CORALVILLE, Iowa – For the better part of the previous 60 hours, McKendree University head coach Alexio Garcia had been caught in the whirlwind that had been the first-ever NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championship at Xtream Arena. The Bearcats had come into the tournament as one of the favorites — a designation that proved to be prophetic Saturday night.
McKendree, a Division II school located in Lebanon, Ill., about 25 miles east of St. Louis, won the inaugural title, edging the host Iowa Hawkeyes, 171-166, in dramatic fashion.
It was coming up on 10 p.m. Saturday when Garcia walked into the media room with his family. It was well after three of his wrestlers had won individual championships. It was after the trophy presentations, the pictures, and the impromptu circle dance his wrestlers and fans did on the mat, with five-time National champion Cameron Guerin in the middle with the trophy.
His three daughters, Lennox, Uriah and Amari, joined him at the interview table, Amari carrying his coach’s version of the NCAA trophy and Uriah with his NCAA Coach of the Year plaque. The IX asked him how it felt to share the night with his daughters.
“It means a lot,” Garcia said, getting choked up.
He paused, looking down at the table for an instant while hugging Amari, who was sitting on his knee, a little bit tighter. Garcia looked back up.
“We sacrifice a lot of time as NCAA coaches, right?” he said. “And one day they’re gonna wrestle in college. You know, we won a national title as a family, and we talked about it all the time.”
“We used to watch world championships, and Lennox says that she wants to be a World Champion one day. And my two little ones over here now said they want to be ranked No. 1 in the country,” he added. “I’m just a blessed man knowing that I can be this person right now, at 34-years old, and my kids get to be a part of it.”
“And one day they’re going to be older, and I’m going to hopefully be taking them to more programs and driving them around, and I get to be the dad that watches them at open mat or practices, and it’s just a real special thing.”
That family theme goes beyond his own home to his team.
Many of the Bearcats have “FAMILY” written across their headgear as a sort of badge of honor. Garcia said that McKendree is a family of its own.
“The family thing goes back to enjoying the journey together,” he said. “We talked about being process people, not result people. And it takes a family, because there are a lot of highs, there are a lot of lows.
“We recruit the best kids in America, across the world, and we bring them thousands of miles away,” Garcia added. “And we preach family — family this, family that. But if they don’t buy into it, it’s not going to work. And what made the difference this year was that they truly believed that they were a family. I mean, we didn’t talk about just being perfect on the mat, we talked about being a perfect family, and that’s with each other and outside the room with mom and dad. But the kids have each other to lean on.”
“I’m a blessed man, right? I got three daughters and two sons, and my wife’s all in and the girls on the team enjoy being over at the house. When I first got to Lebanon, Ill., they taught us how to make a bonfire, because where we came from [Washington], we usually didn’t do that.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
A two-team race for the championship
By Saturday morning, McKendree and Iowa had separated themselves from the rest of the field. Going into the finals, the Bearcats led the Hawkeyes, 157.5-149, with McKendree boasting five finalists and Iowa four.
The finals started at 138 pounds, and one weight in, Iowa hit a snag. Top-seeded 145-pounder Reese Larramendy ran into a buzzsaw in North Central’s Bella Mir, who scored a first-period fall, solidifying the Cardinals’ third-place position while throwing a wrench into the Hawkeyes’ plans.
But the home team had wins by Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades at 160 with a technical fall, and 180-pounder Kylie Welker, the very first Hawkeye recruit, with a pin. After Blades disposed of East Stroudsburg’s Tiffani Baublitz in the first period, Welker followed suit as time expired in the first period in her match.
Welker, who up until last year never imagined that there would be an NCAA tournament in her career, was grateful for the chance.
“It feels official,” she told reporters. “Since the moment University of Iowa even started the program, and when I became a collegiate athlete, that’s what was always the goal. I never would have thought that I’d be able to become an NCAA champ, but it has a nice ring to it, and I’m just so blessed for the people that did what they did to make this happen.”
Those two pins put Iowa ahead, 161-157.5, and the next two matches were pivotable. McKendree 207-pounder Tristan Kelly picked up an 11-0 major decision to put the Bearcats back up, 163-161. But that lead didn’t last long, as Iowa’s Valarie Solorio stopped Grand Valley State’s Rayana Sahagun, 13-1, at 103 pounds; a major decision that gave Iowa a 166-163 lead.
The only problem for Iowa was that they were out of finalists, and McKendree had three left and were one win from taking the lead and clinching the national title.
Bearcat 117-pounder Yu Sakamoto was leading North Central’s Riley Rayome, 2-1, with barely 10 seconds left. As time was running out, Rayome got in on a good shot, and appeared to have the takedown, but it wasn’t called. Sakamoto scrambled around Rayome and was awarded a takedown as the final horn sounded, appearing to have won, 4-1.
But North Central head coach Joe Norton asked for a video review of both the missed takedown, as well as whether time had expired before Sakamoto scored. Norton went 1-1 on the appeal.
Rayome was awarded the takedown, but Sakamoto was awarded a reversal. She won 4-3, securing the individual national championship and clinching the team title for McKendree.
In the night’s final bout, Guerin — back after two years away from the mat — won her fifth national championship, taking the 131-pound title with a 5-5 criteria win over Alexis Janiak of Aurora College.
“I’m so grateful,” Guerin said. “These last two years away from the mat, … I’ve not been this emotional about wrestling in a long time. But it was about a lot more than wrestling.”
It was about family.
Some lasting impressions
Katie Lange of Grand Valley State had the honor of being the first-ever NCAA champion. For television purposes, the finals actually started at 138 pounds, and Lange took a 4-1 decision over Claire DiCugno of North Central.
At Thursday’s opening press conference, Lange had made a comment that struck a lot of people at the time: “Being ready is a choice.”
After her Saturday morning semifinal win, The IX asked her about it.
“So, I want to note that actually it was my girlfriend [teammate and fellow national finalist, 103-pounder Rayana Sahagun] that sent me the video that I saw it in, and we were both doing the same thing, and we both had the same aspirations, and we must be doing something right, because we’re both in the finals,” she said.
“It was just this video about how sometimes, no matter what the work you’ve put in, no matter what you’ve done, you’re gonna have nerves. And sometimes it’s just taking that foot forward and you’re going into it and with the belief that you can, and the belief that you’re ready,” she added. “And it’s not always just this feeling. It’s really a decision. It’s a line you step over. It’s this idea that you can be nervous and still be prepared and ready for your match.”
The IX then asked her if she was ready for her championship match.
“I’m deciding I am for sure,” she replied.
She was.
Leaving it all on the mat
In 2004, after winning a second-straight heavyweight Greco-Roman Olympic gold medal, the legendary Rulon Gardner sat down on the mat and removed his wrestling shoes, left them on the mat and walked away.
It signified the end of his competitive career, as well as a homage of the long-held wrestling philosophy of “leaving it all on the mat.”
The last match finishing off Saturday’s morning and afternoon consolation round was the 207-pound fifth-place match between Caroline Ward of North Central and Colorado Mesa’s Jayleen Sekona. Ward defeated Sekona Friday night in the quarterfinals, 6-2.
But this time the outcome reversed itself as Sekona pinned Ward with eight seconds left in the first period. At the end, Sekona sat down on the mat and removed her shoes.
Other than some North Central and Colorado Mesa fans, NCAA workers beginning the process of converting the arena floor for the finals, and other than just a handful of journalists, the place was empty. By the time anyone realized what was going on, Sekona was sobbing over her shoes in the middle of the mat. The only photographer on the floor was a CMU videographer.
One of the meet announcers realized what was going on, and with a broken voice announced it to the crowd. What was left of that crowd stood and cheered for someone who had lived up to the ideal of truly leaving it all on the mat.
Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. “Rare Gems” follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.
If you enjoy Megdal’s coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!
