Women’s Wrestling Unveils Team of 12 Eagles Competing in 2024 KCAC Championships
Avila women's wrestling has unveiled the team of 12 Eagles that will take the mat at Doane University and compete for a conference title and a spot in the national tournament field at the 2024 KCAC Women's Wrestling Championships this Saturday, February 24.
KCAC squads are permitted to send a maximum of 12 athletes to the conference tournament, and Avila will hit that quota with 12 Eagles set to compete Saturday at Doane's Fuhrer Field House. A team can spread that crew of 12 across any weight class they choose, with a maximum of two athletes per school in a weight class. Avila will have at least one combatant in eight of the ten weight classes, including two Eagles in the field in four weight classes.
The NAIA awards each conference [five in total] with automatic berths to the NAIA Championships based on the number of wrestlers ranked in each weight class. According to the NAIA's release earlier this week, "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. If a conference does not have an individual ranked in the final top 16 an allocation will be granted to ensure each conference is represented at each weight class at the National Championships.
The KCAC has fewer wrestlers ranked in the national polls compared to most other conferences, so the KCAC has the fewest allocations – and fewest automatic berths – of any of the weight classes. As is standard, each of the champions in the ten weight classes this weekend will receive automatic berths to nationals in two weeks, but it will be much harder for a non-champion from the KCAC to receive an automatic berth in nearly all of the weight classes.
A wrestler that does not receive an automatic berth can still be selected as an at-large by a panel of NAIA coaches and raters, but that would be far from a guarantee for many wrestlers from the KCAC.
To put it simply, the most straightforward way for an Eagle to qualify for Nationals in two weeks is to win their bracket this Saturday. Of course, that would also carry with it a KCAC Championship, no small feat in its own right. And Avila will send out 12 wrestlers who will vie for those accolades and more starting on Saturday morning.
Head coach Zach Revier has built his Eagles into an interesting dichotomy as a team: it's a third-year program guided by a first-year head coach, but Avila is simultaneously one of the youngest and one of the deepest squads in the NAIA, and certainly in this region in the NAIA. Of the 11 squads competing at Doane this weekend, only five are planning to send the full allotment of 12 athletes (two others will wrestle ten or 11). Avila is one of those five, and of the 12 Eagles on the roster, six are either true or redshirt freshmen, and only four have seen considerable mat time before this season.
Avila is receiving votes in the NAIA rankings with three individual athletes ranked, which means the Eagles will be underdogs in the team aspect in a conference that features five schools ranked in the lower half of the national Top 20. But still, all 12 of Avila's combatants have had their moments this year, and will all enter the weekend with good chances to place and, potentially, make some program history.
Freshman Asha Pearson has given the Eagles a more than stable contributor at a typically rocky weight class, 101, all season. She was consistently featured in the national rankings over the middle part of the season, and actually sports the best record on the team (16-11), surpassing some of her more senior teammates. 101 is one of just a couple of weight classes which will award more than one automatic bid to Nationals, meaning that Pearson still has a good shot to advance to the big stage even if she does not win against a very challenging field. Pearson is seeded sixth and will face off against 3rd-seed Karina Vang of Doane in the first round.
Avila is represented by a newcomer at 101, and the two most seasoned Eagles will represent their team at 116. Longtime friends and practice partners Zoey Mzeru and Markayla Lottie will both make return trips to the conference tournament, where Lottie will aim to defend her title from a year ago. Even though Lottie is nationally ranked at No. 20 in the NAIA, there is only one automatic berth on offer in this weight, meaning the road will be challenging for each of the eight competitors. Lottie (15-13) is seeded third and will first face Friends' Makenzie Buyno, while Mzeru (5-10) is seeded fifth and will first face Jamestown's Jenna Gerhardt.
Representing the Eagles at 123 will be Julia Datus, who overcome some adversity in her first year in Kansas City to become an important part of the team in the stretch run of her second year. 123 is one of the few brackets with multiple automatic berths, so if Datus can string some wins together, she will have a chance to move on to the sport's biggest stage. Datus (5-11) is seeded seventh in a 9-woman field and earned a tough draw: she'll begin her day against Doane's Cristelle Rodriguez, the number one wrestler in the field.
At 130, the Eagles will feature a pair of newcomers. Freshman Jaclyn Riedinger has been a starter all season long and is making her postseason debut, and Byanca Cook is by no means new to the postseason – she's looking to make it two NAIA appearances in two seasons – but she'll be doing so at a new weight: Cook placed at conference and earned an at-large to nationals at 136 a year ago.
This is a full field of 11 wrestlers, but there's only one automatic berth on the table. Both Eagles have first-round byes; freshly reinstated to the national rankings at No. 20, Cook (7-18) is seeded third and will face either Eny Bravo Torcios of Midland or Madelynn Griffin of Ottawa while Riedinger (12-18) is seeded eighth and will face either Taylor Hood of Midland or top seed Alisha Van Scoy of Saint Mary.
Representing Avila at Cook's previous weight class of 136 will be Erma Williams, the junior college transfer who has been in the starting lineup since the start of the season against William Woods. This will be a change, however: nearly all of Williams' events this season have come at 143, with a couple of bumps up to 155, and this will be her season debut at 136, a class with only one automatic berth. This is a full field of 14 combatants, and Williams (7-14) is going to have to face top-seeded Gianna Moreno of Friends in the first round.
Sara Soureshjani has had a breakout season for the Eagles, cracking the national Top 20 on more than one occasion, and becoming a middleweight mainstay as a sophomore. There is some talent and experience at the top end of this bracket, but there are two auto berths on offer, and even if Soureshjani doesn't get one of those, if she picks up one or two quality wins this weekend her body of work could be good enough to be considered for an at-large. Soureshjani (13-14) is seeded sixth in a 12-woman field, and will first face Doane's Brianna Membreno.
At 155 the Eagles will boast a pair of athletes with a lot to prove after a season to be proud of. Much like Datus, Kirsten Bruegel was unable to compete for most of her freshman season but has become a critical part of the squad this year, especially in the first half of the season. And Susana Mondragon, the third third-year Eagle on this weekend's roster, has not been able to compete much this year at all but has really finished the year strong, which gives the Eagles two solid competitors in a weight without a ton of top-tier talent.
The trade-off there, of course, is there's only one automatic berth up for grabs. Seeding can be an interesting science: Mondragon (5-5) has competed less this season but is seeded higher, sixth, than Bruegel (8-5). Mondragon will face Saint Mary's Rebekah Koolstra in the first round, while Bruegel will have to fend with top-seeded Allyssa Johnson of Jamestown.
Perhaps the most compelling weight class for Avila – and maybe in the entire conference – this season is the final one, 191. The KCAC was awarded only 19 automatic qualifiers to the NAIA Championship, by far the fewest of the five conferences – but five of those 19 will come from this one weight class, meaning nearly every conference placer is assured of a spot at the next stage of the postseason.
That's how good this weight class has been this year in the KCAC, and freshman Shannon Briggs, ranked No. 12 in the NAIA for the second straight poll, has been a massive reason why. The true freshman from Florida has given the Eagles a really reliable force at heavyweight, and she all she has to do is take care of business Saturday and she'll be on the nationals mat in two weeks' time.
Hoping to join her there will be fellow freshman Aaliyah Ivarra, who has had to work hard to get her weight down to legal competition level this year. And when she has, Ivarra has put together more than one good weekend for Avila this year. She'll have to spring an upset or two to book a place at nationals, but with so many auto bids up for grabs, that is certainly on the table. Briggs (12-10) is seeded fourth and will first face Midland's Kendall Braswell while Ivarra (8-9) will take on Morningside's Nevaeh Hast in a winnable matchup.
Competition in Crete begins at 10 AM Saturday. Tickets must be purchased ahead of time using the link on the KCAC website or our schedule page; all matches will be streamed live on the KCAC Network courtesy of Doane; all matches will be scored and entered live on TrackWrestling as usual. Stay tuned to Avila Athletics on social media and avilaathletics.com for complete coverage of the 2024 KCAC Women's Wrestling Championships.
Avila's 2024 KCAC Women's Wrestling Championship Roster:
101: Asha Pearson
116: Markayla Lottie, Zoey Mzeru
123: Julia Datus
130: Byanca Cook, Jaclyn Riedinger
136: Erma Williams
143: Sara Soureshjani
155: Kirsten Bruegel, Susana Mondragon
191: Shannon Briggs, Aaliyah Ivarra
