King accomplishes four-peat, Augello and Miracle win third championship

King wins its fourth-straight team title. Photo: Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling

2017 WCWA interviews

Final brackets

OKLAHOMA CITY – Haley Augello of King University and Kayla Miracle of Campbellsville became only the 10th and 11th women in history to win three WCWA Women’s College Nationals championships on Saturday night at the Abe Lemons Arena on Oklahoma City University’s campus.


Augello was one of three national champions for King, helping the Tornado to its fourth-consecutive WCWA team title, racking up 187.5 points. Simon Fraser finished second with 170.5 points, and Campbellsville wrapped up the top-three with 153 points.


SFU won two of its four championship bouts, while Campbellsville went 2-0 in the finals.


Fans were seeing double at the beginning of the night as twins Marina Doi and Regina Doi of King took on each other in the 101-pound finals.


Marina snagged a takedown in each period and was awarded a point for passivity to defeat Regina and take her second-straight WCWA national title.


“This one was a little bitter sweet,” Marina said. “I got the win, but it’s always hard wrestling my twin sister. We know each other so well, and we’ve been wrestling each other since we started at 4 years old. It’s definitely the hardest match to prepare for. You’re preparing to compete against yourself. There’s really no other way to put it.”


After three trips to the finals, King senior Breonnah Neal finally captured what had been an elusive WCWA title.


Neal faced No. 2-seed Amy Fearnside of Jamestown University in the finals at 109 pounds.


Fearnside held a 1-0 advantage after the first period, but it was Neal who took the title with two clutch second-period takedowns, including one in the final seven seconds of the match.


“It feels so great,” Neal said. “It was so emotional when I finally knew that I was about to get that title. I cried a little bit at the end. It was a really great feeling.”


In her only match of the tournament that lasted longer than the first minute, 2016 Olympian Augello went all six minutes with Menlo College’s Cady Chessin in the 116-pound final.


Augello, a junior, owned a 6-1 lead at the break. Forced to take an injury timeout one minute into the second period, the King superstar pushed through the pain to take a decisive 8-3 win and her third WCWA title.


“It was definitely one of the tougher matches of the tournament,” Augello said. “I’m always grateful for a full six-minute match. That’s what I prepare for. If I find an opponent that wants to push me through a six-minute match, then I’m grateful and I definitely respect that a lot.”


Sparks were flying at 123 pounds between No. 3 Dominique Parrish of Simon Fraser and No. 4 Andribeth Rivera of Campbellsville, who is a native of Puerto Rico.


Rivera led Parrish, 8-5, after the first, but Parrish came back full force in the second period, outscoring Rivera, 5-2, and tying the bout, 10-10, at the end of regulation.


Thanks to a big four-pointer by Rivera in the first period, the Campbellsville freshman was awarded the win on criteria.


“I feel really happy,” Rivera said through a translator. “There were a lot of emotions and I prepared really hard.”


Cheyenne Youngblood of Missouri Baptist won the 130-pound bracket in persistent fashion.


The senior battled against top-seeded Megan Black of McKendree in the finals.


Trailing 3-0 at the break, Youngblood picked up four takedowns, three of which were in the final minute, en route to a 10-3 win.


“It feels like a dream,” Youngblood said. “When it happened, I couldn’t believe it happened and then it all just hit me at once. I’ve waited a while for this, and I’ve worked really hard for this and now it’s real.”


At 136 pounds, Miracle put up the first bonus-point win of the night with a 10-0 technical fall over Simon Fraser’s Nicole Depa. Miracle was up 4-0 at the break and went on to rattle off three quick takedowns to wrap up the win and a third national title.


“It’s awesome. I just try to be as dominant as I can,” Miracle said. “I don’t want to just be the top wrestler in my weight, but being pound-for-pound and showing that I really am at the top is what my dad and I have always strived for.”


Mallory Velte, a redshirt junior for Simon Fraser, also registered a 10-0 tech fall in the 143-pound finals against King’s Jessi Kee. It was Velte’s second national championship.


“I haven’t wrestled Jessi Kee in a while. The last time was a year and a half ago and I lost, so I definitely had something to prove,” Velte said. “I was looking forward to getting a good opponent so, yeah, it was good. I had a great tournament. I felt good, and my body feels good.”


Without surrendering a single point, Velte notched five wins by tech fall, outscoring her opponents 53-0. The performance earned her the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler honor.


Wayland Baptist’s Tamyra Mensah impressed at 155 pounds, taking out Lindenwood-Belleville’s Niauni Hill in the finals, 10-0.


Holding a 6-0 lead going into the second period, Mensah allowed the match to go only 13 more seconds before ending it with a tech fall.


“It was one of those brawling matches, and I had to keep my cool,” Mensah said. “I had to be patient. The last shot that I took, I made sure that I timed her hands right, and that’s when I took that very last shot and I was in.”


Mensah can now add two-time WCWA champion to her resume along with 2016 Olympic Team Trials champion and 2017 Ivan Yarygin Memorial champion. Her dominant wrestling earned her 2017 WCWA Wrestler of the Year.


In a rematch of the 155-pound finals from 2016, No. 1 Jessika Rottier of the University of the Cumberlands and No. 2 Forrest Molinari of King met up in the finals at 170 pounds.


A strong performance from Rottier reversed the outcome of 2016, giving the sophomore her first WCWA national championship with an 8-1 win.


“We had a good game plan going in,” Rottier said. “I executed my coaches’ game plan, and I was real confident. I was coming off a dominant four matches. We had a win over Forrest coming in, and we knew what she was looking for. I developed as a better wrestler since that last match, and I executed my coaches’ plan perfectly.”


Payten Smith of Simon Fraser provided one of the most exciting finals of the night.


Down 9-0 in the first period to top-seeded Paige Baynes of Lindenwood, Smith put Baynes to her back for four points but didn’t stop there, sticking Baynes with eight seconds left in the period.


“I knew that I had to try something,” Smith said. “It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. Throws are kind of my go-to, and it was just there so I took it.”


USA Wrestling will continue to celebrate its third-annual Women’s Wrestling Week. To join in, use #GirlsWrestle on social media.

WCWA WOMEN’S COLLEGE NATIONALS

At Oklahoma City University


Finals results

101: No. 1 Marina Doi (King) dec. No. 2 Regina Doi (King), 5-0

109: No. 1 Breonnah Neal (King) dec. No. 2 Amy Fearnside (Jamestown), 4-1

116: No. 1 Haley Augello (King) dec. No. 3 Cady Chessin (Menlo), 8-3

123: No. 4 Andribeth Rivera (Campbellsville) dec. No. 3 Dominique Parrish (Simon Fraser), 10-10

130: No. 2 Cheyenne Youngblood (Missouri Baptist) dec. No. 1 Megan Black (McKendree), 10-3

136: No. 1 Kayla Miracle (Campbellsville) TF No. 3 Nicole Depa (Simon Fraser), 10-0

143: No. 1 Mallory Velte (Simon Fraser) TF No. 2 Jessi Kee (King), 10-0

155: No. 1 Tamyra Mensah (Wayland Baptist) TF No. 2 Niauni Hill (Lindenwood Belleville), 10-0

170: No. 1 Jessika Rottier (Cumberlands) dec. No. 2 Forrest Molinari (King), 8-1

191: No. 2 Payten Smith (Simon Fraser) fall No. 1 Paige Baynes (Lindenwood), 2:52