Finally!

We’ve been waiting for McKendree vs Iowa all season, and it’s happening at the For Her Duals on Sunday, February 8, at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa. It’s part of an NAIA vs NCAA tournament with guaranteed cross-divisional match-ups streaming live on BTN+. 

The NAIA schools are Life, William Penn, Indiana Tech, and Ottawa.

The NCAA schools are Iowa (D1), McKendree (D2), William Jewell (D2), and Ursinus (D3). 

This eight-team dual tournament features four NAIA teams on one side of the bracket and four NCAA teams on the other side.

Each team will wrestle the other three teams in its group to determine placements. In the finals, teams will be matched based on their bracket placements: 1st NAIA vs. 1st NCAA, 2nd vs. 2nd, 3rd vs. 3rd, 4th vs. 4th.

We are guaranteed to get a McKendree vs Iowa dual and a Life vs William Penn dual. 

The Bearcats and the Hawkeyes didn’t meet at the 2026 NWCA National Duals, so this is the first dual meeting of the season. Life defeated William Penn, 24-18, in the National Duals semis, but the Statesmen didn’t have Nigerian Olympians Christianah Ogunsanya (117) or Esther Kolawole (138/145) in the line-up. 

It’s difficult to know who each team will use at different weights — especially with a few top wrestlers competing at the Zagreb Open — but this is a litmus test for the NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championships on March 6-7 in Coralville.

There’s also this added twist. Ursinus (located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania) head coach Joe Jamison has publicly stated that he doesn’t like the Iowa Hawkeyes. It’s nothing personal. He loves the women’s wrestling coaches and has praised their authenticity and commitment to the team, but he’s a Penn State fan, and some rivalries die hard.

His team got invited to the For Her Duals, so he must have done something right. 

Potential 'For Her' Matchups

We don’t know which of the individual matches will occur because:
1. We don’t know who the coaches will use.
2. We don’t know which wrestlers the coaches are bringing.
3. We don’t know who is healthy and who is injured.
4. We don’t know the final NCAA vs NAIA matchups.

Here’s what we know: human beings like to predict, prognosticate, and speculate. That’s why we will list the matches we hope to see.

103: It will either be Iowa’s Val Solorio, Sterling Dias, or Rianne Murphy vs McKendree’s Heather Crull or Katey Valdez. Every option is intriguing. Valdez won a wild fifth-place match over Murphy at the Missouri Valley Open, Dias beat Crull 3-2, Dias beat Valdez 10-0, Crull pinned Murphy, and Solorio beat Dias 2-1. 

Solorio hasn’t faced anyone from McKendree this season, but she wrestled Valdez in the 2024 Fargo finals, where Solorio scored the first four points before Valdez stormed back to secure a 4-4 criteria lead. Solorio suffered a concussion and defaulted with 1:03 left. 

William Jewell’s Juliana Alejandro and Indiana Tech’s Zoey Haney will be a factor. Ottawa’s Aynsley Fink is ranked sixth. 

110: Another treasure trove of options. Iowa has national champions Ava Bayless and Emilie Gonzalez, along with front-runner Nyla Valencia. McKendree has returning 103-pound national finalist Gabby Tedesco, who won in the final seconds over Valencia in the Missouri Valley Open finals. Will we get a rematch?

William Penn’s Mia Palumbo is a 2024 NAIA champion and three-time national finalist who has wrestled up at 117 for most of the season. Life has top-ranked Ariana Martinez and eighth-ranked Diana Gonzalez. If Palumbo is at 110, she gets her shot at Life and, likely, McKendree or Iowa.

Lots of quality options for other programs to make noise. Avy Perez (William Penn), Emily Mendez (William Jewell), Liv Guy (Ursinus), Emma Jones (Indiana Tech), and Makenize Smith (Indiana Tech) are quality wrestlers. 

117: Will we get a Yu Sakamoto (McKendree) vs Brianna Gonzalez (Iowa) rematch? The two met in the consolation semis at the 2025 National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships, with Sakamoto winning, 6-5. We could also get an NAIA finals rematch between Christianah Ogusanya (William Penn) and Salyna Shotwell (Life). Ogunsanya won 8-0, but Shotwell has looked good all season, so we’ll get good matchups out of this weight regardless. There’s also returning All-American Alex Waitsman (William Jewell), who was seconds away from making a 2025 U20 World team.

124: McKendree’s Shelby Moore, a 2025 national finalist, has been on fire lately and will look to separate herself from the field. There’s a chance she could face William Penn’s Victoria Baez-Dilone, a 2024 national finalist for King, if both teams hit in the final match. Cali Leng (Iowa), Anna Krejsa (Life), and Rose Kaplan (Indiana Tech) are returning All-Americans. 

131: Cam Guerin (McKendree) is a four-time national champion who returned for her COVID year. The Bearcats also have Alex Szkotnicki, a returning national third-place finisher. Iowa has freshman phenom Karlee Brooks, Emily Frost, and Bella Williams. Life has two-time national finalist Sarah Savidge and All-American Olivia Mottley, and William Penn has returning All-American Kendall Bostelman. 

138: Iowa’s Skye Realin is an arm-throwing machine and will toss anyone she can. Will it be enough to take down McKendree’s returning national finalist Haylie Jaffe? We might get 2024 Olympian and 2025 NAIA champion Esther Kolawole at this weight. She won the Midland Open at 138 after competing at 145 for most of the season. Life’s Zaynah McBryde is a returning national champion, and William Penn’s Izzy Hawley is a returning All-American. 

145: National champion Resse Larramendy (Iowa) is the class of the field, but we might not get an All-Star Classic rematch against Kolawole, whom she defeated 4-3. McKendree has returning NAIA national finalist Alexis Gomez and U20 World bronze medalist Duda Rodrigues as options. Life has three-time All-American (3rd, 1st, 2nd) Jamilah McBryde, and she has history with Larramendy. Larramendy leads the series, 2-1, but McBryde won a knock-down, drag-out slugfest at the 2023 Soldier Salute in a match for the ages. Cloe Charlesworth (Ursinus) wrestled with Larramendy at Wyoming Seminary. 

160: We don’t know if Kennedy Blades will be back in time from the Zagreb Open, but it’s less about if she’ll win and more about how many five-point throws she can hit. Life’s Latifah McBryde is a force, finishing second at the NAIA Championships before winning it in 2025. Savannah Gomez is a good option for McKendree, and a match against McBryde is intriguing. Ottawa’s Darby Weidl fell to McBryde in last year’s finals. Bo Giebe won the Warrior Open and was a 2024 All-American. 

180: It’s Kylie Welker and everyone else, but there are good wrestlers here. Life’s Reka Busa is a returning All-American, McKendree’s Destiny Rodriguez has come into her own, and William Penn freshman Piper Fowler is a U17 World champion. Ottawa’s Ciera Hutton-Spieker is ranked eighth. 

207: Iowa has boatloads of options here, and there’s no telling who the Hawkeyes will use. Katja Osteen is surging right now, and she may get the nod for high-profile matches. Tristan Kelly likely won’t be in the line-up, so the best matches won’t take place. Maddie Welch (Life) vs Phoebe Burt (William Penn) should be a good match. 

Grand View Open Will Be Grand

The Grand View Open is the last great women’s open tournament before teams make final line-up decisions. The tournament is on Saturday, November 7, in Des Moines — the day before the For Her Duals. 

Top high school, college, and post-college stars participate, with select wrestlers from Iowa, Lehigh, Fort Hays State, Grand Valley State, Grand View, Life, Indian Hills, Oklahoma State, Valiant College Prep (and more) scheduled to compete.

The Race For A 103-Pound Spot Continues

One of the biggest storylines of the year is the dilemma Iowa, McKendree, and North Central face in choosing a 103-pounder. 

Here is what we know: four national title contenders will be watching from the stands.

Iowa has Val Solorio, Sterling Dias, and Rianne Murphy.
McKendree has Heather Crull and Katey Valdez.
North Central has Maddie Avila and Bri Graves. 

Solorio is in the pole position at Iowa with no losses to her teammates this season. Will she get the postseason nod, or does this weekend’s performance offer a final shot for Dias and Murphy? 

McKendree has used Valdez recently, including the Bearcats’ 40-4 win over Grand Valley State, while Crull went 4-0 at the National Duals and has been the starter for most of the season.

Avila is a returning national champion and three-time All-American, but she finished behind Graves at Midlands. 

Clarissa Chun (Iowa), Alexio Garcia (McKendree), and Joe Norton (North Central) have decisions to make. The only thing we know for sure is that we don’t know who will get the nod and who won’t. 

North Central Downs Wartburg For Ultimate National Duals Title

Division III North Central accomplished something that may never be replicated. The Cardinals won the NCAA all-divisions tournament at the 2026 NWCA National Duals on January 9-10. They followed it up with a 28-13 win over Life University — winners of the NAIA National Duals bracket — on January 15. North Central topped it off with a 37-8 win over Wartburg — winners of the D3 bracket — on January 29. 

D3 Invitational

An NCAA Division III-only invitational tournament is February 6-7 in Rock Island, Illinois. D3 schools will host their own championships during the 2027-28 season, so there’s added intrigue. 

Competing teams are Adrian, Albion, Alma, Augsburg, Augustana (IL), Aurora, Baldwin Wallace, Buena Vista, Carthage, Cornell College, Dubuque, Elmhurst, Eureka, Illinois Wesleyan, Ithaca, Lakeland, Luther, Maine Maritime, Manchester, MSOE, New Jersey City, North Central, Otterbein, Randolph, Schreiner, Simpson (IA), Trine, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, Wartburg.

Women's Wrestling Weekly: The Show (Ep. 66)

Topics covered:

— The Grand View Open and the For Her Duals lead to a monster weekend of women’s college wrestling.
— Iowa vs McKendree and Life vs William Penn are must-watch duals
— We may never get another season like this.
— Grand Valley State vs McKendree was on FloWrestling.
— Simon Fraser dominates the RMAC but remains a mystery team.
— Tonya Verbeek is Canada’s women’s wrestling GOAT.
— The inverted wrestling pyramid.
— The wrestling game changes when you become a professional.
— The American vs European philosophy on losses.
— When you stop wrestling, you realize how much you love it.
— Mercyhurst adds a D1 women’s wrestling program.

Women's Spotlight: Karissa Turnwall (Emmanuel)

Upcoming Tournaments

Saturday, February 7
AMCC Championships
Grand View Open
Blue Raider Open

Sunday, February 8
For Her Duals

Saturday, February 7-Sunday, February 8
D3 National Invitational

Weekend Results

Friday, January 30
Spire Classic

Saturday, January 31
Loras Open
Midland Warrior Open
RMAC Championships

Sunday, February 1
MAC Championships
JCU Open
MPSF Championships
Mountaineer Open