Eagles Conclude Season at Women's Wrestling Nationals

CORALVILLE, Iowa – All three competing Chadron State wrestlers won at least a match, but were ultimately eliminated shy of All-American honors on day one of the inaugural NCAA National Collegiate Women Wrestling Championships. 

Brianna Vollendroff (2-2 at 103 pounds), Piper Cadden (1-2 at 131 pounds) and Esther Peters (1-2 at 207 pounds) all competed during Friday's action in Coralville, Iowa. All three lost their initial first-round matches against a top-six seeded wrestler but won initial consolation bracket matches before succumbing later in the day. 

Chadron State is in 32^nd place among 54 competing programs in the team standings. All 10 weight classes have worked down from the initial 18 wrestlers to the eight All-Americans at each weight and will wrestle to a national champion starting tomorrow morning. Every single wrestler that Chadron State lost to at any point during Friday's competition went on to secure All-American status and a top eight finish. 

Vollendroff earned the most matches of the day among the CSC wrestlers by winning twice in the consolation bracket. Vollendroff faced off against No. 6 seed Trinity Pendergrass of Quincy in her opening bout. She outscored Pendergrass 4-3 in the final period and twice earned a two-point takedown while trailing by three points to pull within one, but ultimately fell by a narrow 8-7 decision. Pendergrass went on to defeat the No. 3 seed and has reached the national semifinals.

Vollendroff, a senior who concluded her collegiate career Friday, went to work in the consolation bracket. She needed only 41 seconds to pin Ursinus's Madeline Graves, then won 9-0 over Sacred Heart's Aaliyah Paine-Parris in a match where Vollendroff had her opponent in a prone position searching for a pin for the final 30 seconds but couldn't finish it and was content to advance by decision.

That got Vollendroff to the "blood round," the consolation bracket round that narrows the field from 12 to eight, the cut-off for All-American status. The unseeded Vollendroff had to face No. 5 seed Madison Avila from North Central College (the No. 3 team in the nation), and Avila defeated the CSC wrestler 10-0, wrapping up a tech fall in 3:52.

Piper Cadden faced No. 5 seed Abigal Mozden of Mount Union in the first round and took an early 2-0 lead before Mozden turned the tables with a pair of four-point takedowns and a pin in 2:32. Mozden would go on to pin the No. 4 seed as well, advancing to the national semis. 

Cadden won her first consolation bracket match, controlling the pace in a 5-0 decision win over Wartburg's Mackenzie Childers. Cadden faced Pitt-Johnstown's Makayla Paclib, and in a match that featured several passivity warnings given to both wrestlers, Paclib secured a two-point takedown with three seconds left to seal a 4-1 victory.

Esther Peters also fell in the blood round, one win shy of repeating her feat from last season when she became CSC women's wrestling's first All-American. Facing No. 4 seed Rewa Chababo in the first round, Peters dropped a narrow 2-1 decision as she became the second of CSC's three wrestlers to lose by a single point to a seeded opponent. 

Peters responded with a 3-1 victory over Felician's Talisha Lewis, which got her a matchup with RMAC adversary and No. 6 seed Jayleen Sekona of Colorado Mesa. Sekona defeated Peters for the second time this season, collecting a 10-5 decision win and ending the road for the CSC sophomore. 

With the biggest matches still to come on Saturday, the team race is close between McKendree (94 points) and Iowa (91.5). North Central (73), Grand Valley State (67.5) and Presbyterian (58) round out the top five. 

Among RMAC teams, Colorado Mesa is ninth with 29.5 points while Simon Fraser is 13^th with 20.5. Colorado Mesa clinched four All-Americans while Simon Fraser secured two. Other than those two programs, Chadron State was the only other RMAC institution to qualify wrestlers for nationals. 

Chadron State has now concluded its 2025-26 season.