Women's Wrestling 3/6/2026 9:09:00 PM

Golden Bears Excite in Iowa, Tie Program Record for Wins at a National Championship

CORALVILLE, IOWA (March 6, 2026) – A program-record eight Golden Bears hit the mats in Iowa on Day 1 of the first-ever NCAA Women's Wrestling National Championship. The teams saw three wrestlers pick up four wins on the day. This tied their program record for wins at a national championship and led the team to a top-25 position after the opening day of the championship.

Results: 24th/54 (9 Points)

How it Happened:

110 lb. weight class – Victoria Orender started the tournament as the 13th seed in the 110 lb. weight class. Orender would fall in the opening match via a technical fall at 2:33 against the 4th-ranked wrestler in the weight class. Orender then took on the tenth-ranked wrestler in the weight class and would drop the match via a technical fall at 2:09.
117 lb. weight class – Regional champion Maddie Ripley was designated as the number 9-seed in the 117 lb. weight class. Ripley wrestled in a preliminary match to start the day and won via pinfall at 1:08, up 8-0. Ripley then faced the eight-ranked wrestler in the weight class and won via pinfall at 3:47 after being down 8-2 and fighting back to 8-8 before the pin to move to the quarterfinals. Ripley then took on the top-ranked wrestler in the weight class and led 7-5 at the break. However, the opponent would get the win via decision in the end, 11-7. That was Ripley's first loss, and would still wrestle in the second consolation round. Ripley would take the next match the distance but would fall via a 6-0 decision to end the day.
124 lb. weight class – Linda Holeman, given the 12th seed in the 124 lb. weight class, would drop the opening match via a technical fall at 2:55 to the fifth-ranked wrestler in the weight class. Holeman would move to the consolation prelims and would, unfortunately, lose via a technical fall at 2:47.
131 lb. weight class – The 14th-seeded Jazmene Molina would start day one with a match against the number 3-seed and fell via a 2:29 technical fall. Molina would move to the consolation bracket and get the first consolation round win via a 4-2 decision. The 131 lb. weight class representative for WNE moved to the second consolation round and would take the number four seed through both frames, but would ultimately fall via a 15-6 decision.
138 lb. weight class – Tanya Teneva wrestled in the 138 lb. weight class and was the 11th seed going into the day. Teneva drew the number one seed in the weight class, where Teneva would go into the second frame but would fall via a technical fall at 3:59. Teneva then faced the 8th-ranked wrestler in the tournament and would drop the match via a technical fall at 1:57.
145 lb. weight class – Sanyah Queen was WNE's representative in the 145 lb. weight class. Queen started as the 11th seed. Queen wrestled tough against the second overall seed in round one but would fall in match one via technical fall at 2:41. Queen would take on the consolation prelims next and would fight before fall via pinfall at 2:21.
160 lb. weight class – Sky De Leon wrestled as the 12th seed in the 160 lb. weight class on Friday. De Leon would wrestle back from an 8-1 deficit to get to 8-5, but would drop the match via pinfall at 2:53 versus the fifth seed in the weight class. The consolation prelim round was different, though. De Leon would start the match down 6-2, but in the final 55 seconds of the match, scored ten points and won the match via a 12-7 decision to move on to the next consolation round after defeating the 10th overall seed. The twelfth seed would move on to the consolation first round before dropping the third match to the 13th seed in the weight class at 0:21 via pinfall.
180 lb. weight class – Regional champion Atiyana Williams wrestled as the 15th overall seed in round one of the 180 lb. weight class. Williams took the second overall seed through both frames and forced the match to go the distance. However, Williams would fall via a 5-0 decision before rebounding with an 11-0 technical fall win at 2:31 in the first round of the consolation bracket. In the second round, Williams would just about go through both frames but would drop the match via a technical fall right at the end of the second frame at 5:56.