No. 1 Indian Hills CC seeks to repeat as NJCAA Women’s Invitational champions in Council Bluffs, Iowa
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Indian Hills CC in Iowa, which won the inaugural NJCAA Women’s Invitational in 2023, comes in as favorite this year, when the event is held alongside the men’s championships at Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 1-2.
Indian Hills is the only program to ever win a junior college national title in women’s wrestling. In addition to winning the first NJCAA Invitational last year, Indian Hills was also the champions at the 2021 and 2022 Junior College National Championships (JCNC), which included programs from a number of college organizations.
The Warriors return three NJCAA individual national champions from last year, Dutchess King (101), Shammilka Miranda Diaz (116), and Eliana Bommarito (235). Bommarito was named Outstanding Wrestler at last year’s nationals.
Wrestling fans will remember over the summer when Bommarito became the first U.S. wrestler to ever win a Senior Beach World Championships. In addition to being an outstanding wrestler on the college level, she is one of the best Beach wrestlers in the world.
Indian Hills returns nine All-Americans from last year. The Warriors have two No. 1 seeds, Bommarito and Tiffany White (191). The team also boasts No. 2 seeds King and Diaz, plus Javanica Mickens (109), Angelica Vicente Gomzalez (123) and Averie Burns (235).
In the most recent NJCAA Women’s Rankings, released on Feb. 10, Umpqua CC was ranked No. 2, led by three No. 1 seeds at the nationals, Zainab Ibrahim of Umpqua (130) and Tarleen Saroya of Umpqua (143) and Zoey Smalley of Umpqua (170). Smalley and Hernandez are returning NJCAA national champions. Umpqua won the first NJCAA Women’s Wrestling Coaches Association National duals in late January.
Iowa Western, which was ranked No. 5 in the most recent NJCAA Women’s Rankings, has three No. 1 seeded wrestlers, Mia Siqueiros of Iowa Western (101), Flavia Nagatani of Iowa Western (116) and Ferny Hernandez of Iowa Western (155).
Other individuals with No. 1 seeds are Alexis Miller of Carl Albert State (109), Victoriana Kim of Southwestern Oregon (123) and Cory Williams of Snow (136). Miller and Kim are both returning NJCAA national champions.
In the final team rankings, Iowa Central was No. 3 and Snow was at No. 4.
Iowa Central is led by No. 2 seeds Bronwyn Brenneman (130) and Briana Araujo Batista (170), plus No. 3 seeds Emma Lewis (101), Dianna Pineda (109), Rodiat Adenuntan (116) and Aniyah Dinwiddie (123).
Snow boasts top seed Cory Williams (136), plus No. 2 seeds Abigail Trayhorn (143) and Angella Van Valkenburg (155).
NJCAA women’s wrestling continues to grow and prosper, and this year’s brackets are larger and expected to be more competitive than last year’s historic start.
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