NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Mana Chanthasone was the consolation bracket champion at 103 pounds to highlight Chadron State women's wrestling's performances at the stacked North Central Women's College Open on Sunday.
The open, which featured all five of the top five ranked programs in the NCAA among its 30 participating programs, hosted 11 Chadron State wrestlers and 426 total participants.
Chanthasone lost in the first round of the bracket to Schreiner University's Odelia Lopez, the No. 6-ranked wrestler in the nation and the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the region at 103 pounds, but rallied to win five consecutive matches after that to take home the consolation championship.
Chanthasone immediately dispatched another regionally ranked wrestler in her second match in the open when she defeated Lindenwood's Megan Valdez, Region 6's No. 4-ranked wrestler, via an 18-9 decision. From there, Chanthasone tallied a pair of 10-0 tech fall wins over wrestlers from Eastern Oregon and Gannon.
In the fourth round of the consolation bracket, Chanthasone defeated Zurri Zamora of North Central, the tournament hosts and the No. 3 program in the country, in a down-to-the-wire 14-12 decision. The Chadron State sophomore was then dominant in the consolation final, pinning Midland's Zoe Omura in 1:49 to take home the consolation title.
While no other Eagles placed or made a consolation final, several other CSC wrestlers had positive results in the large-field event. In the same 103-pound bracket,
Brianna Vollendroff went 2-2 with a pin, while
Heavynne Robles-Wright at 110 pounds and
Sicily Frates and
Ella Shevlin at 180 also had multiple wins prior to being eliminated.
Several Eagles had the opportunity to compete against top competition. CSC's
Shania Wear wrestled the nation's No. 7 wrestler (King's Claire Booe) in the first round, Frates battled the nation's No. 5-ranked 180-pounder (North Central's Shenita Lawson) in the championship bracket and Eagle 207-pounder
Esther Peters tangled against No. 8-ranked Caroline Ward of North Central, losing in a narrow 4-0 decision.
Rylee Balcazar (110 pounds) and
Karstin Hollen (145 pounds) also competed in the "A" brackets for Chadron State at the open, while freshman
Trona Bates (124 pounds) and sophomore
Hattie Baldwin (138 pounds) competed in "B" brackets.
The Eagles are now done competing until the other side of the Christmas break. They will return to the mat on Thursday, January 9, for an open hosted by Dickinson State University in Rapid City.
Chadron State, which has a 1-3 dual record and an 0-2 mark in RMAC duals this season, will return to the dual format January 17 when the Eagles host RMAC rival Colorado Mesa for a dual at the Chicoine Center.
