CEDAR FALLS, IA – #2 Menlo Women's Wrestling return to Atherton as 2nd place finishers after going 3-1 during the competitive weekend. The Oaks ended day one 2-0 taking victories over Baker University and #7 Campbellsville to advance to the semifinals. On day two, Menlo faced #6 Texas Wesleyan and battled until the very end to punch their ticket to the Championship round! There, the Oaks put in a strong fight but fell short to secure the 2nd place finish overall in the NAIA division. There were some great moments of wrestling throughout the day that Head Coach Michael Ayala can bring back to the bay to prepare for the rest of the 2024 season!
#2 Menlo 25 - 21 #6 Texas Wesleyan
Many head to head matchups were in store for the first match going into the second day of National Duals against Texas Wesleyan and the Oaks were hungry for the win. Returning All-American, #10 Kayla McKinley-Johnson (101) set the tone early with a pin in the second minute of the match over Jolie Lucas. The next two matches fell in favor of the Rams making the team score 5-10. #8 Alana VIvas (123) defended her ranking after taking down #17 Carolina Rios by a 4-2 decision. #4 Louisa Schwab (130) outperformed #3 Elizabeth Duvall in a close 8-6 decision to make the team score 11-12. The Oaks would drop two more matches before winning out the rest of the dual.
The matchup at 155 between #3 Shannon Workinger and #14 Leilani Hernandez was a must-win to keep the Oaks in the match. Workinger built up a 4-0 lead before landing a pin in the second minute of the first period. This gave teammates #3 Kaila Shrive (171) and #1 Tavia Heidelberg-Tillotson (191) the momentum to come back from a 12-21 team deficit with two tech falls earned and they did not allow any points scored against. The Oaks would take the win by a score of 25-21 to advance to the Championship match!
#2 Menlo 21 - 25 #1 Life University
The Oaks were up against the NAIA powerhouse of Life University for the Championship title at the NWCA National Duals. This would be their first look at the Eagles this season before seeing them again at the NAIA Championships later this season. Despite a losing scoreline, the Oaks tallied a few important wins against more nationally ranked wrestlers. #10 Kayla McKinley-Johnson (101) did her thing once more and upset #4 Devyn Gomez by a tight 4-1 decision. Ajayzee Zaballos, who is currently ranked #11 at 123, wrestled down to 116 against #6 Ariana Martinez. The match was very low scoring with Martinez taking the lead in the first period, 1-4. Ajayzee earned a takedown right off the whistle into the second period to make it 3-4. Zaballos' next two takedowns were scored in the last 7 and 2 seconds of the match to walk away with a 6-4 win by decision.
Vivas (123) continued to shine with another pin against Sophie Sarver in just one minute. Menlo finished strong taking the last two weight classes. #3 Kalila Shrive went head to head with #4 Margaret Graham and easily tallied a 10-2 tech fall. The freshman Oak totaled 5 takedowns across the two periods. The final match was between #1 Tavia Heidelberg-Tillotson and #6 Madeline Welch. Tavia went up 8-2 before laying down the final pin of the day in a minute and 30 seconds. Menlo was trying for the comeback but were satisfied with the 2nd place finish considering how may ranked matchups there were across the four duals!
Up Next…
The Oaks head up to Ashland, Oregon on January 12th for a dual against Southern Oregon University at 6pm! Watch the livestream using the link at Menloathletics.com!