By Tanner Lafever
USA Wrestling

Following an unbelievable weekend at the NWCA/USMC National Duals, women’s college wrestling expands beyond the UNI-Dome this week.

But before we can look forward to Week 12 of the 2025-26 season, there are still several stories I simply must highlight from back-to-back incredible days of action in Cedar Falls – most of which I didn’t even have time to mention during my National Duals recap article.

No let up

To give you some idea of just how chock-full the National Duals were with talent, there may be no better example than McKendree’s Shelby Moore.

A returning national finalist and the #1 ranked wrestler in the country at 124 pounds, Moore lost three separate times last weekend – and none was all that big of an upset.

Moore fell 10-4 to Lorianna Piestewa (Colorado Mesa) in the quarterfinal round, 4-1 to Aspen Blasko (Grand Valley State) in the semifinals and 5-3 to Sara Sterner (North Central) in the finals.

Between that trio of opponents, you’re looking at last year’s U20 World Team Trials champion (Piestewa), plus the second (Blasko) and third-ranked (Sterner) wrestlers in the country at 124 pounds. Sterner was also a national finalist at 131 pounds last season.

But if there was anybody with an even more difficult run of matches, it was probably North Central’s Claire DiCugno.

A 2024 national champion for King University, DiCugno navigated the following gauntlet amidst the Cardinals’ title-winning performance:

• Quarterfinal – win by 9-8 dec. over Xochitl Mota-Pettis (Quincy)

• Semifinal – loss by 6-6 dec. to #3 Skye Realin (Iowa)

• Final – win by 5-4 dec. over #2 Haylie Jaffe (McKendree)

On Day Two in Cedar Falls, DiCugno lost to #3 Realin on a last-second, four-point throw. Then, a few hours later, she responded by knocking off returning national finalist Jaffe in another down-to-the-wire bout.

Yet somehow, it’s arguable that neither of those were her match of the weekend.

That may be reserved for her 9-8 quarterfinal comeback over Mota-Pettis – a 2023 US Open champion who made her NCAA debut at the UNI-Dome.

Mota-Pettis, who also competed at 131 pounds last weekend, jumped out to an 8-0 lead, seemingly ready to end things quickly. But midway through the second period, that deficit was gone – with DiCugno rattling off nine consecutive points to grab the advantage, which she held onto from there.

Based on how seeding and brackets will be done at the inaugural NCAA Women’s Championships in March, it’s possible – if not probable – that neither Moore nor DiCugno will face a tougher run of matches the rest of this season.

And that is just part of what makes National Duals so awesome.

Late dual drama

As most great duals feature, there was no shortage of heavyweight heroics on display in the ultimate team competition.

NCAA Division champion North Central got seemingly improbable victories at 207 pounds to win both its semifinal and final against #1 Iowa and #2 McKendree (Ill.), respectively – and from two different athletes, no less.

Meanwhile, NCAA Division III champion Wartburg (Iowa) saw its own title run spurred on in dramatic fashion with #4 Rewa Chababo’s semifinal pin.

But there may not have been a more clutch singular performer in Cedar Falls than Grand View’s Selena Mares.

The freshman won all four of her matches via first period fall to help the Vikings take third place in the NAIA division. And a whopping three of them came in must-have situations for her team.

Trailing in her match and in danger of a first-round upset loss to the University of the Cumberlands, Mares pinned Chamira Cooper to seal a 27-20 victory.

Not long after, Mares teamed up with 180-pounder Andjela Prijovic to help the Vikings overcome a nine-point deficit against #6 Indiana Tech with two bouts remaining.

After Prijovic’s 19-second fall pulled the team within four, Mares took exactly twice as long, 38 seconds, to secure her own – and in the process a 24-23 win for her team.

A day later, the unranked Mares – again following an equally clutch win by Prijovic – pinned #7 Phoebe Burt (William Penn) as the Vikings prevailed 22-19 in an in-state rivalry matchup.

Put it all together in one weekend, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Mares was still floating on cloud nine four days later.

Turning the page

Speaking of coming back down to earth, there’s no time to rest for National Duals champions North Central (NCAA) and Life University (NAIA) – as the two square off in a must-see dual Thursday evening.

Hosted by the Running Eagles on their Marietta, Georgia campus – Life will be hoping its home mat advantage, and loaded lineup will be enough to take out a Cardinals squad that put together the two biggest wins of the season en route to its title in Cedar Falls.

Streaming live on FloWrestling (8:00 p.m. ET), both teams boast top-10-ranked wrestlers at all 10 weight classes.

But if I had to single out a few to keep the closest eye on, it’s got to be 131-160 pounds.

At 131 pounds, fans could see a bout featuring a pair of two-time national runners-up – Yele Aycock (NCC) and Sarah Savidge (Life).

Next up, a pair of national champions could clash with Claire DiCugno (NCC) and Zaynah McBryde (Life) at 138 pounds.

And while more champion McBryde sisters – Jamilah and Latifah – follow for Life at 145 and 160 pounds, respectively, North Central will counter with returning national finalist Bella Mir and Taylor Graveman – the latter of whom just defeated reigning U23 World silver medalist Jasmine Robinson to help the Cardinals win National Duals.

It should be an absolute slugfest between these two programs on Thursday, and this stretch of matches could be the deciding factor.

Elsewhere around the country, Sunday marks another notable occasion for women’s wrestling as #10 Lehigh travels to Iowa City as part of a tri-meet featuring #1 Iowa and Otterbein (Ohio).

Streaming at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on B1G+, this event pits a burgeoning Lehigh program against the fellow Division I Hawkeyes, who return to action after a stunning third-place finish at National Duals.

Watch for 110, 117 and 131 pounds in this one – where the Mountain Hawks boast Senior National Teamer Audrey Jimenez, plus recent U20 World Championships fifth-place finishers Abbi Cooper and Aubre Krazer.

It should be a fun one inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and hopefully just the first of many matchups to come between these two historic wrestling brands.