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On March 7, 2026, inside Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, McKendree University stepped into NCAA history. The Bearcats women’s wrestling program, a Division II powerhouse from Lebanon, Illinois, defeated Big Ten giant Iowa 171–166 to win the first official NCAA women’s wrestling team national championship.
The victory at the inaugural National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (NCWWC) made McKendree the first program ever to hoist an NCAA team trophy in women’s wrestling, capping a two-day event that brought together programs from Divisions I, II, and III and showcased just how far the sport has come in a short time.
That a private Division II school from just east of St. Louis would outlast a flagship Big Ten brand like Iowa is part of what makes this championship so significant. McKendree’s 171–166 win over the Hawkeyes was not a fluke upset, but the culmination of years of investment, recruiting, and consistent national success in women’s wrestling.
Under head coach Alexio Garcia, McKendree entered the 2025–26 season already viewed as one of the sport’s true heavyweights. The Bearcats had previously captured national titles in the non-NCAA women’s championship format from 2020 through 2022, building a reputation as an early adopter and destination program as women’s wrestling gained momentum across college athletics.
When the NCAA officially elevated women’s wrestling to its 91st championship sport for 2025–26, according to NCAA communications on the sport’s growth and emerging status in recent years (NCAA.com), McKendree was primed to turn its club- and emerging-level dominance into an NCAA trophy. The Bearcats were ranked near the top of the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) polls and carried high expectations into the inaugural NCAA season.
McKendree’s performance in Coralville was the product of a rigorous schedule and sustained excellence throughout the 2025–26 campaign. The Bearcats finished the regular season 18–3 in dual meets, showing their depth and balance against a mix of regional and national contenders.
Key highlights from the season included:
The 24–19 dual loss to Iowa at the For Her Duals was especially important context for the NCAA championships. It gave McKendree a firsthand look at the Hawkeyes’ lineup and set the stage for a dramatic rematch in the same city, on a much bigger stage.
By the time the Bearcats returned to Xtream Arena in March, they had tightened small margins, refined their lineup, and embraced the challenge of facing a heavily hyped Iowa squad that features Olympic medalists and multiple age-group world-level competitors.
At the NCAA championships, it was McKendree’s roster-wide depth that separated the Bearcats from the field before the finals even began. Across two days of competition in Coralville, nine McKendree wrestlers reached the semifinals and all 10 entrants secured All-America honors.
That consistent advancement translated directly into team points. As the championship round approached, McKendree held an 8.5-point lead over Iowa and had five wrestlers in the finals compared with four Hawkeye finalists. In team races where bonus points and placement can swing the scoreboard dramatically, that advantage gave McKendree a critical cushion.
The finals opened at 138 pounds, with Grand Valley State’s Katerina Lange winning the first individual NCAA women’s title. At 145 pounds, North Central’s Bella Mir pinned Iowa’s Reese Larramendy, a result that kept Iowa from adding critical points and indirectly helped McKendree in the tight team race.
But Iowa responded, leveraging the star power that has made the program an immediate contender in the new NCAA landscape. Olympic medalist Kennedy Blades earned a title at 160, and teammate Kylie Welker added another Hawkeye crown at 180. Those back-to-back wins pushed Iowa into the team lead for the first time that evening.
McKendree’s path to the championship turned again at 207 pounds. Senior Tristan Kelly, one of the Bearcats’ veteran anchors, delivered in emphatic fashion. Facing Grand Valley State’s Sabrina Nauss, Kelly dominated en route to a technical fall victory.
Her performance did more than add five team points; it swung momentum back to McKendree in a fieldhouse that had started to tilt toward the Hawkeyes. Kelly’s win briefly pushed the Bearcats back in front before Iowa’s Valarie Solorio answered with a tech fall at 103, reclaiming the lead for the Hawkeyes as the lightweights took their turn.
Through each of these matches, the scoreboard remained tight. With lead changes and bonus-point swings, the team race never fully settled until the late bouts. Every placement match, consolation win and third-place finish mattered for programs chasing the top of the podium.
The final stretch began to crystallize at 110 pounds. There, Lehigh freshman Audrey Jimenez pinned returning champion Sage Mortimer of Grand Valley State. That outcome was significant: by knocking off a defending champ from a rival in the team standings, Jimenez limited potential damage for McKendree.
In the same weight class, McKendree sophomore Gabriele Tedesco delivered a crucial third-place finish, adding valuable placement points to the Bearcats’ total. Together, Jimenez’s upset and Tedesco’s podium climb helped stabilize McKendree’s position heading into the most pivotal match of the night.
At 117 pounds, top-seeded McKendree junior Yu Sakamoto stepped onto the mat with a chance to make history. Sakamoto had already delivered one of the most important wins of the tournament in the semifinals, where she defeated Iowa’s Brianna Gonzalez to reach the final and prevent the Hawkeyes from adding another finalist to their count.
In the 117-pound championship bout, Sakamoto faced North Central’s Riley Rayome in a tense, tactical matchup that carried massive team implications. Over six hard-fought minutes, Sakamoto eked out a 4–3 decision that mathematically clinched the team championship for McKendree.
Her first individual national title capped a 4–0 tournament run and punctuated what had already been a breakout season in which she emerged as one of the premier lightweights in college women’s wrestling. More importantly for the team, Sakamoto’s victory ensured that McKendree’s name would be etched permanently in NCAA history as the sport’s first team champion.
Even with the team race decided after 117, the Bearcats still had a chance to add to their legacy on the final bouts of the night.
At 124 pounds, McKendree sophomore Shelby Moore advanced to the national final, where she fell to Quincy’s Xochitl Mota-Pettis. Although Moore came up one match short of an NCAA title, her runner-up performance delivered critical points and underscored the Bearcats’ lineup balance across the lower and middle weights.
The championship session concluded with a marquee matchup at 131 pounds. Graduate student Cameron Guerin, already a four-time national champion from prior seasons in the non-NCAA format, took on Aurora’s defending champion Alexis Janiak in one of the night’s most anticipated showdowns.
Guerin dug into her championship experience, grinding out a tactical 5–5 criteria victory to secure her fifth collegiate national title and cap an undefeated 14–0 season. Her win provided a fitting exclamation point to McKendree’s 171–166 victory in the final team standings.
Along with Sakamoto and Kelly, Guerin gave McKendree three individual NCAA champions. Moore and sophomore Destiny Rodriguez finished as national runners-up, and seven other Bearcats reached the podium, giving the program a staggering 10 All-Americans in the historic first NCAA women’s wrestling championship.
For McKendree University, the championship was the culmination of a long-term investment in a fast-growing sport. For women’s wrestling more broadly, it symbolized how quickly the NCAA landscape is evolving.
The NCAA has noted in its coverage and emerging-sport updates that a majority of women’s collegiate wrestling programs are based at Division II and Division III schools, not just at major Division I brands (NCAA.org). McKendree’s rise from early adopter to inaugural NCAA champion illustrates that reality. It also reinforces a trend: smaller campuses with strong athletic and academic missions are using women’s wrestling as a way to grow enrollment, expand opportunities for female athletes, and build competitive national profiles.
Athletics director Anthony Francis has framed women’s wrestling as both an enrollment driver and a platform to increase visibility for McKendree. The sport allows the university to reach new regions and recruit from a talent pool that is expanding rapidly across the United States. With more state athletic associations sanctioning girls’ wrestling and more colleges adding programs each year, the pipeline feeding schools like McKendree is deeper than ever.
Inside the wrestling room, Garcia’s approach is described as process-driven and family-oriented, emphasizing culture as much as results. The 171 team points, 10 All-Americans, and three individual NCAA titles serve as measurable proof of that culture, but the impact extends beyond any single trophy. The Bearcats have helped define what a championship-caliber women’s wrestling program can look like at a Division II institution.
For prospects and families navigating the college recruiting process, McKendree’s NCAA title offers several key takeaways:
If you are a high school wrestler or a coach advising athletes, it is worth exploring how programs like McKendree structure their rosters, support athletes academically, and build competitive schedules. Tools like Pathley’s Wrestling Pathley Hub can help you see how different college wrestling options stack up, from Division I to Division III and NAIA.
McKendree’s historic title will almost certainly draw even more attention from recruits who want to compete at the highest levels of women’s college wrestling. As interest rises, having a clear process to evaluate fit and build a smart target list becomes even more important.
Pathley offers several tools to make that easier:
By using these tools alongside direct communication with college coaches, you can better understand whether a program’s coaching style, training environment, and campus culture fit what you are looking for.
McKendree’s win at Xtream Arena shows that women’s wrestling is entering a new era: diverse divisions, broader geography, and more schools capable of contending on the national stage. As the sport continues to grow, your recruiting approach should grow more strategic as well.
Here are a few practical ideas for prospects and their families:
Pathley’s AI tools are designed to support that deeper research. With Pathley Chat, you can ask specific recruiting questions, explore potential fits, and get guidance on how to structure outreach emails or highlight videos. When you are ready, you can also create a free profile through the Pathley sign-up page to organize your target list, compare options, and keep your plan on track.
With 171 team points, three individual NCAA champions, 10 All-Americans, and the first NCAA team trophy in women’s wrestling in its case, McKendree has cemented itself as a central figure in a young sport. The Bearcats’ journey from early adopter to inaugural NCAA champion reflects both the program’s internal standards and the broader trajectory of women’s wrestling.
As NCAA leaders, coaches, and athletes look ahead, expectations are that women’s wrestling will continue to expand at the collegiate and international levels. More schools will add programs, more conferences will develop championship structures, and more athletes will see a viable pathway from high school mats to NCAA podiums.
For now, though, the first line in the NCAA women’s wrestling record book belongs to a Division II program from Lebanon, Illinois. On a March night in Coralville, McKendree University walked out of Xtream Arena as the answer to a question that will be asked for decades: who won the first NCAA women’s wrestling team title?
The Bearcats did, and they did it in a way that should give wrestlers and families everywhere a new lens for how they think about college opportunities and championship dreams.
If you are starting that journey yourself, Pathley can help you explore schools like McKendree, compare options in your sport, and build a recruiting plan that fits your goals, budget, and timeline.
