CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference Women’s Wrestling Championship Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank, is set to begin on Sunday in Atherton, California.
Each day will have live video streaming, which can be found here through FloWrestling. Live results can be found here through Track Wrestling. Follow along on the CCC website and the CCC Women’s Wrestling Tournament page as the 2024 Champions are crowned.
No. 1-ranked Menlo College hosts the tournament, which has all eight CCC teams participating – five of which are ranked and another received votes in the final NAIA coaches poll. Erin Hikiji (101lbs) of Providence, Carolina Moreno (130lbs) and Caitlyn Davis (155lbs) of Southern Oregon, followed by Tavia Heidelberg-Tillotson (191lbs) of Menlo are all the top-ranked Individuals in their respective weight classes.
The reigning National Champions of No. 4-ranked Southern Oregon University was predicted to take the trophy and defend its 2023 CCC champion crown in the conference's preseason poll.
Sunday’s wrestling starts at 10 a.m. (PT) while the championship matches will commence at 3 p.m. All day tickets can be purchased at the door with discounts available for seniors and students.
Each conference tournament awards automatic bids per weight class based on the final regular-season rating, which can be seen HERE. Each conference is awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, additional allocations are determined based on the final regular season rankings for reach wrestler ranked in the top 16 in a specific weight class.
The Cascade Collegiate Conference received the highest number of automatic qualifiers to the NAIA Championships with a total of 43, the most in CCC history. The following numbers represented the allocations in each weight class.
101 – 3
109 – 4
116 – 6
123 – 5
130 – 6
136 – 5
143 – 4
155 – 5
170 – 4
191 – 1
A total of 160 automatic qualifiers will move forward after the conference tournaments. Additionally, 40 conference at-large bids will be made across all weight classes, with each conference selecting the eight contestants most worthy of a bid.
After the conference tournaments have concluded, a 10-member committee consisting of conference raters and oversight members will meet to select the remaining at-large qualifiers until 210 wrestlers have been selected, which will be released Tuesday, February 27th by 5 p.m. (CST). The seeding and preliminary brackets will be announced on NAIA.org by 5 p.m. (CST) on Friday, March 1st, 2024.
Last year, the CCC sent 36 qualifiers to the NAIA Championship across all weight classes. The CCC saw 24 All-Americans, four National Champions, and a team title from Southern Oregon. SOU's Gabrielle Weyhrich was named NAIA Coach of the Year and University of Providence won the NAIA Team Sportsmanship award.
The second Women’s Wrestling National Championship will be held March 8th and 9th at Harold Newman Arena in Jamestown, North Dakota.