Olympians Blades, Miracle headline Senior women’s freestyle division at CLAW U.S. Open Championships

The Senior women’s freestyle division at the 2025 CLAW U.S. Open Championships is peppered with several known commodities, plus a charge of young blood, who will all push to be one-of-10 individual national champions crowned at The Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas.

Over 190 athletes have entered the Senior women’s freestyle division, which is set for April 24-25. Olympic and World medalists, past Senior World Team members, notable age-group stars, college national champions and select high school up-and-comers are all in the mix.

Online registration is open through April 20, leaving the possibility for several more top names to enter the field, which is expected.

The Senior division at the U.S. Open has a longstanding track-record as one of the toughest wrestling tournaments held annually. The 10 Senior women’s freestyle champions in Las Vegas earn the coveted title of U.S. Open champion and a distinguished USA Wrestling Stop Sign award. More importantly, champions claim a spot in Final X, which is set for Saturday, June 14 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Final X will determine the 2025 U.S. Senior World Team in two-of-three international disciplines—men’s freestyle and women’s freestyle. In total, 20 weight classes will be contested, 10 in each discipline. The top two U.S. athletes in each weight classes will wrestle a best-of-three series at Final X to determine the U.S. representative at the 2025 Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

This event truly is a “who’s who” of U.S. women’s wrestlers, which is especially prevalent as athletes phase out post-Paris and weight-class jockeying begins immediately entering the new Olympic cycle. Two athletes stand above the field from an experience perspective, 2024 U.S. Olympic Team members Kennedy Blades at 68 kg and Kayla Miracle at 62 kg.

Blades blasted her way to a silver medal at 76 kg in Paris, France, last summer after taking the top spot domestically from all-time great Adeline Gray. She is dropping down two weight classes to begin her run this Olympic quadrennial. The 21-year-old Blades is a three-time age-group World medalist and four-time age-group U.S. World Team member. She recently won a NCWWC national title for the University of Iowa and was voted the 2025 USA Wrestling Women’s College Wrestler of the Year.

Miracle is a two-time Olympian with appearances in Paris (2024) and Tokyo (2020). She is a two-time Senior World medalist, earning silver in 2021 and 2022, and a four-time U.S. World Team member. On the age-group levels, Miracle made eight World Teams and claimed three medals.

Both Blades and Miracle have won the U.S. Open in past years. Blades lone U.S. Open title came in 2023. Miracle has won this event four times dating back to 2016.

2024 World bronze medalist Kylie Welker has bumped up to 76 kg for her 2025 run to the World Championships. She scored a bronze medal at 72 kg at last year’s Worlds in Tirana, Albania. Welker also won the U23 World title, her second age-group World gold, in Tirana, last fall.

The remaining World medalist in the field is veteran competitor Jennifer Page, who took bronze in 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia, at 59 kg. Page is up at 65 kg for her run in Las Vegas.

Past Senior World Team members Areana Villaescusa (2024), Dymond Guilford (2022) and Abigail Nette (2022) are expected to be top contenders in their respective weights.

In addition to Blades and Welker, seven other athletes in the field are past age-group World champions—Emily Shilson at 50 kg, Sage Mortimer and Katie Gomez at 53 kg, Cristelle Rodriguez at 55 kg, Ronna Gross at 57 kg, Jasmine Robinson at 72 kg and Yelena Makoyed at 76 kg. Mortimer, Rodriguez, Robinson and Makoyed each won an age-group World gold last year, making them especially dangerous threats next weekend.

Eight entrants won the U.S. Open in 2023 and were Final X runners-up the same year—Audrey Jimenez at 50 kg, Katie Gomez at 53 kg, Alisha Howk at 55 kg, Michaela Beck and Xochitl Mota-Pettis at 59 kg, Adaugo Nwachukwu at 62 kg, Joye Levendusky at 72 kg and Kennedy Blades at 76 kg. All eight are top contenders once more at the U.S. Open.

A complete list of entries for all 10 Senior women’s freestyle weight classes is available below.

The lightest weight class is the largest, and perhaps deepest, in the Senior women’s freestyle division. There is a clear favorite in four-time age-group World medalist Audrey Jimenez, who has commanded the No. 2 spot on Team USA behind Olympic champion Sarah Hildebrandt the past two years. We could see a veteran presence like Erin Golston or Emily Shilson emerge. Conversely, this could be the time for another age-group star, such as Heather Crull, Ava Bayless or others, to breakout.

Villaescusa returns to 55 kg as the reigning World Team member and tournament favorite. To retain the title, she will have to fend off a talented trio of top challengers—2023 U.S. Open champion Alisha Howk, 2024 U20 World champion Cristelle Rodriguez and two-time age-group World medalist Amani Jones. Another interesting entrant is emerging star Everest Leydecker, who recently earned a spot on the U20 World Team.

Until proven otherwise, 62 kg is a two-horse race to the finish between two-time Olympian Kayla Miracle and four-time age-group World Team member Adaugo Nwachukwu. The two have wrestled three times on the Senior level with Miracle holding a 3-0 lead in the series. Their last meeting was 2023 Final X with Miracle taking the series in two matches, by scores of 10-3 and 6-1. The question remains if Nwachukwu has closed the gap in the two years since.

With Olympic medalists Kennedy Blades and Adeline Gray vacating the heavyweight division, it has opened up for a new name to take command this Olympic cycle. 2024 U23 World champions Kylie Welker and Yelena Makoyed are high on the list of favorites. 2022 World Team member Dymond Guilford will no doubt have her say. 2022 U20 World bronze medalist and 2024 Military World silver medalist Tristan Kelly has emerged as a top threat here as well. Depth and unpredictability should prove 76 kg to be a highlight weight class in Las Vegas.

The Senior women’s freestyle tournament will run April 24-25. Day one of competition will feature championship rounds through the semifinals. The remaining consolation rounds, medal rounds and championship finals will be held on day two. A detailed schedule of events is available at usawrestlingevents.com.

The CLAW U.S. Open Championships will be broadcast live on FloWrestling. Brackets will be available through USA Bracketing, USA Wrestling’s new best-in-class event management software.