Ten Breakout Performances at NAIA Nationals

Photo of Adaugo Nwachukwu from the 2020 California State Championships. Taken by Dan Glenn for AWW.

by Derek Levendusky
@AWWderek

Breakout performances. It doesn’t mean they weren’t good before, or even that they outperformed their seeds or surprised anyone. It just means that we in the wrestling community did not know them like we do now after their performance on the big stage of the NAIA National Invite.

So here’s ten breakout performances from this year’s NAIA Nationals. Remember their names because they’ll be in the mix for the next few years in women’s college wrestling, and perhaps even beyond that.

10. #3 seed Esther Walker (Midland), sophomore, 3rd place at 101
Walker was a DNP last year in the blood round. To take 3rd at a deep weight like 101 was heroic, finishing off her day with a 10-0 drumming of Life’s very tough Katalina Bartelt. Walker’s only loss was 3-0 to #2 Ivy Navarro in the semis, showing how close she was to making the finals. Another product of Texas wrestling, stay tuned on Walker; more to come in the future for sure.

9. #6 seed Olivia Robinson (Eastern Oregon), sophomore, 2nd place at 170
Robinson went out blood round last year at 191, so to come back this season and make her mark as a national finalist at 170 is a huge step forward for her. Two big wins over #3 Brittyn Corbishley and #7 Chamira Cooper turned some heads, not to mention going all 6 minutes with Senior level star Dymond Guilford in the finals.

8. #2 seed Salyna Shotwell (Life University), freshman, 2nd at 116
Her national title hopes ran into a brick wall in Alleida Martinez in the finals, but Shotwell showed us what we all thought she might be—one of the top young talents emerging in women’s college wrestling. Her win over #6 Ashley Gooman by fall in the semis, especially after Gooman had just upset the #3 seed Camille Fournier, showed that she’s college elite and capable of performing under the big lights. Shotwell had a stellar freshman campaign and to take 2nd in such a tough field is something I’m sure she and the program are proud of. She’ll be fun to watch the next few years.

7. Unseeded Alexis Medina (Cumberlands), freshman, 3rd at 109
Another freshman doing big things. The California native beat Indiana Tech’s Tehani Soares 6-1 in 3rd place match. To get to the 3rd place match, unseeded Medina had to beat three seeded wrestlers—#11 Kelsey Bilz out of Campbellsville, #7 Jessica Corredor out of Missouri Baptist, and #4 Jasmine Godinez from Texas Wesleyan. Her match against Godinez was most impressive, controlling her opponent with a 12-1 tech fall. In fact, Medina’s only loss was to 2x national champion Asia Ray.

6. #2 seed Kelani Corbett (Lyon), sophomore, National Champion at 191
A Hawaii product that took 3rd last year, she wasn’t a total mystery, but for sophomore Kelani Corbett to win it all, and that in such a convincing way, had to put her in this conversation. Corbett won her title with four straight pins, and Hamilton never looked like a threat to her in the finals. Cumberlands’ Jesse Kirby gave her all she could handle in the semis, but Corbett hit the gas pedal and never looked back in the finals, scoring eight straight points before getting the pin. With McKendree’s 3x national champ Sydnee Kimber dominating the NCAA at this weight, one does wonder what a Kimber-Corbett match would look like? Either way, Corbett has clearly leveled up and had the best tournament of her college career in Jamestown.

5. #2 seed Lexi Basham (Texas Wesleyan), sophomore, National Champion at 130
After what appeared to be an injury-shortened season last year in her freshman campaign, how sweet it must be for Basham to come back and win it all this year. Hitting the podium high seemed to be inevitable at some point for the talented product of Texas wrestling, but zero to 60 in one season is impressive.

4. #7 seed Alana Vivas (Menlo), junior, 3rd place at 123
Because Menlo hasn’t wrestled in the postseason since the 2018-2019 season, their program has been in the shadows. So even though Vivas is a junior, we have two years of her career where we didn’t get to see what she could do in postseason. Now we have, and she definitely had a breakout performance. After losing on the front side to #2 Leilah Castro 4-0, Vivas had to eliminate #8 Ghent in the blood round just to make the top 8. From there, she beat #6 Devin Patton by fall, owned #1 Nichole Moore 14-3—a result that would have made more headlines if it happened on the front side—then controlled Eastern Oregon’s #3 Macy Higa 9-0 in 3rd place match. Holy smokes! Let me lay that out for you…she beat the #1, #3, #6, #8, and #10. You could make the case that outside of the national champions, Vivas had the best day in Jamestown. Maybe she wasn’t a secret to the west coast or the Menlo program, but to many of the rest of us, she was a bit of a mystery. Not anymore.

3. #3 seed Mia Palumbo (Iowa Wesleyan), freshman, 2nd place at 109
I think we all knew that Mia Palumbo was pretty dang good. I personally did for more reasons than just watching her the last few years in high school wrestling, and now in college, as she handed my daughter Esther her caboose a few times at NUWAY Nationals in 2016-2018. If this event was going to be a test to see what level she’s at right now, she showed us that she’s right there as a perennial national contender, taking returning national champion Peyton Prussin right down to the edge, falling to the Life University star by criteria 8-8. And Palumbo made the final by taking out 2x national champion Asia Ray of Wayland Baptist. Don’t change the channel on this young lady.

2. #4 seed Carolina Moreno (Southern Oregon University), freshman, National Champion at 123
Wow. What was impressive was not only that she won, but how she won. After cruising to the quarters, she won a tough match against another talented freshman, Adrienna Turner of Grand View 8-4, Moreno seemed to take it to another level, upsetting the #1 seed Nichole Moore with a convincing 8-0 win, then dominating the final against Campbellsville’s Leila Castro 11-0. Surely her success is no surprise to the Arizona wrestling community, where she was a 2x state champion, going 36-0 in her final season. But now we all know—Moreno is one of the best in women’s college wrestling.

1. #1 seed Adaugo Nwachukwu (Iowa Wesleyan), freshman, National Champion at 143
Did you see that?! Menlo’s Gracie Figueroa is no joke, and has already earned some praise at the Senior level, so for Nwachukwu to dominate her in the final was shocking, and to have beaten her twice by fall this season tells us it’s no fluke…Adaugo Nwachukwu is for real. Of course, California already knew that, where she was an undefeated state champ in 2020, going 45-0. She’s a force in neutral, overpowering her opponents in control ties all day, and stingy on defense. She’ll be a name in the mix for years to come, perhaps even at the Senior level.

Honorable mentions: Of course, you’re always going to leave someone out when you try to have a clean top 10 list, so here’s a few honorable mentions. Menlo’s sophomore Nanea Estrella took second, losing a close match to Lexi Basham in the finals 3-2, but I didn’t include her in the top 10 because she was the #1 seed and was already on everyone’s radar. That said, she’s a star and proved it in her first postseason opportunity. Campbellsville’s Leilah Castro should be mentioned here as well, seeded #2 and taking 2nd in her first postseason as a college wrestler. Providence freshman Sadie Antoque also took 4th at 155 and Providence sophomore Paige Respicio took 4th at 136. Texas Wesleyan freshman Brittyn Corbishley also made her mark at 170, placing 4th.