The 2024 NAIA Women’s Freestyle Championships are March 8-9 in Jamestown, North Dakota. This is the second year the NAIA has hosted a sanctioned women’s championship.

Top-seeded wrestlers are Erin Hikiji of Providence (101), Mia Palumbo of William Penn (109), Juliana Diaz of Missouri Baptist (116), Cristelle Rodriguez of Doane (123), Carolina Moreno of Southern Oregon (130), Adaugo Nwachuckwu of William Penn (136), Jamilah McBryde of Life (143), Caitlyn Davis of Southern Oregon (155), Abby McIntyre of Grand View (170), and Tavia Heidelberg-Tillitson of Menlo (191).

Use the FloWrestling watch guide to learn more about the championships and to follow along live. 

Click here for brackets and read below for instant reactions to the brackets. 

Tournament Format

Each team can qualify up to 12 wrestlers and all 12 can score team points.

Bonus points cannot be scored if two wrestlers from the same team face each other. This prevents a coach from fixing matches to get additional team points. Below is a breakdown of how tournament scoring works.

Reminder: women's college wrestling uses freestyle rules so there are no major decisions.

Championship advancement: 1
Consolation advancement: 0.5
Technical superiority: 1.5
Fall: 2

Placement points
First: 16
Second: 12
Third: 10
Fourth: 9
Fifth: 7
Sixth: 6
Seventh: 4
Eighth: 3

101: Erin Hikiji of Providence is seeded first but watch out for second-seeded Stefana Jelacic of Lourdes. She finished third at 116 in 2021 and seventh at 109 last year. Jelacic is dominant on top and can score points in bunches. Hikiji finished second in 2023 so this would be a good finals match if it materialized. Elizabeth Dosado of Cumberlands is seeded seventh after finishing fourth last season. She could face Jelacic in the quarterfinals. Life’s Devyn Gomez is a returning two-time All-American but is unseeded. 

109: Mia Palumbo is seeded first and is the class of the field. The William Penn junior is a two-time NAIA finalist who has already qualified for the 2024 Olympic Trials in April. Vanguard’s Angie Dill is unseeded, but she is a 2021 Cadet World bronze medalist. Paige Morales of Providence is seeded fourth and is expected to face Palumbo in the semis. St. Mary’s Alexsys Jacquez is seeded second. She split matches with Southern Oregon’s Emma Baertlein (seeded #5) and lost by tech to Palumbo in early December. 

116: This weight is wide open so don’t expect the seeds to hold. Oklahoma City’s Avery Ashley wrestled a tough schedule and has some nice cross-divisional wins. Juliana Diaz (Missouri Baptist) is top-seeded after a 6-0 win over Ashley in the conference final and a fall over third-seeded Camile Fournier (Texas Wesleyan) in the conference semis. The Sooner Athletic Conference could take the top three spots.

123: Cristelle Rodriguez of Doane is seeded first and is #25 in FloWrestling’s pound-for-pound women’s college rankings. There’s every reason to believe she will win this weight after a third-place finish at 130 pounds last year. 

130: Circle this weight and follow it closely because it has major implications for the team race. 

The top four seeds are as such: (1) Carolina Moreno of Southern Oregon, (2) Sarah Savidge of Life, (3) Louisa Schwab of Menlo, and (4) Alyssa Randles of Providence. This means Moreno and Randles are predicted to face off in one semifinal and Savidge and Schwab in the other. Moreno is a two-time national champion at 123, while Savidge is a returning finalist at 130. 

136: Pound-for-pound #1 Adaugo Nwachukwu owns this weight until someone proves otherwise. She won the last two titles and her finals opponent from last year — Mea Mohler — moved up to 143. Grand View’s Andrea Schlabach is seeded second but lost to Nwachukwu 10-0 in the conference final. She threw Nwachukwu for four last season — and she’ll need all of that and more to win the title. Life’s Zaynah McBryde is capable of reaching the finals and Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp of Providence is a returning national champion. 

143: Life University is in the team race and a title by top-seeded Jamilah McBryde could make that happen. Texas Wesleyan’s Mea Mohler has finished third and second each of the last two seasons at 136. Unseeded Madison Diaz of Grand View is a two-time All-American and could be a bracket-buster. 

155: Caitlyn Davis of Southern Oregon is seeded first and Life’s Latifah McBryde is seeded second. Both will have their say in the team race. The Cascade Conference is the class of the field with Davis (1), Shannon Workinger of Menlo (3), Flor Parker Borrero of Evergreen State (4), Liv Wieber Eastern Oregon (6), and  Sadie Antoque of Providence (8) seeded in the top eight. 

170: Grand View’s Abby McIntyre and William Penn’s Ashley Lekas are seeded first and second, respectively, after going 1-1 during the season. Lekas won 10-0 during the dual and McIntyre won by fall in the conference finals. There’s every reason to believe that they will get the rubber match in the finals. 

191: Menlo needs Tavia Heidelberg-Tillitson to win the title. She is the only top-seeded wrestler for the Oaks and her points will go a long way in helping her team secure its first title since 2019.