Five Wildcats Ready to Battle at NAIA Women’s Wrestling Championships
JAMESTOWN, N.D. - Baker women's wrestling will send five wrestlers – Jannell Avila, Jaclyn Daley, Katherine Heath, Elisa Robinson and Kylee Slyter – to the 2023-24 NAIA Women's Wrestling National Championship this upcoming weekend (March 8-9), held inside Harold Newman Arena in Jamestown, N.D.
Heath is the only returnee from last year's national meet where she advanced to the third round of the consolation bracket at 116 pounds. Along with Heath, Robinson competed at the NAIA's postseason tournament in 2021 and 2022.
Wrestling at 109 pounds this weekend, Slyter will open things up with a match against Providence's Paige Morales, the fourth-ranked wrestler in the division. Slyter, a sophomore from Paola, Kan., came in fifth at the Heart Championships a couple of weeks ago
Coming off a conference title, Heath earns the No. 4 ranking in the 116-bracket and will face Emma Jones of Indiana Tech in her first match of the tournament. The senior from Fairview, Texas won both of her matches at the Heart tournament to mark the fourth straight year that Baker has featured an individual conference champion.
At 170 pounds, Daley takes on Mahogoney Casel of Wayland Baptist in the first round with the winner going on to face eighth-ranked Maggie Graham (Life). A freshman from Reno, Nev., Daley earned a third-place finish at the conference meet and took runner-up honors at the Spire Classic back in January.
The first of two Wildcats at 191 pounds, Avila, who was a Heart runner-up, draws the No. 7 seed and will take on Jamestown's Agatha Andrews in her opening bout. Also wrestling at 191 pounds, Robinson will go up against the top-seed in the bracket, Tavia Heidelberg-Tillitson of Menlo.
The NAIA Championships will get underway at 10 a.m. tomorrow (March 8) and run through Saturday (March 9) evening with the championship finals beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
You can watch a live stream of the NAIA matches HERE (FloWrestling) and live results can be found HERE. A link to the preliminary bracket can be found HERE.
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