes of action but only had a pair of activity clock points to show for it.

The Brazilian was stingy in the hand fight, held center well enough, and even Houdini’d her way out of a near-certain takedown in the early going.

For a moment, the approach seemed to have paid off to utter perfection. At the end of Welker’s own 0:30 activity clock, Machado found an upper-body tie to her liking and pulled the trigger on an outside trip that could’ve easily taken Welker straight to her back and deep into a 5-2 hole.

But the Hawkeye showed off some magic of her own, slipping out of danger and scoring a takedown herself.

Instincts. Guts. Dexterity.

All were on display in the blink of an eye as Welker navigated the imminent threat with some wrestling brilliance.

Perhaps emboldened by the near-miss, Machado got to a leg twice more during the final 0:40. But again (and again) Welker defended supremely – including a four-point counter toss on the edge as time expired.

The final scoreboard may have read 8-1, but viewers will know it was far more dramatic than that.

It’s still tough to say whether Machado may be a revelation-in-the-making at her brand-new weight class. But however Machado’s future unfolds, Kylie Welker just won a bracket that included a pair of top-five 2024 Olympic finishers.

I wrote in my Pan-Am preview that Welker already felt like every bit of a World title threat this year. And after her performance in Mexico that opinion hasn’t changed one bit – if perhaps grown even stronger.

Short time

Now that Pan-Ams having passed, the next time you’ll likely see this star Iowa trio on the mat is at Final X in mid-June.

All of Blades/Kilty/Welker are sitting in the best-of-three finals – a pair of wins from earning a spot on Team USA for the 2025 World Championships.

Kilty’s opponent (Aine Drury) is already set – while Blades/Welker will learn theirs following next weekend’s World Team Trials challenge tournament.

That’ll be the next event on my calendar too. So, be sure to check in later next week for my preview of the Iowa contingent heading down to Louisville.

Thanks as always to everyone for reading/following along. I’ll talk to you again real soon.

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