NCWA Nationals are set for Puerto Rico March 9-11, with Liberty (men), Ottawa-AZ (women) top favorites

Action from past NCWA Championships, courtesy of the NCWA


The nine NCWA Conference Tournaments are over and with it comes the anticipation of the National Tournament Bracket.


The brackets have been released and can be viewed in there entirety online on FloArena


This year, the NCWA National Championships will be held at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 9-11.


The Men will start the Championships on Thursday, March 9th. #1 seeds for the Men's tournament are:

125 - Jack Parker (Fr, Bellarmine) 24-13

133 - Dillon Messick (Sr, Apprentice) 27-8

141 - Parker Watson (Sr, Ohio State WC) 10-0

149 - Zac Cowan (So, Bellarmine) 24-8

157 - Ian McIlhenny (Sr, Liberty) 10-7 RETURNING NATIONAL CHAMP

165 - Cole Nance (So, Bellarmine) 27-12

174 - Devan Hendricks (Sr, Bellarmine) 21-4

184 - Michael Jackson (Jr, Allen) 27-4

197 - Josiah Murphy (Sr, Liberty) 12-1 RETURNING NATIONAL CHAMP

235 - Jeffrey Allen (Sr, Liberty) 25-2 3x DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMP

285 - Frederick Weaver (Sr, Liberty) 18-1 2X DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMP


Note that two other National Champions are in the brackets with the 2022 141-lb Champion, Thomas McCane (now with Central Florida and the #10 seed at 149) and the 2022 174-lb NJCAA Champion, Josh Kenny (previously of Muskegon CC) as the #2 seed at 174.


The top five teams in the final men’s D-1 ranking of the year, prior to the conference meets, was No. 1 Liberty, No. 2 Bellarmine, No. 3 The Apprentice School, No. 4 University of Toledo and No. 5 Grand Valley State.


The top five teams in the final men’s D-2 rankings were No. 1 Ohio State WC, No. 2 Penn State WC, No. 3 Slippery Rock, No. 4 Rutgers WC and No. 5 (tie) Fresno State WC, South Carolina and Virginia Tech WC.


Going back to the 2022 NCWA men’s championship, the top five teams were champion Liberty, second place Apprentice, third place Grays Harbor, fourth place Penn State WC and fifth place Ohio State WC.


The Women start competition on Friday, March 10th. #1 Seeds for the Women's tournament are:


101 - Jasmine Cortez (Fr, Texas State) 7-0

109 - Hermelinda Mendoza (Jr, Ottawa-Arizona) 17-1 2022 NATIONAL CHAMP at 101

116 - LyQualah Kinsey (So, Ottawa-Arizona) 18-5

123 - Lauren Stone (Jr, Florida) 3-2 2022 NATIONAL CHAMP

130 - Viveca Pannell (So, MIT) 16-7

136 - Julie Wilson (So, Washington State) 10-7

143 - Anastasia Fucci (Fr, Colorado State) 16-0

155 - Leilani Frazier (Fr, Santa Rosa JC) 2-1

170 - Maile Ka'ahanui (Jr, Liberty) 4-5

191 - Ranaeh Ureste (So, Grays Harbor College) 18-6

235 - Katie Moore (Jr, Stony Brook) 2022 NATIONAL CHAMP


The top five teams in the final NCWA Women’s rankings were No. 1 Ottawa-Arizona, No. 2 Grays Harbor, No. 3 MIT, No. 4 Grand Canyon and No. 5 Washington State.


Going back to the 2022 NCWA women’s event, the top five teams were champion Big Bend CC, second place Ottawa-Arizona, third place Grays Harbor, fourth place MIT and fifth-place Texas-Arlington.

NCWA National Championships Schedule

Thursday March 9th

10:00 - Session I - Preliminaries - Bouts 1-369

5:00 - Session II - Championship Round of 16

Friday March 10th

9:00 - Session III - Consolation / Quarter-finals

10:00 - Women's Round I - Preliminaries

5:00 - Session IV - Men's Blood Round / Womens Semi-finals

6:30 - Men's Semi-finals - Women's Consolations

Saturday March 11th

1:30 - Session V- Women's Championship Finals - Mens Consolations

6:00 - Session VI - Men's Championship Finals