2024 USMC Women’s National Championship Preview

Spokane, Washington will serve as the epicenter of the women’s wrestling world in the United States this weekend, as nearly 1600 athletes will descend upon the Pacific Northwest for the 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Women’s National Championship.

From Friday-Sunday (April 12-14), talented young girls/women will compete across eight separate divisions (8U, 10U, 12U, 14U, Under-15, Under-17, Under 20 and Under-23) for individual national titles – half of which could earn the champion a spot on an age-level World team.

**Women’s Nationals will be streamed live on FloWrestling (subscription required).**

This is where the very best young wrestling prospects in America gather to test their collective mettle – which is why it should be no surprise that the University of Iowa will be heavily represented by both current and future Hawkeyes at the event.

To further illustrate my point, here’s a few nuggets on the 2023 Women’s National Championship as it pertains to members of the Black & Gold:

As of this typing, the Hawkeyes are set to send a slightly smaller contingent up to Spokane this go around, with 15 different women (including four incoming recruits) registered in either the U20 or U23 division – where they’ll be joined by nearly 500 other competitors according to USA Wrestling.

If I were to handicap things, I’d say that Iowa wrestlers are favored/co-favorites to win roughly four different brackets entering the weekend (a couple of those ‘co-favorites’ coming with their own teammate), with another 2-3 potentially up for grabs as well.

As both National Duals and NCWWC champions in its inaugural season on the mat, the Iowa program has already announced its arrival on the women’s collegiate scene with absolute authority. That said, the Hawkeyes could even further stamp their dominance by winning upwards of 25 percent of the (20) available spots on this year’s U20/U23 World teams.

Combine that with the nine qualifiers for next weekend’s Olympic Trials – seven of whom are 20 years old or younger – and head coach Clarissa Chun and the Hawkeyes are quickly establishing Iowa City as the place to be for up-and-coming women’s wrestlers in the United States.

(Remember folks, this program quite literally did not exist as of September 22, 2021.)

Anyway, with all that context on the table, let’s dive into the weights and the women to watch during these three glorious days of wrestling ahead of us.

But first, here’s every Hawkeye registered to compete as of early Thursday afternoon:

Under-20 division

Under-23 division

The Favorites

50 kilograms

One of the more loaded brackets this weekend in Spokane, Emilie Gonzalez and Nyla Valencia will help comprise a field of more than 60 competitors vying for the title at 50 kilograms.

At this time a year ago, Valencia lost in the best-two-of-three 50kg final to prep phenom Audrey Jimenez – who would go on to finish runner up for a spot on the senior team to multi-time World/Olympic medalist Sarah Hildebrandt.

Jimenez won’t be in the field this weekend, but Valencia will – even after a torn ACL suffered last April kept her out of competition for the 11 months prior to last weekend’s Last Chance Qualifier, which the California native won in resounding fashion to punch her ticket to the Olympic Trials.

Valencia will be joined by her teammate Gonzalez, herself an Olympic Trials qualifier courtesy of her 2024 NCWWC individual title at 101 pounds.

Of note, Emilie Gonzalez will be bumping up roughly nine pounds from her college weight to 50kg (~110.2 pounds), but she has had a month to do so since her last competition and I believe her speed/strength/pace are well-suited for the move.

I think these two Hawkeyes are the most likely winners of this bracket – potentially facing off against one another in the finals for the honor. That said, plenty of staunch competition awaits in their path.

Among the most notable will be fellow Olympic Trials qualifier – and 2024 NCWWC runner up at 109 pounds (to another Hawkeye, Ava Bayless) – Kaelani Shufeldt, as well as high school senior Rianne Murphy, a U17 World team representative for the US a year ago at 46 kilograms.

55 kilograms

The top-ranked recruit in Iowa’s 2024 class, Brooks enters this weekend seeking to repeat her performance from a year ago – when the Arizona native (by way of Hawaii) won the 53-kilogram spot on the U17 World team (where’d she’d go on to finish fifth).

Her chief competition in 2024, this time up two kilos and in the U20 division, could very well be last year’s third and fourth-place 55kg finishers Ella Jauregui and Alexanda Waitsman – the latter of whom may be familiar to Iowa fans as the William Jewell opponent Hawkeye freshman Ava Rose went back-and-forth with all season long.

If not Jauregui/Waitsman, Cristelle Rodriguez – last year’s 57kg champ and a 2024 NAIA national title winner at 123 pounds – figures to be a major obstacle as well.

Brooks has repeatedly tested herself against both older and bigger competition during her senior year of high school – including an appearance a few days ago at the Last Chance Qualifier. It wouldn’t shock me at all to see it pay off this weekend with a second-consecutive title.

Two other names to keep an eye out for: Class of 2025 prospect Angelina Cassioppi – younger sister to Hawkeyes Tony and Rose – and Iowa freshman Cali Leng.

65 kilograms

Quite possibly the biggest favorite of any bracket to conclude with a Hawkeye atop the podium, 65 kilograms is Reese Larramendy’s weight to lose.

Coming off an NCWWC title at 143 pounds (~65kg) which capped a late-season run during which she bested multiple upper echelon senior-level opponents, Larramendy has all the momentum on her side entering the weekend.

In fact, were it not for an uncharacteristic early round defeat at the 2023 Women’s National Championship, she could very well be going for her third-consecutive U20 title at 65kg – having previously won it back in 2022 before finishing third a year ago.

If there is another upset to be had, the most likely candidate is probably Larramendy’s own teammate, Ella Schmit, who just so happened to finish as the 65kg runner up in 2023.

(Like I said, these Iowa women’s wrestlers are pretty darn good.)

Two other names to keep in mind are 2023 fourth-place finisher Grace Stem – who upset Larramendy a year ago, but whom the Hawkeye has seemed to make a point to absolutely demolish in each of their meetings ever since – and Zoey Lints (fifth place at NCWWC’s this season for Elmira College).

76 kilograms

Another weight class with a pair of Hawkeyes standing atop the list of pre-tourney favorites, 76 kilograms could very well come down to a final’s series between Rose Cassioppi and Naomi Simon.

Neither of these two young upper weights has ‘officially’ competed yet for Iowa, with Cassioppi redshirting this past season and Simon being a Class of 2024 recruit. Even still, their credentials speak more than loudly enough to earn them the benefit of the doubt entering this weekend.

Cassioppi qualified for the 2024 Olympic Trials courtesy of her fifth-place finish at Senior Nationals back in December, while Simon (ranked the 20 best pound-for-pound recruit in the country and #3 at 170 pounds by Flo) nearly did the same in Fairfax, Virginia less than a week ago, coming in third place at the Last Chance Qualifier.

If these two are on opposite sides of the bracket as they should be, I’d venture to guess we’re in store for a showdown in the finals. But were that to be disrupted, a name to know is Love Daley – a fifth-place finisher at 170 pounds for Sacred Heart University at NCWWC’s last month.

Other contenders

53 kilograms

In what might well be the single most loaded bracket in Spokane this weekend, it still somewhat shocks me that I wasn’t able to put Brianna Gonzalez’s name in the ‘favorites’ category.

That’s how good she’s been over the past six months, ending the 2023-24 college season as the national runner up to teammate Felicity Taylor at 116 pounds before rolling through the Last Chance Qualifier a few days back without surrendering a single point.

However, B. Gonzalez won’t be the only Olympic Trials qualifier in this 53-kilogram field, and it’s why I can’t in good conscience call her the favorite going in.

Katie Gomez – a four-time age-level World teamer – returns after having dominated this event a year ago. In the interim, she also finished runner up for the Senior World team spot at 53kg.

So yeah, Gomez is your favorite here.

They’ll be joined in the bracket by a plethora of other young talent, including nine top-10 ranked high schoolers.

A meeting in the finals between Gonzalez and Gomez would be an absolute treat for wrestling fans.

Then again, this is wrestling we’re talking about. So, who the heck knows what’s going to happen?

62 kilograms

Iowa won’t have one of the favorites at 62 kilograms entering the weekend, but with the quality/quantity combination it has to offer it’s not out of the question that a Hawkeye could emerge as the victor amongst this 50-person field.

Lilly Luft was fourth at this very weight class back in 2023 and is coming off a fifth-place finish at NCWCC’s in early March. She’ll be flanked by last year’s 61-kilogram U17 runner up, Cadence Diduch.

Standing in their way is a pair of formidable opponents.

First up, 2023 U17 World bronze medalist Haylie Jaffe – who took out Diduch in the best-two-of-three finals a year ago.

Next, add McKendree’s Alexandra Szkotnicki, last year’s U20 runner up at 53kg.

Szkotnicki – the #8 pound-for-pound recruit in the country a year ago – has also beaten Diduch previously, though their latest match was far more recent – a 6-2 decision at last weekend’s Last Chance Qualifier.

Again, I certainly wouldn’t categorize Iowa as being ‘favored’ to produce a champion in this bracket. But is it within the realm of possibility? Absolutely.

Also joining Luft/Diduch among the field will be incoming Hawkeye freshman Kiara Djoumessi (Waverly-Shell Rock).

Djoumessi checks in at #10 at 140 pounds in Flo’s latest rankings and is someone whose potential I’m pretty high on as she transitions to the collegiate level and full-time freestyle wrestling.

Podium probables

50 kilograms

With fewer than 30 entries, the U23 field at 50 kilograms is far from the deepest you’ll find this weekend in terms of top tier competitors.

And although Sterling Dias has still yet to suffer a defeat in collegiate competition to anyone other than her teammate Emilie Gonzalez, those results all came down at 101 pounds.

Dias’ previous forays up to 50kg (~110.2 pounds) haven’t been the most seamless, including last weekend’s 1-2 performance at the Last Chance Qualifier. So, even though I believe she’s as skilled as anyone in her bracket, I wonder if the size discrepancy will once again rear its head against the sophomore-to-be.

Kaelani Shufeldt (Lock Haven) and Samantha Miller (Mount Olive) – second and third at 109 pounds at NCWWC’s a month ago – will certainly put that notion to the test should they square off with Dias in Spokane.

59 kilograms

Frost took home fourth place in this very same bracket a year ago, so she’s certainly capable of navigating it again this weekend.

Just how high she can climb remains a question, however, as at least six of her losses from the 2023-24 college season were against athletes she’ll be contending with in Spokane.

One thing I do know for pretty darn certain: somebody is getting headlocked in spectacular fashion by the Hawkeye freshman this weekend.

62 kilograms

Patneaud is an All-American caliber wrestler at the collegiate level – we know that because she’s done it before (finishing 5 in 2022 for McKendree).

But her 19-woman bracket at 62 kilograms is loaded with similarly credentialed competitors – including recent national champions from both the NCAA and NAIA ranks.

A top-eight finish this weekend would be a major accomplishment, particularly as Patneaud continues to get further and further away from a serious leg injury that ended her 2022-23 college season.

Short time

So, there you have it.

The wrestling agenda is officially set for your weekend ahead.

We’re in early April and 15(!) current and/or soon-to-be Hawkeyes will be competing against the best young competition the nation has to offer for three full days.

(These truly are the best of times if you ask me.)

We only covered the U20 and U23 divisions in this preview – as they encompass all the known Hawkeye athletes/signees as of today. That said, if you’ve got the time, I’d encourage folks to check out some of the semifinal/championship matches from the U17 division as well.

There’s a good chance several future Hawkeyes will be on the mat in those high-pressure bouts – we just don’t know who they are yet.

Also, Iowa interests aside, it’s just awesome to see the quality of women’s wrestling continue to grow by leaps and bounds at the youth levels. This is a runaway train that shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, so do yourself a favor and hop aboard.

I really believe you’ll be glad that you did.

The full schedule for this weekend’s action can be found at THIS LINK, but the general summary is as follows:

OK, I think you’re ready.

I’ll be covering the action on Twitter throughout the weekend, so if you’d like, give me a follow there. Otherwise, be sure to check back in at the start of next week as I’ll have a recap of all the noteworthy action from Spokane.

After that, it’s on to the Olympic Trials (April 19-20) in State College, PA – which um, yeah, that’s going to be a pretty big deal.

(Obviously.)

That’ll do it from me this week.

As always, thanks for reading, enjoy the wrestling and I’ll talk to you again real soon.

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