Nine members of the Simpson College women’s wrestling team secured their spot to wrestle in the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (NCWWC) set for March 7-8 in Cedar Rapids.
In the program’s third year, this is the first year in which Simpson had a group of athletes qualify for the national tournament. This year’s group includes Keeley Kehrli, Gracie Waage, Sarah Zimmerman, Layla Phillips, Dionni Garcia-Vasquez, Paige Gershmel, Annelise Obermark, Breanna Wier and Ashley Cannon.
Sophomore Keeley Kehrli stole the show for the Storm on Saturday, earning a second-place finish after battling it out against Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades of Iowa in the 160-pound weight class championship match.
Facing an Olympian was no easy feat, but Kehrli is tackling the beast that is her mental game. “I’ve been really working on trying to turn my nervousness into excitement and just being excited for this opportunity to get on the mat and wrestle some tough competition, and really try to reach my goals and just be thankful for the opportunity to wrestle,” Kehrli said.
Simpson hosted the NCWWC Region VII Championships on Saturday, Feb. 22. This was the second year in a row in which Simpson hosted a regional meet.
A total of 10 teams competed, including No. 1 Iowa, No. 11 Wartburg, No. 20 Dubuque, No. 24 Simpson, Augsburg, Central, Buena Vista, Cornell, Sioux Falls and Augustana. The top four wrestlers in each weight class secured a spot in the national tournament.
Since the beginning of Simpson’s program, they have qualified an athlete for the national tournament each year. Jenna Joseph was the first national qualifier for Simpson, representing the debut 2022-23 team. In the 2023-24 season, Emme Hicks became the second Storm wrestler to qualify for the national tournament.
The beginning of 2025 was monumental for the sport of women’s wrestling. On Jan. 17, the NCAA put out a press release stating, “Women’s wrestling now advances from the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program to become a national collegiate championship, featuring female athletes from all three divisions competing against one another. The NCAA’s first women’s wrestling championship will be in 2026.”
The Simpson women’s wrestling program has made historic leaps and bounds in its third year of competition, including a national ranking as high as No. 20 and qualifying a record nine individuals for nationals. The program is bound for greatness.
Sophomore Jalynn Goodale shared her appreciation for the opportunity to continue the sport of wrestling at the collegiate level. “Not everybody gets to compete at college, and no matter where you’re competing or who you’re competing for, that is an opportunity that not everybody gets, and it’s something I am very, very grateful for,” Goodale said.
Not many realize the level of competition at which the Storm compete. “D3 in women’s wrestling does not mean D3, it means D1, there is no division separation,” Kehrli said. “So it just means a lot going up against all these teams and proving ourselves that we are at the level that these D1 and D2 teams are.”
The opportunity to compete at the highest level against top-tier competition is what makes this journey for the Storm truly historical.
