Five Wildcats Set to Compete at 2025 NAIA Women’s Wrestling Championships
PARK CITY, Kan. - Baker women's wrestling will send five wrestlers – Jannell Avila, Katherine Heath, Jade Martin, Kylie Robledo and Nevaeh Wardlow – to the 2024-25 NAIA Women's Wrestling National Championship this upcoming weekend (March 14-15), held inside Park City Arena in Park City, Kan.
It will be Heath's fifth straight appearance at the national tournament with the senior from Fairview, Texas earning All-American honors after placing third at the NAIA Championships last year.
Heath drew the No. 7 seed in the 117-pound bracket and will face Kendall Martin of Ottawa in the first round on Friday. Heath took fourth at the Heart of America Conference Championships a couple of weeks ago.
For Robledo, it will be her third time qualifying for the NAIA competition with back-to-back appearances in 2022 and 2023. The junior from El Paso, Texas placed sixth at conference and will receive a bye before taking on her first opponent at 124 pounds.
Avila joins Heath as BU's other returning NAIA All-American from last year's competition where Avila placed seventh overall. The sophomore from Coralville, Iowa was Baker's highest finisher at the Heart Championships last weekend, taking third at 180 pounds to come away with All-Conference honors.
Also receiving a first-round bye, Avila will go up against the winner of No. 7 America Lopez (William Penn) and Catherine Mcnulty (Indiana Tech) in the second round of the 180-pound bracket.
Wrestling in her second NAIA championship, Martin will square off against the top seed of the 138-pound bracket in Zaynah Mcbryde from Life in her first match in Park City. Originally from West Plains, Mo., Martin qualified for nationals in 2022-23 as a member of the Missouri Valley women's wrestling team.
Wardlow will be the lone newcomer to the national tournament for BU as the freshman from Kansas City, Mo. qualified in her first season as a Wildcat. Wardlow totaled over 20 wins in her debut season and placed fourth at the Heart Championships.
Also wrestling at 180 pounds for BU, Wardlow will take on No. 5 Liliana Vergara of Campbellsville in the second round of Friday's opening day.
With a new location for this year's event, the two-day national tournament will begin at 10 a.m. on both days with things kicking off on Friday, March 14 and running through Saturday night (March 15), culminating with the championship finals at 7 p.m.
You can watch a live stream of the Pre-Championship matches HERE (FloWrestling) and the Championship matches HERE (NAIA Network/Urban Edge Network), while live results can be found HERE. A link to the preliminary bracket can be found HERE.
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