CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State women's wrestling begins postseason play with the RMAC Women's Wrestling Championships this Saturday, January 31 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The action will get underway at 10 a.m. with the preliminary rounds up through fifth-place matches. Third-place matches are scheduled to begin at 1:15 p.m. while championship matches are scheduled to start at 3 p.m.

The RMAC championships features the conference's five institutions that sponsor the sport – CSC, Adams State, Colorado Mesa, Simon Fraser and Texas Woman's. Athletes will be competing for individual conference titles in brackets at their respective weight classes, while team scoring will also be kept to crown a team conference tournament champion.

Colorado Mesa is the defending tournament champions from 2025 while Simon Fraser won the regular season championship by having the conference's best dual record both in 2025 and 2026. 

Required Championship Info
The 2026 RMAC Women's Wrestling Championships are taking place at the Air Force Academy, a U.S. government facility. 

Because of this, ALL spectators must fill out this visitor pre-registration form to access the facility. Attendees must also be able to present a valid Real ID or passport at the gate.
Tickets for the event can be purchased at this link.

For fans not attending, livestreams for both mats will be available on the RMAC Network, which is now pay-per-view. Any fans with monthly or annual subscriptions to the RMAC Network have Saturday's streams included in their subscription. 

RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network, including both home and away RMAC contests for Chadron State. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription (for all sports) costs $130 (through January 30, fans can use code RMACSPRING26 to lower the annual price to $95).

Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants the viewer access to a single game for 24 hours. Subscriptions can be purchased through Hudl at rmacnetwork.com. 
Fans will technical support issues can contact Hudl, visit the RMAC email the RMAC Network FAQ page, or directly email the RMAC at rmac@rmacsports.org.

Looking Back
The Eagles avenged an earlier dual loss by defeating Sioux Falls 29-10 on the road last Sunday, January 25.

RECAP: Sioux Falls

The Eagles turned the tides with a new and improved lineup, with four wrestlers that did not wrestle in the previous matchup against USF (Adrianna Lopez at 124, Piper Cadden at 131, Meredith Nash at 138 and Cosette Desrosiers at 180) earning wins at weights that Chadron State did not win in the first meeting.

Lopez and Esther Peters both won by 10-0 tech fall while Nash picked up the dual's only pin.

Mighty Meredith
Chadron State earned its third RMAC Women's Wrestler of the Week award last week courtesy of Meredith Nash, who earned the honor for the first time in her career.

STORY: Nash Named RMAC Women's Wrestler of the Week

Facing USF's Johanna Steinlicht, who entered ranked No. 20 in the nation by The Open Mat and No. 4 in the region by the NWCA, Nash turned the tables on the ranked wrestler by pinning Steinlicht in just 30 seconds. 

Nash's win puts her in the company of Desza Munson (November 18) and Brianna Vollendroff (December 9) as Eagles to win the weekly award this season.

RMAC Championships History
This is the second-ever RMAC Women's Wrestling Championships. At the first in 2025, the Eagles finished third out of five teams with 82.5 points, trailing Colorado Mesa (149.5) and Simon Fraser (129) and finishing ahead of Adams State (73.5) and Texas Woman's (68.5). 

The Eagles received runner-up finishes from Mana Chanthasone at 103 and Esther Peters at 207. Brianna Vollendroff (103) and Sicily Frates (180) each placed third to get on the podium. A total of 12 Eagle student-athletes placed in the top six. 

Shania Wear also earned her second consecutive Summit Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at each sport's championship site.

Seeding List
The RMAC seeds four wrestlers at each of their 10 weights prior to the tournament. A total of seven CSC wrestlers will enter the tournament with a seed. 

The Eagles will have three No. 2 seeds – Brianna Vollendroff (103), Rylee Balcazar (110) and Meredith Nash (138). 

Three CSC wrestlers have No. 3 seeds – Piper Cadden (131), Nevaeh Leonard (138) and Esther Peters (207). Ana Rojas-Zamora is the No. 4 seed at 124 pounds.

Entry List
Chadron State will be taking 15 wrestlers to compete at Saturday's event. Here is the full list of entered wrestlers, sorted by weight (rankings are tournament seeds):

103 – No. 2 Brianna Vollendroff
110 – No. 2 Rylee Balcazar
117 – Adrianna Lopez, Shania Wear
124 – No. 4 Ana Rojas-Zamora, Maddox Gehlhausen
131 – No. 3 Piper Cadden
138 – No. 2 Meredith Nash, No. 3 Nevaeh Leonard
145 – Hattie Baldwin, Eliza Davis
160 – Rowyn Wiltgen
180 – Cosette Desrosiers, Sicily Frates
207 – No. 3 Esther Peters

Bracket Breakdown
Here are the number of entries by weight class:
103 – 5
110 – 6
117 – 7
124 – 7
131 – 9
138 – 9
145 – 8
160 – 9
180 – 8
207 – 4

The 207-pound bracket is easily the most stacked as all four entries are ranked in the Top 10 of The Open Mat rankings – No. 7 Jayleen Sekona of Colorado Mesa, No. 8 Julia Richey of Simon Fraser, No. 9 Esther Peters of CSC and No. 10 Kitana Leafaatoto of Texas Woman's. 

Coach's Corner
Head coach Sammy de Seriere is in his first season at the helm of the Eagle program after spending two seasons as CSC's lead assistant coach. He is the third-ever women's wrestling coach at Chadron State. 

In his two years on staff at CSC, De Seriere has contributed to the Eagles qualifying eight wrestlers to the NCWWC National Championships across 2024 and 2025. He worked closely with Esther Peters, who became Chadron State's women's wrestling's first-ever All-American last season and, like de Seriere, is a heavyweight. 

De Seriere began his coaching career in 2022-23 as a volunteer assistant for his alma mater, the men's wrestling program at Western Colorado. Overlapping with Summers, then a Mountaineers assistant coach, de Seriere helped Western place fourth nationally at the Division II National Championships during his lone season on staff, the program's first team trophy in 19 years. 

As a student-athlete, de Seriere competed for Western Colorado for five years at heavyweight, once finishing in sixth place in Super Region VI. A strong student, de Seriere was a three-time Dean's List selection and earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC, RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll and NCAA Division II Scholar All-America honors as a senior.