From Collegiate Championships to the Olympics: How Team USA’s Six Olympians Fared in College Wrestling

Tamyra Mensah-Stock was a 2x WCWA champion and $x All-American for Wayland Baptist before she hit the Senior circuit. Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo / WrestlersAreWarriors.com

by Emma Bruntil, AWW staff writer
Twitter & IG: @Emaaabruntil

The spirits of women’s wrestling fans in the United States has never been higher. This week, between the men’s and women’s teams for the United States, Team USA captured nine medals at this year’s Olympic Games. Of those nine medals, four came from our women’s freestyle team. Tamyra Mensah-Stock led the pack, capturing Olympic gold and outscoring her opponents 34-5. 5x world champion Adeline Gray finished with a silver medal, adding to her seven other world medals in her Senior level career. 2016 Olympic champion Helen Maroulis and 2018 world silver medalist Sarah Hildebrandt both lost heartbreakers in the semifinals, losing 2-1 and 10-7, respectively. The pair showed tremendous grit, though, both bouncing back to capture Olympic bronze. Before our Olympians and Olympic medalists were winning on the world stage, however, many of them were equally as successful in collegiate athletics. With five out of the six Olympians claiming at least one WCWA title each, it begs the question: are winning collegiate championships an indicator of future world and Olympic success?

50 kg: Sarah Hildebrandt - King University
On August 7th, Hildebrandt bested Oksana Livach of Ukraine by technical superiority 11-1, rallying after losing a heartbreaking semifinal to Yanan Sun of China. However, Sarah Hildebrandt has been a star for a long time before winning Olympic bronze. The Granger, Indiana native was a Junior Nationals champion coming out of high school, and made two Junior world teams right out of the gate in her college career (in 2012 and 2013). Hildebrandt was a national title threat immediately when she joined the college ranks, and was among the top favorites at the 2012 WCWA’s at King University. However, Hildebrandt fell 2-1 and 1-0 to a legend in Oklahoma City’s 3x WCWA champion Michaela Hutchison. In Hildebrandt’s sophomore season, she once again finished runner-up at Nationals, losing to her King University teammate Kat Perez in the 123 lb finals. To say Hildebrandt’s junior season was impressive would be an understatement. The King junior won the 123 lb WCWA title with an 11-0 tech fall win over Missouri Baptist's Montana Drum in the semifinals and a win by fall in 2:22 over Cady Chessin of Menlo in the finals. Hildebrandt’s victory also helped King secure their first ever team title. Oh, and not to mention, Hildebrandt only surrendered one offensive point that year. 2015, Hildebrandt’s senior season, was equally as impressive as her junior year, as she went 18-0 and captured her second WCWA championship. King also won the team title for the second straight year, and would go on to win two more in 2016 and 2017. All and all, Hildebrant finished her college career as a 4x All-American, 4x WCWA finalist, 2x WCWA champion, and 2x WCWA team champion.

53 kg: Jacarra Winchester - Missouri Valley College
Jacarra Winchester didn’t have quite the same level of high school success as some of her Olympic teammates, as the California native didn’t take up wrestling until her junior year of high school, though, incredibly, she won a California state title her senior year in 2010. An Arroyo High School product, Winchester committed to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri and never looked back. She finished second at 116 lbs at the WCWA National Championships held at King University in 2013, powering her way to the finals with a big win over King’s Samantha Klingel in the semis (2-0, 2-0), before falling to Oklahoma City’s top ranked Joey Miller 0-1, 3-1, and 3-1. She was a University Nationals champion in 2014, and in Winchester’s 2015 senior season, she struck gold at WCWA’s in St. Louis up two weight classes, at 130 lbs. The future Olympian was utterly dominant, teching her way to the finals and outscoring her opponents 41-0 en route to the championship bout. In the finals match, Winchester faced a tough opponent in King’s multiple time All-American Jessie Kee, but she controlled the match and earned a hard-fought 2-1 win for the title. Since graduating from college, Winchester’s trajectory has gone nowhere but up, as she joined fellow Missouri Valley alum Clarissa Chun in 2019 as the university’s second world champion when she won a 55 kg gold medal at the World Championships in 2019.

57 kg: Helen Maroulis - Simon Fraser University
Helen Maroulis is a legend in every sense of the word. Not only did the Simon Fraser alum win Olympic gold in 2016 and Olympic bronze in 2020, but Maroulis had arguably one of the best (if not the best) collegiate career of all-time. In 2001, Maroulis’ freshman season, she claimed a WCWA title right out of the gate at 59 kg in Marshall, Missouri. Her sophomore season, in 2011, she stopped Oklahoma City’s legendary Michaela Hutchison from winning her 4th WCWA national title with a 7-1, 1-2, and 2-1 victory in the finals match. Maroulis also competed at the UWW Junior World Championships that year, where she won a silver medal, and the Senior World Championships, where she snagged a 5th place finish to help qualify 55 kg for the 2012 Olympics in London. The following year, in 2012, Maroulis took an Olympic redshirt year, and made the Olympic Trials finals before falling to 2x Olympic Trials champion Kelsey Campbell in a heartbreaking best-of-three series. Maroulis returned in 2013 for her junior season, and picked up right where she left off, winning the 59 kg title with a 1-0 and 2-0 decision over Lindenwood’s Shauna Isbell. The Simon Fraser University junior also helped SFU clinch their first (and only) team title with the help of teammates Victoria Anthony, Justina DiStasio, and Danielle Lappage. Maroulis’ senior season, in 2014, she became the second woman to win four WCWA titles (her teammate Victoria Anthony won her 4th several matches prior). In the championship bout, Helen bested Oklahoma City’s Rachel McFarland with a first period fall. Helen Maroulis’ college career is unique: not only was she dominating everyone she wrestled at the college level, she was also making huge waves on the Senior international circuit, where she won multiple world medals during her collegiate era.

62 kg: Kayla Miracle - Campbellsville University
Kayla Miracle may have not had the Olympic Games she had hoped for (Miracle lost 3-2 to China’s Jia Long and was not pulled back into repechage), but Miracle was arguably one of the best female collegiate wrestlers of all time. Miracles 2015 freshman year she captured the WCWA crown at 136 lbs, defeating none other than now 2x Senior world team member Forrest Molinari in the semifinals, 8-2. Miracle went on to defeat Jamestown’s Shai Mason in the finals, 4-0 to clinch her first national crown. Miracle’s sophomore year she defeated No. 4 Francesca Giorgio of Simon Fraser University 4-2 decision before knocking off no. 2 Monica Ramirez of Lindenwood with a pin in 3:45 to capture her second WCWA title. In 2017, Miracle’s junior season, she won the U.S. Open in December at 58 kg, and also took bronze at the UWW Junior World Championships at 59 kg. Miracle defeated 3x WCWA finalist Nicole Depa of Simon Fraiser in the WCWA finals in Oklahoma City, sealing the deal for her 3rd straight title. Miracle’s senior season wasn’t only a storybook ending to her individual college career, but it was also a historic one for Campbellsville University women’s wrestling team. It started off when the Tiger squad bested McKendree in a heated dual at the National Dual tournament in Indianapolis. The pressure was on for the team to repeat that feat at the WCWA National Championships, and for Miracle to win a historic fourth title. Campbellsville could hardly have asked for a better national tournament, as the powerhouse program edged runner-up Simon Fraser by five points to win the team title. Miracle cemented herself as an all-time great when she soundly defeated Gray’s Harbor’s Desiree Zavala with a fall in the first period. Miracle is one of just four women to win four WCWA national titles.

68 kg: Tamrya Mensah-Stock - Wayland Baptist University
You may know Tamyra Mensah-Stock as an internet sensation after her legendary gold medal performance (and interview) at the 2021 Olympic Games, but Mensah-Stock showed incredible promise early on in her college career. Mensah-Stock, a Texas native, joined the Wayland University women’s team in 2012 where she competed at 143 lbs. At the 2012 WCWA National Championships, Mensah powered her way to the semifinals before falling to none other than 2x world silver medalist Alli Ragan 5-0 and 3-0. Mensah would go on to finish 4th in the bracket, falling to Tanya Kusse of Lindenwood in the 3rd place match. In 2013, Mensah lost to Bailey Halvorson of Simon Fraser in the 143 lb quarterfinals via first period fall. The Wayland Baptist sophomore would go on to finish 3rd, winning four matches on the backside and topping King’s Amanda Hendey in the 3rd place bout. In 2014, Mensah broke through and won her 1st WCWA title at 143 lbs in dominant fashion, only surrendering two points the entire tournament and once again beating Amanda Hendey to claim the top spot. In 2015 and 2016 the future Olympic gold medalist took redshirts, but returned in 2017 for one more championship run her senior season. At WCWA’s, she dominated her way to the title with three finals, and a pair of 12-1 and 10-0 tech falls to end her career as a 2x WCWA champion and 4x All-American.

76kg: Adeline Gray - Olympic Training Center
Worried you might have missed the details on the college career of one of the most winningest athletes in USA Wrestling history? Don’t fret, Adeline Gray didn’t pursue the usual college path that most of our women’s wrestlers take. During Gray’s senior year of high school, she moved to Marquette, Michigan to train at the Northern Michigan Olympic Training Site. Other women’s wrestling legends that trained at Northern Michigan during that time period include the likes of Helen Maroulis, Erin Golston, and Jenna Burkert. Gray entered the Senior level scene in 2011 already boasting a wealth of age-level experience, as she was a 2008 Junior world champion and 2011 Junior world silver medalist. Gray won her first Senior world medal in 2011 at the World Championships in Instabul, Turkey, where she took bronze. In 2012, Gray made the descent all the way down to 63 kg to face off with 2x Olympian Elena Pirozhkova. Gray fell to Pirozhkova in two straight matches, but bounced back in the same year to win a world title at the 2012 World Championships in Alberta, Canada at 67 kg. Gray didn’t stop there, though, as she added another world bronze medal to her resume at the World Championships in 2013, and clinched her second world gold in 2014 after moving up to 75 kg. Adeline Gray set the precedent for how to have almost immediate Senior level international success right out of high school, and set the bar for young, up-and-coming stars like Kennedy Blades and Kylie Welker to try and follow suit.