ELMIRA, NY - This weekend, Utica University's women's wrestling team will travel to Elmira to compete in the NCAA Region 1 Championships. The event will take place at the LECOM Event Center in Elmira on Saturday, February 21st, and Sunday, February 22nd. This event will be in a bracket-style format. The top finishers of the tournament will continue through the brackets and ultimately move on to compete in the National Championship event.
Follow Along: Live results for the event can be found
HERE as they come in.
Recap of Last Meet at Lackawanna: The Pioneers last traveled to Lackawanna College for a tri-meet against the host Lackawanna College and Northampton Community College. Utica's stronger performance came from the upper weight. At 207 pounds, sophomore
Natalie Enriquez (Mastic Beach, NY/William Floyd) delivered a pair of wins, opening with a lightning-fast pin against Lackawanna's Hailey Schumaker in just 0:16 into the bout, then later adding an 11-0 technical fall against Lackawanna's Michelle Pastuizaca. At 124 pounds, freshman
Dakoda House (Oneonta, NY/Cherry Valley Springfield) won over Northampton's Hanna Oliver at 1:49 by fall, competing in a busy weight class.
Octavia Dragotta (Utica, NY/Thomas R. Proctor) wrestled twice in the 124-pound division against Lackawanna opponents,
Evelyn Enriquez (Mastic Beach, NY/Miller Place) wrestled at 180, and faced a pair of falls against both Lackawanna and Northampton wrestlers. The orange and blue closed out the night, logging multiple scoring efforts as the team wraps up the regular season.
Recap of Last Year's Regional: At last year's regional championship, hosted by Elmira, the Utica University women's wrestling team saw
Jazmene Molina (La Mirada, CA/Valencia) place second overall. She advanced to the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships (NCWWC), becoming the first wrestler in program history to compete on the national stage.
Molina placed second overall at 124 pounds, beginning the championships by defeating Natalia Morales of NJCU by fall in 0:53. In the semi-finals, Molina won 11-4 by decision over Sacred Heart's Cailan Drake. Later, Molina fell by fall in the final match to Western New England's Linda Holeman in 3:30.
Next Up: The top finisher of the Championship will move on and travel to Coralville, Iowa at the Xtream Arena and compete in the NCAA National Championship on Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th. Time is to be determined.
