Menlo, Simon Fraser, McKendree and Emmanuel qualify women for 2019 Junior and U23 World Teams
It’s truly remarkable that some of these ladies are competing in different states for weeks in a row. Just since March we’re looking at Folkstyle Nationals, the U.S. Open, Women’s Nationals, the Senior World Team Trials Challenge tournament, and potentially moving all the way through to Final X in June, and Fargo in July.
All in all, that’s the beauty of freestyle season – it’s weekend by weekend just like the traditional high school or college season, except that a lot of the competitors already peak for different national or state level tournaments in February and March.
For the high school girls that competed at Women’s Nationals this past weekend, a lot of them might train year round. Folkstyle season starts in the fall, state is in February-early March and then they jump directly into freestyle season that takes them all the way through July if not August.
At the college level, the season starts as early as August and in 2019 it went through Mach for NAIA schools. But here we are in May with women wrestler’s peaking yet again to match up and earn their spot on the various 2019 World Teams.
Junior World Team: August 12-18, Estonia
6 of 10 weight classes for the Junior World Team are filled with college stars, while the remaining 4 are graduating high schoolers or college age women taking a different competitive route to represent the 57, 59, 62 and 65 kg weight classes. Your collegiate qualifiers are:
- 50kg – Alleida Martinez (Menlo College).
- 53kg – Gracie Figueroa (Menlo College)
- 55kg – Alex Hedrick (Simon Fraser University)
- 68kg – Jayden Laurent (Lakeland University)
- 72kg – Alyvia Fiske (Simon Fraser University)
- 76kg – Kori Bullock (McKendree University)
Martinez, Figueroa, Laurent and Fiske were all 2019 WCWA National champions, while Hedrick was 2nd to teammate Dominique Parrish.
Junior Pan Am Team: June 5-7, Guatemala
3 of the 10 weight classes for the Junior Pan American Games were claimed by current collegiate women wrestlers. Your collegiate qualifiers are:
- 68kg – Alma Mendoza (Colorado Mesa University)
- 72kg – Dymond Guilford (Missouri Baptist University)
- 76kg – Kenya-Lee Sloan (Cambpellsville University)
Guilford was a 2019 WCWA National champion and Sloan was an NAIA All-American.
U23 World Team: October 28 – November 3, Hungary
5 of 10 weights for the U23 World Team we’re captured by athletes that competed in college during the 2018-19 season. It’s important to recognize also that some of the women on the U23 World Team will be competing overseas during their regular collegiate season. Your collegiate qualifiers are:
- 53kg – Felicity Taylor (McKendree University)
- 55kg – Dominique Parrish (Simon Fraser University)
- 59kg – Abby Nette (Emmanuel College)
- 72kg – Alyvia Fiske (Simon Fraser University)
- 76kg – Precious Bell (Menlo College)
Parrish and Nette were 2019 WCWA National champions, Taylor was 2nd, Nette 3rd and Bell 4th. Fisk secured her spot to Final X Rutgers and Bell secured her spot for the finals at the WTT challenge tournament in Raleigh this weekend by winning the 2019 U.S. Open.
