Shakeups to the Original Captains’ Cup Draft Teams

Since the original draft for the Captains’ Cup on January 23^rd, teams Miracle, Francis and Hildebrandt have experienced unanticipated shakeups to their drafted rosters.

Maybe the toughest team hit is Captain Kayla Miracle (62 kg) not being able to compete with the Miracle Workers. Kayla announced on the Badar show today that she sustained an injury during her gold medal performance at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix in January. Julia Salata will wrestle at 62 kg, and Miracle will be on-site with her team coaching. Another hit to Team Miracle is high school star and UWW Junior Champion Kennedy Blades withdrawing at 68 kg after a positive COVID-19 test. Her replacement, Ashlynn Ortega, is familiar with top competition. She’s a 2020 U23 Champion and two-time college All-American. Ortega is a sophomore at King University and is currently ranked No. 2 in the NCAA.

Earlier this week it was announced that Peyton Prussin was replaced by Felicity Taylor, a member of the original 53 kg draft eligible athletes. Taylor is a 2020 UWW Juniors finalist, two-time college national runner-up and is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA. Ashley Sword, head coach for Life University and Team Francis Captains’ Cup coach, said Prussin’s withdrawal was due to, “an abundance of caution.”

The final change as of this morning is that Alex Hedrick will replace Tiare Ikei at 53 kg for Team Hildebrandt. Ikei Sports HI announced that Tiare sustained an injury during training.