CORALVILLE − Iowa women’s wrestling fell just short of winning the first NCAA team title on March 7 at Xtream Arena.
That honor went to McKendree University, which resides in the state of Illinois and just east of St. Louis, Missouri. The Bearcats crowned three champions and tallied 171 team points. Iowa was close behind with 166 team points, with Hawkeye rival North Central College third with 123.5.
Iowa crowned the first three NCAA individual champions in program history in Kennedy Blades at 160 pounds, Kylie Welker at 180 and Val Solorio at 103. All three won in bonus-point fashion, with Blades winning by fall and Welker and Solorio winning by technical fall. The Hawkeyes were 3-1 in the finals, with Reese Larramendy taking second at 145 pounds.
Aside from its champions and finalists, Brianna Gonzalez took third at 117, and Nyla Valencia (110), Lilly Luft (138) and Katja Osteen (207) each took fourth. Karlee Brooks rounded out the team with a seventh-place finish at 131, giving Iowa nine NCAA All-Americans.
The Hawkeyes had seven in the semifinals, going 4-3 in the round. Solorio earned a quick win by fall over Trinity Pendergrass of Quincy at 103 pounds to reach the finals. Iowa then lost the next three semifinal matches with Valencia falling to Audrey Jimenez of Lehigh at 110 in a 13-2 technical fall, Gonzalez at 117 vs. Yu Sakamoto of McKendree by a 17-10 decision and Luft at 138 in a 4-3 loss by decision to Grand Valley State’s Katerina Lange.
Larramendy at 145 (13-2 technical fall vs. Alexandra Skotnicki of McKendree), Blades at 160 (9-1 decision over Stella Steigler of King) and Welker at 180 (win by fall over Shenita Lawson of North Central) finished off the round strong for the Hawkeyes. Combine that with a third-place finishes from Gonzalez, fourth-place finishes from Valencia, Luft and Osteen and a seventh-place finish from Brooks, the Hawkeyes had a puncher’s chance entering the finals of winning the team title. They trailed McKendree by 8.5 team points, with four finalists to the Bearcats’ five.
The Hawkeyes would likely have needed all four to win in the finals, but were delivered a gut punch early. Larramendy went down 5-0 to former Hawkeye turned North Central College Cardinal Bella Mir, then was turned to her back and lost by fall.
Even so, the Hawkeyes left with three individual NCAA champions, the first three in program history after a pletthora of NCWWC champions the last two years after the NCAA made women’s wrestling its 91st sanctioned sport this season. Blades won the first by planting Tiffani Baublitz of East Stroudsburg to her back to win by fall midway through the first period. Blades concluded a dominant tournament with a 4-0 record and three bonus-point victories.
“I’m in the history books again,” Blades said. “That’s so exciting, right? First-ever NCAA Championships, check off.”
Welker followed in dominant fashion, with an 11-0 technical fall in the first period vs. Destiny Rodriguez of McKendree. She capped off perhaps the most dominant run to an NCAA title with four bonus-point wins, none of which left the first period.
“I never would have thought that I would be able to become a NCAA champ, but it has a nice ring to it,” Welker said.
Then Solorio ended the night for Iowa with a 13-1 technical fall over Rayana Sahagun of Grand Valley State. She was wrestling in front of her dad for the first time since she was 11, inviting him to watch despite the two often getting too anxious and chippy around each other during competition and having an agreement to have her dad watch from afar.
With her dad in the chairs matside, she came out firing with confidence and smiles before, during and after her match.
“I just wanted to perform like my authentic self that he knew, wrestle to the best of my abilities and be able to let myself feel loose,” Solorio said. “That’s exactly what I did.”
For the Hawkeyes, all 10 wrestlers from this year’s national lineup will return. That’s in addition to a stellar freshman class on the way, a host of returning freshmen turned sophomores next year and talents like Naomi Simon and Emilie Gonzalez who could find a spot in the lineup.
Iowa women’s wrestling didn’t come in as the favorite. Head coach Clarissa Chun had been preaching that the talent level across the sport was growing, even though many thought the Hawkeyes winning would be a foregone conclusion. The inaugural NCAA Championships served as a notice that Iowa will have to scrap to return to national-title form despite the stars of their squad returning next season.
“They can’t hang their heads on how they competed and performed, because they battled, they fought,” Chun said. “There are some great moments and a lot of great memories from everyone that competed. All 10 of them. It just speaks to what I’ve been saying, the depth of women’s wrestling in this country. Really, just keeping moving forward and the sun will come out tomorrow.”
Iowa women’s wrestling results after NCAA Championships
2026 NCAA women’s wrestling finals results
NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championships final team scores
Updated brackets and full team scores can be found on Flowrestling.com.
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.
This article originally appeared on Hawk Central: Iowa women’s wrestling takes second at the 2026 NCAA championships
Reporting by Eli McKown, Des Moines Register / Hawk Central
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
