Wildcats Earn Fourth-Place Finish at 2024 Soldier Salute

CORALVILLE, Iowa - Closing out with its final competition of 2024, the Baker women's wrestling team traveled to Coralville, Iowa earlier this week to compete in the 2024 Soldier Salute where the Wildcats came away with a fourth-place finish in the team standings.

Hosted by the Iowa City Area Sports Commission, the Soldier Salute collegiate wrestling tournament recognizes and honors former, current, and future service members. 100% of the annual tournament proceeds are split between the United Service Organizations (USO) and a development fund targeted towards the continued growth of high school girls wrestling.

The tournament featured teams and athletes from the NCAA Division I level, including Iowa, Wyoming, Navy, Minnesota, Bellarmine and North Carolina.

Katherine Heath (117) and Jannell Avila (180) each claimed fourth-place honors, individually, with Heath defeating the NAIA's 12th-ranked wrestler twice in the tournament and Avila earning pins in three of her four victories at 180 pounds.

Nevaeh Wardlow joined her teammate Avila as a top-eight finisher in the 180-pound bracket with the freshman from Kansas City, Mo. placing eighth. Fellow newcomer McKenna Haltom also posted an eighth-place finish, wrestling in the 145-pound division.

The Wildcats had a handful of wrestlers just miss the top-eight cutoff for the Championship brackets, but claimed five placement finishes in the separate Silver division.

Jade Martin (138) and Johanna Carrasco (180) both placed first in their respective brackets, while Kylee Slyter (110), Zoey Freeman (124) and Nora Prather (145) all picked up third-place showings to cap a productive outing for the BU wrestling squad.

Up next, Baker will head to another nationally-recognized event in Iowa with this year's NWCA Duals which are set to take place on Jan. 10-11 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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