Women's NCAA Regional Results/NCWWC Preview

Regionals for NCAA Women’s Wrestling capped off this weekend where athletes competed across six regional tournaments to secure their spots in the national tournament happening March 8-9. 

The top four wrestlers at each weight at regionals earned a bid to compete, and teams are able to send up to 15 athletes per team. 

Regional champ teams King (Region II), North Central (Region IV), and Iowa (Region V) were the three teams to qualify the maximum 15 athletes. Sacred Heart won Region I with 13 qualifiers, Tiffin took first place at Region III and is sending 5 wrestlers to nationals, and Colorado Mesa was the top team at Region VI and will be sending 11.

Takeaways from Regional competition:

1. King wins big at Region II

#3 King was a favorite to take the top team spot at Region II hosted by Emmanuel College, but the Tornado did so in dominant fashion, with eight individual champions and qualifying all 15 possible wrestlers for nationals. In fact, four of the finals matches were between King teammates.

Jessica Corredor reclaimed her regional title, as did Montana Delawder and Cheyenne Bowman. Other champs for King were Samara Chavez, Maria Victoria Baez Dilone, Claire DiCugno, Aine Drury, and Alexa Garcia. 

King finished second at NCWWC last year with one individual champion. While there is a lot of tough competition outside of Region II, they are in good position to get a team trophy as one of the 3 teams with 15 wrestlers headed to nationals.

2. Iowa vs McKendree: The Battle at Region V

Iowa defeated McKendree by a margin of 27 points, with 6 individual champs to McKendree’s 3. Iowa continued to show their dominance at 101 lbs with teammates Emilie Gonzalez and Sterling Dias competing for the top spot, with Gonzalez getting the 7-0 decision win.

At 109 lbs, Ava Bayless of Iowa took out Pauline Granados of McKendree by a close 4-2 decision. 116 lbs, was again all Iowa in the finals with Brianna Gonzalez getting the win over Felicity Taylor. However, things switched over back into Bearcat territory when Shelby Moore took on teammate Nichole Moore and won at 123 lbs.

3x National Champ Cam Guerin of McKendree took no prisoners on her rise to the top of the podium with a pin, and two tech falls. McKendree struck again at 136 lbs when Viktorya Torres took out Iowa’s Lilly Luft with a pin.

143 lbs was probably the most surprising result as Reese Larramendy of Iowa won a 4-2 decision in the finals to 2x NCWWC Champ Emma Bruntil who had just returned to college competition at regionals for the Bearcats. 

Two more Hawkeyes faced off at 155 lbs with Marlynne Deede taking down Bella Mir 8-4, quickly followed by a Kylie Welker tech fall at 170 lbs over Tristan Kelly of McKendree.

These two teams represent real threats to every weight at nationals, and I would not be surprised to see many rematches in the finals from these wrestlers if the brackets line up.

3. North Central sends 13 to the finals to claim 9 individual champs

Every finals matchup at Region IV featured a wrestler from the North Central squad including several finals between Cardinal teammates. North Central are the reigning NCWWC champs with 4 returning individual champs as well, more than any other team.

3x Champ Yelena Makoyed got a 1st period tech fall over her opponent in the finals. 2023 champs Maddie Avila and Jaslynn Gallegos both made it to the finals with Avila getting the decision win and Gallegos going no contest against her teammate. Alara Boyd, who was the champ in 2021, got a pin in her first 3 matches, wrestling just under 3.5 minutes total before the finals where she got an 8-2 decision.

4. Colorado Mesa came ready to compete

Colorado Mesa finished 4th at Nationals last season, and came to Region VI ready to dominate. With 5 individual champions and 11 qualifiers, they have set themselves up for success at NCWWCs when it comes to claiming a team title. 

Returning champion Jennesis Martinez, who continues to be undefeated on the season got two quick tech falls to claim the top spot at 101 lbs. At such a volatile weight class, she’ll be one to watch.

In another exciting match, Colorado Mesa wrestler #4 Holly Beaudoin competed for a third time against #2 Jade Trolland of Simon Fraser and finally got the win after two close losses. These two keep it close and have such a good answer for each other’s styles. I am curious if we will see them again at nationals, but matches like this made the difference in the Mavericks 221-point final team score over Simon Fraser’s 207-point runner-up finish. 

The Mavericks have a pretty even mix of returning All-Americans and first-timers headed to NCWWC’s so we will see if they can hang on to a top-team spot this season.

5. Women’s college wrestling boom

It is clear from several elements of this upcoming national tournament how much this sport is growing right now. From the addition of the sixth regional tournament that puts 24 wrestlers at each weight for nationals instead of 20, to the fact that 50 different schools have qualifiers competing, it is clear why wrestling is pointed to as an emerging and fast-growing sport for women and girls. Here is an outline of all the national qualifiers by weight and their schools: