By Tanner Lafever
USA Wrestling

Last week’s Women’s College Notebook began our preview coverage of a new season – highlighting the biggest stories from its predecessor and the important developments in the sport since.

Now, as the countdown to the 2026-27 campaign continues, the focus of this latest edition will be on the abundance of talent littered across the women’s collegiate landscape.

Because everywhere you look, there are wrestlers – both established and up-and-coming – who bear watching for what they might do next.

And there’s no better place to begin than with the returning national champions.

Repeat after me 

As many as nine different women have the opportunity to win consecutive individual titles entering 2026-27.

Seven can do so at the NCAA level:

• 103 pounds – Valarie Solorio (Iowa)

• 110 pounds – Audrey Jimenez (Lehigh)

• 117 pounds – *Yu Sakamoto (McKendree)

• 124 pounds – Xochitl Mota-Pettis (Quincy)

• 145 pounds – *Bella Mir (North Central)

• 180 pounds – Kylie Welker (Iowa)

• 207 pounds – *Tristan Kelly (McKendree)

Jimenez and Welker both return as undefeated NCAA champs.

In fact, Welker – the first recruit in Iowa women’s wrestling history – has won three consecutive titles spanning the NCWWC/NCAA eras. And she’s yet to lose a match against a collegiate opponent during her Hawkeye career.

Kelly is also a multi-time champion, having won 207-pound titles in 2025-26 for McKendree.

*Of note: Mir does not appear on North Central’s initial 2026-27 roster, and McKendree (Sakamoto/Kelly) has yet to release an updated roster on its official team website.

Meanwhile, a pair of NAIA athletes return to their schools as defending champs:

• 160 pounds – Mercy Adekuoroye (Wayland Baptist)

• 207 pounds – Lillian Gradillas-Flores (Southern Oregon)

Both first-time winners in 2026, Gradillas-Flores finished her sophomore season 21-0, and Adekuoroye defeated 2025 champion Latifah McByrde (Life) en route to the top of the podium.

Furthermore, four other reigning NAIA champions remain in the collegiate ranks. However, all four of them will sit out this postseason after transferring to the recently announced Iowa State program – which won’t begin official varsity competition until 2027-28.

• 117 pounds – Christianah Ogunsanya (William Penn)

• 131 pounds – Jumoke Adekoye (Dickinson State)

• 138 pounds – Esther Kolawole (William Penn)

• 180 pounds – Piper Fowler (William Penn)

Nigerian internationals Ogunsanya, Adekoye and Kolawole each won back-to-back titles at their former schools.

Fowler pinned her way to first place at 180 pounds as a true freshman.

In search of another                                                                                                                     

In addition to the wrestlers already mentioned, several more past champions could also add to their tally.

NCWWC

• 101 pounds – Emilie Gonzalez (Iowa), 2024

• 136 pounds – Claire DiCugno (King), 2024

• 143 pounds – Reese Larramendy (Iowa), 2024

• 191 pounds – *Sandra Guerrero (New Jersey City), 2024

NAIA

• 116 pounds – *Juliana Diaz (Missouri Baptist), 2024

• 136 pounds – Adaugo Nwachukwu (William Penn), 2022-24

• 155 pounds – *Caitlyn Davis (Southern Oregon), 2024

• 207 pounds – Savannah Isaac (Life), 2025

Since their 2024 titles, both DiCugno (now at North Central) and Larramendy have reached a subsequent final – each finishing runner-up last March.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez has added an All-American finish (2025) at a new weight class of 110 pounds.

Of the five other champions listed above, none has wrestled at a varsity national tournament since winning their respective title.

Guerrero announced her transfer to McKendree in July of 2025 but never competed for the Bearcats last season. Davis is currently a member of the Oklahoma State club program. Isaac now attends Wheeling University in West Virginia – which will begin its inaugural (NCAA) season this winter.

Conversely, Diaz wrestled for first-year Division I program Delaware State in 2025-26 but failed to advance out of her regional qualifying tournament. Though she elected to enter the transfer portal back in April, she has yet to announce a new destination.

And finally, some of this offseason’s biggest news arrived when three-time NAIA champ Adaugo Nwachukwu announced her commitment to reigning NCAA team champion McKendree.

Nwachukwu has been a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) since winning her last NAIA title in 2024 – and being named USA Wrestling’s Women’s College Wrestler of the Year for her efforts.

She’s also a two-time Senior World Team member at 62kg and will represent the U.S. later this month in Kazakhstan.

An infusion of talent 

With each passing year, women’s college wrestling grows stronger and stronger – in no small part, because the levels beneath it continue to thrive and expand.

Girls high school participation jumped nearly 20 percent in 2025-26, going from 74,064 to 88,771 athletes nationwide.

The next step for that growing group of talented wrestlers is to hit the collegiate scene – where many of them are likely to make an early impact for their teams.

At the risk of extending this notebook even further beyond its already substantial length, I’ll highlight just a trio of first-year collegians to keep an eye on this season.

• Everest Leydecker (Iowa)

• Caley Graber (McKendree)

• Taylor Whiting (Iowa)

All three of these young women were members of the most recent U20 World Team for the United States. And all three put together impressive showings in Slovakia back in August.

Leydecker (gold at 55 kg) won her second U20 World title in as many years and will also compete at both this week’s U23 World Championships in Las Vegas and Senior Worlds.

Graber (bronze at 59 kg) also medaled at U20s and will join reigning NCAA champion McKendree as a hugely talented middleweight option for head coach Alexio Garcia.

Whiting, the second Hawkeye on this list (along with Leydecker), placed fifth at 53 kg and will try to crack an Iowa lineup featuring no shortage of lightweight firepower.