The Captains Cup and Draft Eligible Athletes
This evening (Saturday, January 23rd) six captains will draft their rosters for a dual team they will compete on for the Captains Cup. The Captains Cup is a dual tournament scheduled for February 13-14 in Iowa that brings together some of the best women’s freestyle wrestlers in the United States to battle on teams for a prize of $50,000.
“This is a really great opportunity to go in and promote, discuss, and show what our women’s wrestling is about in the United States of America."
In a video interview with Taylor Miller of USA Wrestling, TMWC’s Director of Ops Jonny Ruggiano shared that the idea for the Captains Cup came on the heels of a successful RTC Cup for men and as a way to ensure the U.S. women get critical matches leading into the Olympic Team Trials in April.
“This is a really great opportunity to go in and promote, discuss, and show what our women’s wrestling is about in the United States of America. . .We haven’t seen a wrestling product like we’ve seen from USA that’s at the same caliber of what we have today. We have a great amount of depth, we have a great amount of young and exciting wrestlers that are coming up in the ranks for USA, and we have really strong credible leaders.” – Jonny Ruggiano, TMWC Director of Ops.
USA Wrestling announced captains and draft eligible athletes throughout the last week. The captains will select their teams over five rounds of a snake style draft with their personal accolades ordering the first round picks. The draft order is scheduled as followed: Mensah-Stock (1, 12, 13, 24, 25), Winchester (2, 11, 14, 23, 26), Hildebrandt (3, 10, 15, 22, 27), Miracle (4, 9, 16, 21, 28), Francis (5, 8, 17, 20, 29) and Burkert (6, 7, 18, 19, 30). Team Captain Tamyra Mensah-Stock said, “I’m looking forward to seeing who we as captains all end up getting on our teams and how the teams will look in the end.”
Captains and draft eligible athletes are listed below and headers are linked to respective USAW articles for their full set of recent and most noteworthy accomplishments.
Captains
Sarah Hildebrandt (50 kg), Jacarra Winchester (53 kg), Jenna Burkert (57 kg), Kayla Miracle (62 kg), Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg), Victoria Francis (76 kg).
50 kg Draft Eligible Athletes
Ava Bayless, Whitney Conder, Amy Fearnside, Erin Golston, Alyssa Lampe, Emily Shilson, Maria Vidales. Captain: Sarah Hildebrandt.
53 kg Draft Eligible Athletes
Marissa Gallegos, Ronna Heaton, Alex Hedrick, Tiare Ikei, Peyton Prussin, Katherine Shai, Felicity Taylor, Areana Villaescusa. Captain: Jacarra Winchester.
57 kg Draft Eligible Athletes
Gracie Figueroa, Lauren Louive, Abby Nette, Brenda Reyna, Emily Se, Koral Sugiyama, Desiree Zavala. Captain: Jenna Burkert.
62 kg Eligible Athletes
Michaela Beck, Megan Black, Alara Boyd, Emma Bruntil, Dalia Garibay, Macey Kilty, Alex Liles, Jennifer Page, Julia Salata, Mallory Velte, Kylie Welker. Captain: Kayla Miracle.
68 kg Draft Eligible Athletes
Kennedy Blades, Alyvia Fiske, Alexandria Glaude, Skylar Grote, Kayla Marano. Captain: Tamyra Mensah-Stock.
76 kg Draft Eligible Athletes
Precious Bell, Randi Beltz, Hannah Gladden, Dymond Guilford, Tristan Kelly, Jayden Laurent, Joye Levendusky, Yelena Makoyed, Jordan Nelson and Nkechinyere (Chi Chi) Nwankwo. Captain: Victoria Francis.
The Captains Cup
Presented by: Titan Mercury Wrestling Club
Draft: Saturday January 23 at 6 pm CT.
Captains Cup: Saturday – Sunday February 13-14.
Stream: both events will be streamed live on Flowrestling.
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