Menlo, Life top contenders for NAIA Women’s Nationals title in Jamestown, N.D., March 8-9

NAIA Women’s preliminary brackets

NAIA Women’s coverage page on FloWrestling

FloWrestling live broadcast

The 2023 season was historic for women’s wrestling within the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). It was the first year that women’s wrestling was an official NAIA championship sport. In previous seasons, it was considered a national invitational. The NAIA was the first college organization with an official women’s wrestling championships.

Southern Oregon won the initial NAIA Women’s Nationals in Jamestown, N.D., making history for their coach Gabrielle Weyhrich the first female head coach to lead a women’s college wrestling team to a national team championships. Another NAIA head coach, Ashley Flavin of Life, was the first to lead a women’s college team to a National Duals title.

The 2024 NAIA Women’s Nationals returns to Jamestown, March 8-9. No. 4 Southern Oregon is a contender to repeat as team champions, but the clear top favorites for the team title are No. 1 Menlo and No. 2 Life.

The NAIA uses a similar system that Div. I men’s wrestling uses, by giving allocations (by weight class) to each of the five conference tournaments in women’s wrestling. Once the qualifiers are done, there are a number of wildcards given to complete the tournament field.

There are five teams which qualified a full 12-athlete team for the nationals, Life, Menlo, Southern Oregon, No. 5 Providence and No. 6 Texas Wesleyan. Coming in with 11 qualifiers is No. 3 Grand View.

Rounding out the top 10 teams are No. 7 Oklahoma City (11 qualifiers), No. 8 William Penn (9 qualifiers), No. 9 Cumberlands (9 qualifiers) and No. 10 Missouri Baptist (10 qualifiers).

At the 2024 NAIA National Duals in January, Life defeated Menlo, 25-21 in the finals. Texas Wesleyan was third with a 39-10 win over the University of Providence. Southern Oregon was fifth, beating Grand View, 24-16.

What makes this tournament special this year is that it is a qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling at Penn State, April 19-20. The champion in each of the 10 weight classes advances to the Trials. If the champion is already qualified, there will not be any athletes qualifying from that weight class.

Athletes who are competing at NAIA Nationals this week who have already qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Wrestling are Mia Palumbo of William Penn, the No. 1 seed at 109 pounds at the NAIAs, and Cristelle Rodriguez of Doane, the No. 1 seed at 123 pounds at the NAIAs. Palumbo is qualified at 50 kg, after placing fifth at the Senior Nationals, and Rodriguez qualified at 57 kg after placing fourth at the Senior Nationals.

Returning NAIA national champions who are in the field this year are two-time national champion Carolina Moreno of Southern Oregon (130) and two-time national champion Adaugo Nwachukwu of William Penn (136). Moreno won her national title last year at 123 pounds. Nwachukwu won her first two titles for Iowa Wesleyan, which closed down its school, and transferred to William Penn this year.

Returning NAIA runners-up are Erin Hikiji of Providence (101), Mia Palumbo of William Penn (109), Camille Fournier of Texas Wesleyan (116), Alana Vivas of Menlo College (123), Sarah Savidge of Life (130), Mea Mohler of Texas Wesleyan (143) and Latifah McBryde of Life (155). Palumbo is a transfer from Iowa Wesleyan. Mohler was national runner-up last year at 136.

The No. 1 seeds at this year’s NAIA Nationals are Hikiji (101), Palumbo (109), Juliana Diaz of Missouri Baptist (116), Rodriguez (123), Moreno (130), Nwachukwu (136), Jamilah McBryde of Life (143), Caitlyn Davis of Southern Oregon (155), Abby McIntyre of Grand View (170) and Tavia Heidelberg-Tillotson of Menlo (191).

Conference team champions coming into the nationals were Life (Mid-South), Texas Wesleyan (Sooner Athletic Conference), Hastings (KCAC), Grand View (Heart of America), Menlo College (Cascade Collegiate).

While Southern Oregon is the only team to win an official NAIA Women’s Nationals, NAIA programs have been winning national women’s college titles for years. There were three NAIA National Invitationals held prior to gaining official status, with Campbellsville winning twice (2021 and 2022) and Menlo winning in the first event in 2019.

Prior to that, women’s college wrestling national events were held eateams from the NAIA, NCAA and NJCAA. The event started as the Women’s College Nationals, then was changed to the WCWA Nationals. Four NAIA colleges won those events, led by four-time winner Oklahoma City (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), three-time champion Univ. of the Cumberlands (2006, 2007, 2008), two-time champion Missouri Valley College (2004, 2005) and two-time champion Campbellsville (2018, 2019).

The event will be broadcast live on FloWrestling. https://www.flowrestling.org/live/90749

NAIA Women’s Nationals Schedule

Mountain time zone

Friday, March 8

10:00 a.m. – Session I – Championship rounds 1 & 2, Consolation rounds 1 & 2

6:00 p.m. – Session II – Quarterfinals, Consolation rounds 3 & 4

Saturday, March 9

10:00 a.m. – Session III – Semifinals, Consolation quarterfinals, Consolation semifinals, Medal matches for 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th place6:00 p.m. – Session IV – Championship Finals