New Faces Shine at Senior Nationals

Breakout young star Mota-Pettis gets some coaching between periods in her finals match at 57 kg at Senior Nationals. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com

by Derek Levendusky, AWW Staff Writer
Twitter: @AWWderek

Senior Nationals last weekend in Coralville, Iowa, was a mix of seasoned veterans and young wrestlers emerging from the high school scene looking to make their mark at the Senior level. Several young women turned heads, pulling off huge upsets and letting the wrestling community know that they’re here.

At 76 kg, recent high school graduate Tristan Kelly took out #3 ranked Dymond Guilford in the quarters. At the end of the day, she landed in 4th place, losing to Guilford in the rematch for 3rd place. “The tournament as a whole was a great experience,” reflected Kelly, a freshman at rising program Colorado Mesa. “Being at Senior Nationals showed me where I stand at the Senior level and gave me confidence in my abilities, but also showed me things I need to work on.”

Here’s a weight by weight look at some of the young faces that made their mark last weekend.

50 kg
2019 Cadet Pan Am gold medalist Samara Chavez of Texas was the story here. Currently ranked #1 in FloWrestling/USAW national high school rankings, Spartan Mat Club’s Chavez looked like she belonged in this group. Any fears of being out-foxed or out-horsepowered disappeared quickly when Chavez took 2019 Senior Nationals champion Alyssa Lampe to the final whistle, falling 11-10 in a wild match. Chavez ended her day in 4th place in what was the largest—and many consider the deepest—weight class. She went 4-2, including getting a win over 3x WCWA All-American Charlotte Fowler. Some may know Fowler’s name from her recent match against Emily Shilson at Beat the Streets last month. Chavez lost the rematch to Lampe in the 3rd place match, but stood out to fans and competitors alike.

#4 seed Emily Shilson is not a “new face”—already making her mark at the Senior level with quality performances and wins last year—but she continues to show that she’s one of the bright young stars of women’s wrestling. She dominated her first two matches, but ran into a Senior level force in Sarah Hildebrandt, the 2018 World silver medalist, losing 10-0 by technical superiority. Shilson defaulted out the rest of the tournament and landed in 6th place.

53 kg
Texas’ Camille Fournier, ranked #1 at one point last year at the high school level in our AWW rankings, didn’t win a match, but still showed her elite ability, almost pulling off the upset over Amy Golding (Whitbeck), who was a Junior World bronze medalist in 2010 and placed 5th at Senior Nationals in 2015. Fournier, also a product of Spartan Mat Club, ended up falling to Golding 12-12 by criteria, but what’s most impressive is that she came back from an 8-0 deficit. Early in the second she scored her first turn to make it 8-2, but then went down again 10-2 after Golding scored a takedown on the line. After that it was almost all Fournier, climbing back with takedowns and turns. Had there been five more seconds on the clock, the result may have been different. On the backside of the bracket, Fournier lost her next match 10-5 to 2018 Bill Farrell champ, 2x WCWA All-American Arelys Valles to land in 7th.

Fournier is on the roster this season for the 2nd year program Texas Wesleyan.

57 kg
Unseeded 2x Fargo champ Xochitl Mota-Pettis stunned the wrestling world when she threw #2 ranked Alli Ragan with a nasty lefty headlock to get the fall over the #1 seed in the quarters. In the next round, the 2019 high school graduate handled WCWA All-American Vayle Baker of Augsburg, but fell just short when she fell to #2 seed Lauren Louive in the finals. But it wasn’t easy for Louive. Down 8-6 with 25 seconds left in the match, Louive found a way, launching Mota-Pettis with a headlock of her own to get the fall at 5:47. Mota-Pettis was that close to a Senior national title.

Vayle Baker, who finished in 6th after medical forfeiting her final two matches, should also be counted among the young faces, only a sophomore at Augsburg University. Ngao Shoua Whitethorn, still a high school senior from Minnesota, took 5th place. Not bad for the #17 ranked wrestler in high school.

62 kg
Lexie Basham, another product of Texas’ Spartan Mat Club, and another young woman on the Texas Wesleyan roster, put herself on radar at 62 kg by taking 3rd at the event, including several big wins. The college freshman pinned 2x U.S. Open winner Jackie Cataline in the Consi Semis, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the middle of the 2nd period, and followed that up with a dramatic comeback win over 2x All-American Bridgette Duty in the 3rd place match. Down 7-3 with :22 on the clock, Basham worked through the bottom of a front head position to a score a huge double leg that planted Duty right on her back for the fall right at the 5:59 mark.

Can we have a conversation about Kilty? One might be tempted not to mention her in an article like this, as she already feels like a Senior-level staple, though she only graduated high school in 2019. She’s already had big wins and finishes at the Senior level in both 2019 & 2020, not to mention the 2019 World Cup in Narita, Japan, where she won her matches against Russia and Mongolia. If you haven’t seen it yet, she lost a heartbreaker 4-3 to Jennifer Page in the finals. She had the lead 3-0 with 40 seconds to go. Kilty is already ranked #5 at the Senior level in FloWrestling’s WFS Rankings.

68 kg
Wasn’t really any young names in this weight.

76 kg
One of the biggest upsets of the tournament, maybe second to the Mota-Pettis win over Ragan, was the moment college freshman Tristan Kelly threw #4 seed Dymond Guilford for the fall in the quarters. Kelly then lost to 5x world champ Adeline Gray in the semis, but took out 2020 WCWA champ Alexandra Castillo in the Consi Semis with a fall over the Campbellsville wrestler. Kelly hit a blast double that was nearly a touch pin, ending the match in only 23 seconds. She landed in 4th place after losing the rematch to Dymond Guilford in the 3rd place match. She is now on the roster at Colorado Mesa.

In a tough year for wrestlers, it was a weekend of exciting wrestling. It was also a glimpse at some of the young stars coming up the ladder. Stay tuned for more from these young women.

Spartan Mat Club of Texas, proving they can develop young women to compete at the Senior level, took 5th as a team at the event.