No. 16 IW women’s wrestling wins first-ever home dual

MT. PLEASANT — For the Iowa Wesleyan women’s wrestling team and Iowa Wesleyan Athletics, Wednesday night was a historic one.

The university hosted its first-ever women’s wrestling dual. The No. 16 ranked Tigers played host to the Statesmen from William Penn University. With only one loss coming on the mat, Iowa Wesleyan came away with a 29-19 victory.

The Tigers started out on a good note. Iowa Wesleyan grabbed a quick 10-0 lead from two forfeits at 101 and 109. No. 4 Alaina Sunlin and No. 11 Mia Palumbo took the victories.

William Penn got on the board at 115 from an Iowa Wesleyan forfeit, cutting the lead to 10-5.

The first match on the mat was at 123 pounds. Zoi Smith was defeated by tech fall, 14-4, by the Statemen’s Mami Selemani, who is ranked No. 13. Smith was able to come away with one point for the Tigers because she was able to score and didn’t get pinned. It would be the last match Iowa Wesleyan would lose on the mat. The Tigers lead was cut down to 11-9.

At 130 pounds, No. 8 rated Joanna Vanderwood defeated Lydia Nelson by tech fall, 10-0, increasing the lead to 15-9.

No. 20 Destiny Campbell performed well at 136. Campbell controlled for the majority of the match against William Penn’s Gwendolyn Grimes, eventually coming away with a fall victory at two minutes and three seconds. Iowa Wesleyan’s lead was now 20-9.

The Tigers continued to roll at 143. No. 5 Adaugo Nwachukwu moved up a weight class and picked up a tech fall, 10-0, victory over Ashleigh Denny.

Abi Archibald was the last wrestler of the night for the Tigers. She nearly came away with a tech fall before ultimately winning by injury default.

In the final two matches of the night, 170 and 191, the Tigers forfeited, but the lead was large enough to come away with a win.

“Overall, tonight we had a pretty good performance,” Iowa Wesleyan assistant coach Jake Kadel said. “Their team came out and fought really hard and our girls did a really good job of continuing to wrestle through those hard positions. We kinda weathered the storm and came out on top after that.”