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Women's Weekly: Campbellsville Does It Again

Campbellville University took the NAIA Women’s Championship for the second year in a row thanks to a balanced effort led by 155-pound champion Kenya Sloan. The Tigers had eight place winners and scored 189 points.

Mar 23, 2022

Women's Weekly: McKendree Three-peats

McKendree University didn’t enter the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships ranked first, but they ended the season as always — on top. The Bearcats have won every national championship since the NCAA programs hosted its own event in 2020.

Mar 10, 2022

Complete NAIA Women's National Tournament Breakdown

One of the most entertaining events in women’s college wresting — the NAIA National Invite — is going down Friday and Saturday in Jamestown, North Dakota. This is the fourth year of the event, the NAIA has only crowned two team champions thus far, as Menlo won the inaugural event in 2019, 2020 was canceled due to Covid, and Campbellsville won it last year.This year promises to be full of drama and must-see matchups as there’s a new sheriff in town — Life University, a program that won its first NWCA National Duals title over Campbellsville in January. When the two programs met in Kentucky, it was 25-19 Life with the dual coming down to the last match. They wrestled again in early February, and it was more of the same, the match coming down to the end, with Life winning it 24-23. That being said, it was Campbellsville that had the upper hand at the Mid-South Conference Championships, outpacing Life 142.5 to 122.5 with a talented roster that earned lots of bonus points.The stage is set for the NAIA National Invite this weekend.“We’ve had a season that has been defined by how we overcome adversity,” Life head coach Ashley Flavin (formerly Sword) said. “This weekend will be no different. The day after entries were due, Briana Kellin had a season-ending injury. There are no alternates and so we enter the tournament with 11 athletes instead of 12.”Even with all that recent history, it might not be Life or Campbellsville that ends up on top. The most recent NAIA Coaches Poll has neither Life nor Campbellsville on top, but Grand View in the #1 spot, and Menlo at #2. Needless to say, there’s traffic at the top. The team race will come down to how the scorers perform in swing matches and in swing weights, especially when these teams meet head-to-head. Underperforming or overperforming a seed can be the difference between a team coming home with a title or second or third place.“This is not the first time we’ve entered a tournament considered underdogs and down an athlete,” Flavin said. “But this team performs best when the deck is stacked against them. Our focus for the weekend is the same it has been all year, work hard and love harder, because love drives out fear.”Here are top 8 teams* right now.1. Grand View (174)

Mar 9, 2022