CHADRON, Neb. – After competing on its home mat during a series of duals and the Chadron State Women's Open last weekend, CSC women's wrestling will head to Naperville, Illinois for the North Central College Women's Open this Sunday.

Live results and bracket updates will be available on Trackwrestling. Fans can also watch video streams of the Open with a FloSports subscription. 

The event will be CSC's final competition before the holiday break, as after Sunday, the Eagles return to the mat January 9 in an open at Dickinson State and return to their dual schedule with a home matchup vs. Colorado Mesa on January 17.

Looking Back
Chadron State hosted both the Chadron State Duals and the Chadron State Women's Open last week at the Chicoine Center.   

RECAPS: CSC Duals | Chadron State Women's Open

The Eagles went 1-3 at their home duals, defeating Minot State but falling to No. 4-ranked junior college program Snow College and RMAC foes Texas Woman's and Simon Fraser.

In the open, the Eagles had seven placers, led by freshman Esther Peters taking home the 207-pound title, Ella Shevlin finishing second at 180 pounds and Brianna Vollendroff (103), Heavynne Robles-Wright (110) and Shania Wear (117) all finishing fourth in their respective weight classes.

Star Studded Field
Sunday's open will be more about matching up with potential national competition for Chadron State than facing regional or conference opponents. 

The North Central Open will feature 30 competing NCAA teams in addition to eight NAIA programs. Among those programs are each of the top five ranked programs in the NCAA (Iowa, King, North Central, Grand Valley State and McKendree) and three of the top five ranked programs in the NAIA.

Its hosts, North Central College, are the No. 3-ranked program in the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Team Tournament rankings and just defeated the No. 4 team, Grand Valley State, in a dual last week.

The Eagles will be the only RMAC team in attendance at Sunday's event. 

National Rankings
The Eagles do not presently have any nationally-ranked wrestlers in either the NWCA coaches' rankings or The Open Mat's national rankings. However, two of the Eagles' freshman wrestlers have cracked the NWCA's regional rankings.

Freshman Rylee Balcazar is ranked No. 5 in Region 8 at 110 pounds. Balcazar trails Isabella Morales and Sophia Cornish of Colorado Mesa, Brooklyn Prasad of Simon Fraser and Sophia Shultz of Fort Hays. Morales was the 110-pound champion at last week's Chadron State College Open. 

Balcazar has quickly put herself on the map in her debut collegiate season, tallying three placings on the season in her four competitive opens. Balcazar placed sixth at the Simpson College Open, second at the Bob Smith Fort Hays Open and fifth at the Chadron State Open, all at 110.

Fellow freshman Ella Shevlin is ranked No. 5 in Region 8 at 180 pounds. Shevlin is behind only Simon Fraser's Paige Maher, Fort Hays's Isabella Renfro, Texas Woman's wreslter Pauline Heimuli and Colorado Mesa's Maggie Smith. 

Those rankings, which predate the Chadron State College Open, will likely shuffle based on results at the CSC meet. Shevlin advanced to the title match, defeating CMU's Smith head-to-head after Smith had knocked off Heimuli earlier in the tournament.

Options at 207
During CSC's home weekend, 207 pounds was a strong weight for the Eagles. Freshman Esther Peters grabbed the headlines with her tournament win at that weight class on Saturday, but with Peters unavailable during Friday's series of duals, fellow freshman Sicily Frates filled in admirably. 

Frates, normally a 180-pounder, stepped up to wrestle at 207 during CSC's four duals last week and went undefeated. Frates won three times on the mat, clinching a dual victory for the Eagles with a pin to lift Chadron State from a 24-21 deficit to a 26-24 dual win over Minot State. 

Frates also clinched two decision victories over Snow College and Texas Woman's and was the beneficiary of a forfeit against Simon Fraser. 

While Peters at 207 and Ella Shevlin at 180 pounds have both been incredibly impressive in tournaments so far, Frates' versatility and track record in dual tournaments means the Eagles will have some competition moving forward at the larger weight classes. 

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Taylor Summers will begin his second season at the helm of Chadron State Women's Wrestling program in 2024. 

In his first year in charge, Summers had an overall dual record of 8-5 and had four wrestlers qualify for the NCWWC National Championships. Previously, Summers was an assistant men's wrestling coach at RMAC member Western Colorado for five seasons, where he helped coach nine All-Americans. 

A former student-athlete for Chadron State, Summers began his coaching career at CSC as a men's assistant during the 2017-18 season. As a student-athlete, Summers won an RMAC title and qualified for nationals in 2016.

Summers is assisted by Samuel deSeriere and Giovanni Cassioppi, who also are both in their second seasons at Chadron State.