FHSU Athletics
CORALVILLE, Iowa – Isabella Renfro of Fort Hays State guaranteed herself placement at the first-ever NCAA NC Women's Wrestling Championship on Friday by winning her first two matches of the tournament to reach the semifinals on Saturday. Nichole Moore, Alexis Burton, and Leiannah Landreth also competed for the Tigers, but were eliminated on day one of the competition. Overall, the Tigers had four wins on the day.
Renfro, the No. 3 seed in the 180 bracket, had a dominating day by not giving up a point. She posted an 11-0 tech fall in 2:12 against Isabella Gretzinger of Presbyterian in the round of 16, then secured placement in the tournament with a fall in 0:58 over Mia Gaetjens of Adrian College.
Renfro will be the first All-America performer in program history, and one of the first 80 NCAA All-Americans in women's wrestling history, but has her sights on a potential trip to the national championship match. She will meet Destiny Rodriguez of McKendree for the third time this season in the semifinals, looking to avenge her loss in the final to Rodriguez at the Region 6 Championship. Renfro defeated Rodriguez earlier in the season, so this will be the rubber match to determine who wrestles for a national championship.
Landreth (117), Moore (145), and Burton (160) all dropped their opening matches of the tournament. Landreth had a lead going into the second period, but her opponent Maddie Ripley of Western New England rallied to get the match tied and then scored a fall 47 seconds into the second period. Moore gave Reese Larramendy, the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 145 from Iowa, a good fight nearly lasting the entire match. Larramendy scored an 11-1 tech fall. Burton made a bit of a push in the second period against No. 3 seed Tiffany Baublitz of East Stroudsburg, scoring three points, but she couldn't quite find leverage to flip the match in her favor.
Nichole Moore and Alexis Burton each won a consolation match before coming up short in their second consolation contest. Moore defeated Cloe Charlesworth of Ursinus by tech fall 11-0 and Burton took a 3-3 decision against Presley McCandlish of Lock Haven on criteria. Unfortunately, Moore dropped a 5-1 decision to Liv Wieber of Simon Fraser and Burton lost by fall to May Cuyler of Presbyterian. Moore finished her season at 18-7, while Burton finished the year at 22-10. Landreth lost her consolation match to Jenna Anderson of Presbyterian by an 8-4 decision. She ended her season at 21-11 overall.
The semifinals and remaining consolation matches will take place starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday (Mar. 7). Championship matches will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.