Matside Updates at Senior World Team Trials

Derek Levendusky reporting matside from the Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.

It’s here! The 2022 Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament starts today and I’m here in media row covering the action. I’ll be updating some key results in real time here along with leaving some thoughts and observations about things I’m witnessing in the arena. Follow along and enjoy the weekend of action!

FINALS
50 kg, match 1: Erin Golston vs. Alyssa Lampe
Lampe attacks early and often to go out 9-0, but Golston storms back to tie it up 9-9.
10-9 Lampe! Wow. What a match!

55 kg, match 1: Jacarra Winchester vs. Lauren Mason
Mason scrappy pushing it into second period but Winchester looking like the world champ she is. 10-0 Winchester. As Jason Bryant says, “It’s not Jacarra LOSEchester. It’s Jacarra WINchester.”

57 kg, match 1: Cameron Guerin vs. Alex Hedrick
Hedrick flips the script. It was Guerin 2-1 at the U.S. Open, this time it’s Hedrick 2-1.

A little break from women’s matches as Greco final comes out. But it is Famous Braxton Amos, so I’ll be watching!

And we’re back. Good one coming up! 62 kg return of Macey Kilty vs. Nittany Lion WC’s Jennifer Rogers (Page).

Uh oh. Macey’s hurt. They’re looking at her arm. Elbow maybe. We’ll see what happens here. They’ve been looking at it for a while. Hope she’s ok. Just came back from bad injury.

Macey is done. Shoulder injury. Really sad to see that.

65 kg: Here we go. Bruntil vs. Velte rematch. We’ve been waiting for this one.
Velte wins first one 5-2. Velte attacked multiple times early and was successful. Bruntil finally got one in second, but had hard time with Velte’s heavy hands and stingy defense.

50 kg, match #2: Golston vs. Lampe
Wow Lampe. Full-on folkstyle with an arm bar pin early in first period. She moves on to face Hildebrandt in Final X! She looks great. Can she run with the multiple-time world medalist?

55 kg, match #2: Winchester vs. Mason
Winchester wins 10-6 and will face Jenna Burkert in a rematch of what might have been the most exciting best-of-three women’s series in the history of domestic wrestling. That all being said, WOW LAUREN MASON! She took Winchester down—count-em—three times! What a performance by the SFU grad.

Waiting again while the men wrestle. Holy smokes! Vincenzo Joseph just threw Chance Marsteller right at the end, it appears, for the win! Big crowd moment there.

62 kg: Jennifer Rogers/Page makes it official and gets her hand raised for the second time as Macey Kilty medically defaults. Rogers will face Kayla Miracle at Final X. Good post-match interview. She seems like a great person. Had positive things to say about her experience at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

65 kg, match #2: Emma Bruntil vs. Mallory Velte
Did you see that?! Wow…last second inside trip for Bruntil wins it 3-2!
I was sitting next to Bruntil’s corner and could hear everything they were saying. They were pretty upset about Velte’s head butts off the whistle and kept talking to the referee about it. Bruntil appeared to be bleeding from a gash under her eye by the middle of the second period. Hand fighting was so heavy in that match. Two elite wrestlers in a chess match. Bruntil found a way. McKendree section of crowd pretty happy about that one and erupted with cheers. Match #3 coming!

68 kg: Solin Piearcy vs. Sienna Ramirez
Another dramatic finish! Piearcy pushes it to mat 3 with a 2-2 win. Staves off Ramirez’ late attacks to hold on to the 2-2 criteria win. These women are going so hard. Truly a battle on the mat.

Crowd went wild over that Masteller throw at the end over Vincenzo. We did in media row too!

Here we go. Match 3, Bruntil vs. Velte!
Velte takes match 3! She’ll face Forrest Molinari at Final X.

Match 3: Piearcy vs. Ramirez
What a match, what a series! Ramirez holds onto early lead to win it 6-6.
She advances to Final X to face Olympic gold medalist Tamrya Mensah-Stock.

Event over. Next stop: FINAL X

SESSION THREE: Semis (53 kg, 59 kg, 72 kg, 76 kg) & Consolations
Sorry folks, got caught up doing interviews which were coming like a conveyor belt off the mat! Some great moments on and off the mat! Here’s the updates…

All semifinal winners this morning advance to Final X as there’s no medalist in these weight classes.

53 kg: Felicity Taylor gets it done pretty quickly over Franich. Dom Parrish looked super solid over Heaton 6-0.

59 kg: In rematch of NAIA finals, #4 seeded Lexie Basham beats #1 seed Nanea Estrella 5-3. Basham beat her in March at the NAIA Invite 3-2. So another close one. Basham was pretty emotional in her post-match interview when she discussed the firing of her coach Ray Bedford from Texas Wesleyan. She felt it was unjust and that the administration didn’t listen to the athletes.

72 kg: Two pretty dominant wins in the semis—#1 Skylar Grote over Garcia 10-0 and Amit Elor over Marlynne Deede 12-2. Great post-match interviews. Elor is excited to be competing at this level and on this stage as she’s watched Senior level for years. She’s being coached by Valentin, who coached Maroulis to her gold medal in 2016.

76: #1 Dymond Guilford over #4 Victoria Francis 10-0. Guilford danced all the way to the interview area. “My first national team!” she kept saying. Meanwhile, Yelena Makoyed looks amazing, scoring a 10-0 tech fall over Olivia Robinson. Guilford beat Makoyed at the U.S. Open, though Makoyed beat her last fall. It will be quite a final!

Consis…

Wow, good match between Alara Boyd and Ana Luciano at 68 kg. Luciano was ahead 4-4 by criteria but Boyd scores in the end to win it 6-4. Boyd advances to 3rd place match. National team spot on the line.

62 kg Andrea Schlabach from Grand View has really leveled up. Nice win over Cierra Foster 6-5.

interesting match on backside of 76 kg. #2 Precious Bell vs. #4 2x world teamer Victoria Francis. Stay tuned…

Precious Bell wins it 6-5. What a match! Back and forth scoring, Bell got the last takedown.

76 kg: Tristan Kelly gets by Robinson on backside 9-6. Robinson really put herself on the map these last few months with visit to NAIA finals & solid performance here.

3rd place matches
50 kg: Shilson vs Mortimer
Shilson 11-1 tech fall. Mortimer still young. Looks scrappy and did score, but Shilson still too much.

57 kg: #3 Amanda Martinez vs. #4 Ngao Whitethorn
Martinez wins it 11-6. Kudos to Whitethorn, still just a high schooler. Watch out for this one in years to come. She’s already toe to toe with proven college & Senior women.

55 kg: Alisha Howk takes 3rd at 55kg with a fall over Torieonna Buchanon.

Wild to walk these arena halls and see the post-match reactions…total joy and agony. Some poor Greco guy was back there screaming f-bombs lamenting a mistake he made in his match. Dreams at stake here.

68 kg: Alara Boyd wins wild one in 3rd place match over Rachel Watters 11-10. Good post-match interview. She’s staying at McKendree even after departure of Sam Schmitz.

72 kg: Marilyn Garcia edges Marlynne Deede 3-2 for 3rd place.

76 kg: Precious Bell techs Tristan Kelly 12-2 for 3rd.

Next session starts at 2:30pm.

SESSION TWO: Semis & Consolations
Starts at 4:30pm.

We’re back! #1 Golston vs. #5 Shilson to kick it off at 50 kg.
Golston wins it 4-3. Middle of the match there was an extra point awarded to Golston & restart put Shilson down in par terre. Shilson corner looked confused and never seemed to get an answer. Good match but left wondering what was up there.

#2 Lampe goes full grown woman on #3 Mortimer with tech fall at 1:02. Lampe is impressive to watch so close. You see her power & intensity. If it wasn’t for some woman named Hildebrandt at this weight, i’d say Lampe looks like a world teamer.

55 kg: Howk gave Winchester a good match. Was 4-0 with about a minute left when the 2019 world champ opened up to close it out with a tech fall.

Gallegos vs. Lauren Mason was one of the matches I said to watch in my article. Here we go. 53 kg semi. Winner gets Winchester.

It’s Mason 6-3. She made her her kind of match. Good defense & position; stifled Gallegos’ high paced attack style.

57 kg: Cameron Guerin takes care of business. 10-0 tech fall in less than a minute over high schooler Ngao Shoua Whitethorn.

#2 Alex Hedrick vs. #3 Amanda Martinez. Good one stepping to the mat.
Wow! Late scoring by Hedrick wins it! Down 4-0, scores 6 in last 13 seconds to advance to finals.

62 kg: #1 Bruntil and #2 Velte run through their opponents in semis and we get the finals we wanted.

68 kg: Sienna Ramirez with impressive win over Ana Luciano 11-4. Didn’t see that one looking like that. Big win for the SOU NAIA national champ.

Some great consi matchups. Right now Bridgette Duty and Montana Delawder facing off with a lot of scoring. Duty wins it 14-4.

Delawder lost earlier to Abby Nette.

Crowd getting excited over Dieringer vs. Vincenzo Joseph.

68 kg: Solin Piearcy is really getting in stride at Senior level. Makes the finals with win over Rachel Watters.

Only men on mat right now. They’re mixing in the women but none currently wrestling.

Just did interview with Macey Kilty. She’s got such a tough mindset talking about her recovery from injury sustained last year at Olympic Team Trials. “Injuries are part of wrestling.”

68 kg: Alara Boyd vs. Nahiela Magee coming up right in front of me on mat 4. Both McKendree women. Magee was there before she graduated and joined Army/WCAP.

Boyd goes power half! Gets the fall.

Precious Bell vs. Jordan Nelson coming up mat 1. Let’s see if #2 seeded Bell can claw her way back in this.

Joye Levendusky vs. Tristan Kelly coming up mat 4. Good consi match. They hit four times, three of those in college and it’s Levendusky 4-0 in series, though some have been awful close.

Kelly wins it 4-1 to advance on backside.
Bell comes from behind to win 14-8.

And that’s it for today.

SESSION ONE: 1st Round, Quarterfinals & Consolations
I’m chillin’ here next to the man himself Kyle Klingman from FloWrestling, a guy that is doing some great work covering women’s wrestling. It’s great to see the depth of his work in covering women. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can follow his “Women’s Weekly” on FloWrestling along with some fantastic articles he produces from time to time. Check out his latest work on Ray Bedford’s firing from the Texas Wesleyan program in the article Why Did Ray Bedford Get Fired?

Action starting in a few minutes. There’s gonna be some fantastic matches today.

Beautiful pre-recorded National Anthem filled the arena & we’re off. Always safe to go pre-recorded. Sometimes we get major league wrestling and JV singers, so that went well.

Valles vs. Fowler kicks it off on Mat 2 for the women. Valles wins it 10-0. Valles is an assistant coach at Grand View.

Emily Shilson on the mat. She’s facing a very good young wrestler from the North Central program, Sydney Petzinger. This is actually a rematch of NCAA national finals where Shilson won by tech fall. Emily has never lost a college match for Augsburg. Shilson too much again. Wins it 10-0. Great leg attacks and snapdowns. If Nyla Valencia wins, it’ll be a rematch with Shilson from two weekends ago at U23s, where Valencia upset Shilson 8-5.

Valencia won. The rematch will happen. She’ll face Shilson in the quarters.

2x NAIA champ Nina Pham makes it look easy in round one. Tech fall at :47. She’s the #6 seed which tells you how good this group is.

USAW gold level coach & NYS RTC head women’s coach Emma Randall over there cornering #7 seed at 50 kg Caitlyn Walker. She’s an amazing coach. Great match as #10 seed Danielle Garcia from King’s WC upsets #7 seed Walker 10-5.

Nick Lee and Josh Saunders right in front of me. Quite a match. They “checked in” with me thinking I was mat table. LOL.

My favorite wrestler #9 seed Joye Levendusky (duh) gets it done against #8 seed Melissa Jacobs 10-0 in first period. She’ll face #1 seed Dymond Guilford in quarters.

Time for quarters!

57 kg: #3 seed Amanda Martinez looks good. 10-0 tech fall to advance to semis. 2x college national champ Alex Hedrick, the #2 seed, makes it look easy with first period tech fall. She’ll face Martinez in semis.

Shilson vs. Valencia on the board!

50 kg: #1 seed Erin Golston high pace attacking. Looks great getting the tech fall over Valles.
50 kg: Shilson leaves no doubt. Attacks right after the whistle and never let up. Suffocated Valencia in the rematch. 10-0 and wow.
50 kg: Mortimer over 2x NAIA champ Nina Pham in 23 seconds. What the heck just happened? Leg shot (note: Greco style Mortimer didn’t go upper body) to a trap-arm gut and it’s over. Holy cow, Sage.
50 kg: Veteran Alyssa Lampe looking solid. Gets the fall over Garcia and will face Mortimer. Uses good ol’ fashioned arm bar!

59 kg: NCAA finalist Niya Gaines vs. NAIA champ Lexie Basham. Good one. Basham wins a barnburner 12-8.

Lots of good matches at 59 kg. #3 Michaela Beck vs. #6 Bridgette Duty. Beck has been one of those tough RTC women that skipped the college scene. Duty was a hammer in the NAIA last year.

62 kg: Emmily Patneaud gets 2-1 win over Cierra Foster. Interesting to watch development over the years. Foster was 2016 Pan Am champ. California native Patneaud who competes for McKendree has been quietly developing in Coach Sam Schmitz’ national championship program. She was an All-American at 5th place this year in NCAA. Nice win for Patneaud over Foster.

62 kg: Big one. #3 Andrea Schlabach of Grand View vs. Army/WCAP’s Alex Liles. I featured this match in my article “Ten Women’s Matches To Watch at Women’s WTT.” Schlabach wins it with a fall though Liles was up 4-0. Big win for Schlabach to advance to semis.

Meanwhile, Seth Gross & Jesse Mendez lighting it up and wowing crowd on mat 3.

Has Nico Megaludis ever not had a bandage on his head?

65 kg: Great match between #4 Amanda Hendey and #5 Ashlynn Ortega. Ortega holds on for 6-3 win. Hendey is an assistant coach at Colorado Mesa.

NYC RTC has a solid young wrestler in 65 kg Maya Letona. One of Emma Randall’s women. Letona only lost 2-2 by criteria to Alara Boyd during the college season at the Bearcat Open. Letona wins nailbiter over Emily Se 7-6. Why did the ref go step out and 1 for fleeing? I was right there and Letona clearly got pushed out. That’s why it’s called a “pushout.”

Funny how these referees try to look angry and assert their authority sometimes.

Dang. Velte made it look easy against the NAIA champ Destiny Lyng.

68 kg: College teammates meet up at Senior WTT’s as Olivia Pizano faces U.S. Open champ Sienna Ramirez.

Dang. With re-seeding, just noticed that Alara Boyd is going to wrestle Solin Piearcy in the quarters. Battle of college champs. Get your popcorn. Boyd has heaviest hands in college wrestling and Piearcy has the smoothest offense you’ll see. Like elegance meets wrestling.

Team Tornado’s #4 seeded Ana Luciano wrestling Colorado Mesa’s #5 seeded Dalia Garibay. Garibay was the one that gave Emma Bruntil her only college loss. Competitive but Luciano too much. 8-2 win for. theKing wrestler.

One match at a time moving kinda slooow.

#6 Piearcy comes from behind 4-0 deficit to upset #3 Boyd 4-4. Wow. Big win.

#7 Rachel Watters nice win over #2 Nahiela Magee 8-4. Magee used to wrestle for McKendree until she graduated and joined the Army/WCAP program.

72 kg: Fun for me to see Jessica Kemgne out there. I was on coaching staff of NY Fargo team a few times and watched her early days. She was wild and always fun to watch. Now she’s got a lot more technique!

76 kg: #1 Guilford over #9 Levendusky 5-0. Solid counter leg attacks for Guilford. She’s looked great lately. Scrappy match for Levendusky who had her best match yet against the Pan Am winner.

Victoria Francis gets by a very tough young Tristan Kelly 5-2. Kelly has looked good since returning to the mat for Army/WCAP.

#3 seed Yelena Makoyed hulk smashes NAIA champ Jordan Nelson 11-0. Jeez. She’s gotten so good, even at this level. Semis will be very interesting assuming she hits #2 seed Precious Bell.

Welp, it won’t be Precious Bell! #7 seed Olivia Robinson hits a 4-pointer in the first and holds on to pull off the big upset 4-4.

Some good consis. Crazy being here. Some of these deep consis would be national finals in other contexts.

Notable: #2 seed Precious Bell wins her consi match vs. #8 seed Melissa Jacobs 12-1. Will face #6 seed Jordan Nelson in Consi of 4.