Iowa women’s wrestler Kylie Welker will be bringing home more hardware ahead of the college season, securing a U23 World Championships in dominant fashion on Oct. 22-23.
In Novi Sad, Serbia, Welker blitzed through the 76-kilogram field with four wins by technical fall and outscoring her opponents 47-6. Her first-round matchup ended up being her toughest vs. India’s Priya Malik, a three-time age-group World Champion, but she won in a 10-0 technical fall. Welker continued to advance with ease behind a 11-0 techincal fall win over Cananda’s Nyla Burgess in the quarterfinals, a 16-6 victory over Mexico’s Edna Jimenez Villalba in the semifinals and capped it off with a 10-0 win in the finals over UWW’s Valeriia Trifonova.
Since missing out on the 2024 US Olympic team, something Welker said motivated her immensely, the Wisconsin native and two-time National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Champion has been unrelenting. On her resume since then is now a pair of U23 World titles with this victory, a Senior Pan-Am gold medal, a 27-0 in record in college without conceding a point all of last season, a NCWWC title and her 2025 Senior World bronze medal from earlier this fall.
Welker was the highlight of several from Iowa colleges at the U23 World Championships. Here’s how a few others performed in Serbia before the college season gets underway in just a few days.
How Iowans competed at the U23 World Championships
Iowa
Iowa State
William Penn
Grand View
The other three from state of Iowa wrestling programs to medal were Iowa State’s Daniel Herrera, as well as William Penn’s Christianah Ogunsanya and Esther Kolawole.
Ogunsanya and Kolawaole represented Nigeria at the U23 World Championships and each secured U23 World bronze. Ogunsanya downed Iowa’s Brianna Gonzalez in the bronze-medal match by an 8-0 decision to secure the U23 World bronze medal at 53 kilograms. Kolawole was 3-1 in Serbia, clinching a U23 World bronze medal at 62 kilograms with a 8-1 win by decision over Venezuela’s Astrid Montero Chirinos in the bronze-medal match. Their fellow Statesman, Adaugo Nwachukwu, fell short of a U23 World medal with a 1-1 ledger also at 62 kilograms.
Iowa State’s Daniel Herrera began hot with back-to-back wins to reach the semifinals. He produced a highlight in the quarterfinals, when Herrera trailed 5-2 before he dropped down to a single leg, switched to double and planted his opponent Nambardagva Batbayar of Mongolia to his back for a win by fall.
He lost by technical fall (12-2) in the semifinals to Azerbaijan’s Khetag Karasanov, but was brought back in the repechage for a bronze-medal match. Herrera wound up just shy of bronze, losing in a 14-3 technical fall to Turkey’s Hakan Buyukcingil.
This will be likely the largest event Herrera will compete in this season, as he will be redshirting for the upcoming season with Yonger Bastida returning from injury at heavyweight for the Cyclones. Barring another injury to Bastida, Herrera will likely only see action unattached in opens this year after going to the NCAA Championships last year.
Garavous Kouekabakilaho of Grand View also represented Team USA at 97 kilograms, beating Egypt’s Mohamed Mostafa Aly Elshamy Salaheldin by a 12-1 technical fall in the round of 16. He fell to 2023 Senior World Champion Rizabek Aitmukhan (11-0 technical fall) in the quarterfinals, and since Aitmukhan lost in the semifinals, Kouekabakilaho did not get brought back in the repechage.
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’s Kylie Welker wins U23 World title, see how other Iowans competed
Reporting by Eli McKown, Des Moines Register / Hawk Central
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