ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Two Chadron State wrestlers are through to the semifinals while three remain alive with work to do in consolation brackets after the first of two days at the NCAA Region VI Tournament at Lindenwood University in Missouri on Saturday.
Brianna Vollendroff (103 pounds) and
Piper Cadden (131 pounds) each went 2-0 in their respective brackets during Saturday's action and have advanced to the semifinals. Both wrestlers are seeded No. 4 at their respective weights and will be facing the bracket's No. 1 seed in their first matches tomorrow.
Three other Eagles have one loss and will start tomorrow in Consolation Round 3 needing to string two or three more wins together for a qualification spot –
Rylee Balcazar at 110 pounds,
Adrianna Lopez at 117 pounds and
Esther Peters at 207.
Ana Rojas-Zamora (0-2, 124 pounds),
Nevaeh Leonard (0-2, 138),
Meredith Nash (1-2, 145),
Maria Arellano (1-2, 160 pounds) and
Cosette Desrosiers (0-2, 180) all competed for the Eagles on Saturday but have been eliminated.
In the team scores, Chadron State is currently in seventh place of out 15 programs with 32.5 points. McKendree (78), Simon Fraser (61.5), Fort Hays State (58), Colorado Mesa (51), Lindenwood (41) and William Jewell (35.5) are ahead of the Eagles while Schreiner (24), Texas Woman's (22.5) and Adams State (19.5) round out the top 10.
Vollendroff, the No. 4 seed at 103, gutted out two impressive decision victories, toppling No. 13 seed Tessa Taflinger of Pacific University 4-0 and No. 5 seed Jackelyn Sanchez of Schreiner 3-2.
Up next for Vollendroff is a showdown with No. 1 nationally-ranked Heather Crull of McKendree. Should the RMAC champion pull the upset, Vollendroff advances to the final and will clinch a spot at nationals. With a loss, Vollendroff will wrestle the winner of Adams State's Mia Siquieros and Lindenwood's Sienna Caruso in Consolation Round 4.
Cadden is in the final four of a 14-wrestler 131-pound bracket after defeating a pair of RMAC foes – Adams State's Bella Devoto 10-0 via tech fall in 2:41 and Colorado Mesa's Hania Halverson via a 10-8 decision.
Like Vollendroff, Cadden also has a No. 1 nationally-ranked wrestler from McKendree up next – Cameron Guerin – with the same stakes as Vollendroff's matchup. The winner between William Jewell's Shelby Kemp and Vanguard's Lillian Avalos will await Cadden with a loss to Guerin, and a finals berth and guaranteed berth if she beats the McKendree wrestler.
The other three still-alive Chadron State wrestlers will be eliminated with their next losses. Balcazar, the No. 5 seed, needed less than 90 seconds to tech fall Minot State's Alexa Garcia, but fell in the second round to No. 4 seed/No. 15-ranked Kate Cooper of hosts Lindenwood. Balcazar recovered to pin Schreiner's Mia Brown and will face Fort Hays State's Isabella Ortiz in her first match tomorrow, advancing to face the loser of a semifinal between No. 2 seed Emily Mendez of William Jewell and nemesis/No. 3 seed Adrianna Gomez of Colorado Mesa.
Lopez's only loss came to No. 2 seed/No. 4-ranked Alex Waitsman of William Jewell in the second round. The recently-crowned RMAC Co-Freshman of the Year beat Pacific's Fera Thomas 12-2 in her first match and knocked off Lindenwood's Ally Jelinek after moving to the consolation bracket. She will face Colorado Mesa's Sophia Cornish, the RMAC champion, in her first bout Sunday.
Peters endured a slight upset pin as the No. 4 seed in her first match against No. 5 seed Minot State's Aniya Herbin. Peters answered with an 11-0 win in her first consolation match and will now see Texas Woman's heavyweight Kitana Leafaatoto first thing Sunday, who Peters is 3-0 against this season. If Peters can beat the TWU wrestler for a fourth time, she will face the loser of two other RMAC rivals – Jayleen Sekona of Colorado Mesa or Julia Richey of Simon Fraser – two wrestlers Peters is looking for her first win against.
Action on Sunday gets started at 10 a.m. MT/11 a.m. local.
