Iowa
Iowa women’s wrestling crowns three champions at North Central College Open
Iowa wrestling coach Clarissa Chun breaks down pair of dual wins
Iowa wrestling’s Clarissa Chun holds press conference after pair of dual wins over William Jewell and Cornell College
Iowa women’s wrestling took a good portion of its squad to the North Central Open on Sunday, securing three individual titles from Nanea Estrella, Macey Kilty and Kylie Welker.
Bringing 13 wrestlers to the top division of the tournament, with Danni Swihart competing in the B-Division, 11 Hawkeyes finished on the podium in the top division. Even without several starters, the Hawkeyes took second behind only North Central’s mostly full squad.
Iowa’s stars who made the trip to Naperville, Illinois shined, as Estrella, Kilty and Welker combined to go 14-0. They outscored their opponents 131-1 combined.
Alivia White was a surprise, racing to take second at 203 pounds. She defeated teammate Katja Osteen by fall on her way to the finals. Even without Jaycee Foeller, the Hawkeyes had White, Osteen and Samantha Calkins all place at the tournament at 203 pounds.
Accounting for only the results from the A-Division, which housed top wrestlers from each team, North Central had 166.5 team points to Iowa’s 136.5.
It’s hard to compare Iowa and North Central, given the Hawkeyes and CArdinals had limited lineups. The Hawkeyes were without Sterling Dias, Brianna and Emilie Gonzalez, Skye Realin, Reese Larramendy, Kennedy Blades and Foeller to name a few. North Central did not have former Hawkeye Bella Mir or 203-pound No. 2 Traeh Haynes for example as well.
Regardless, having two champions and five finalists suggests the Cardinals will be a challenger once again come the postseason to the Hawkeyes.
Here are the individual results for each wrestler for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa women’s wrestling results from North Central Open
- Rianne Murphy – 2nd at 103 pounds (3-1)
- Val Solorio – 3rd at 110 pounds (5-1)
- Cali Leng – 6th at 124 pounds (3-3)
- Ava Rose – DNP at 124 pounds (1-2)
- Allie Baudhuin – DNP at 131 pounds (1-2)
- Emmily Patneaud – 6th at 131 pounds (2-3)
- Nanea Estrella – 1st at 138 pounds (4-0)
- Cadence Diduch – 3rd at 138 pounds (5-1)
- Danni Swihart (B-Division) – 5th at 138 pounds (3-2)
- Macey Kilty – 1st at 145 pounds (4-0)
- Kylie Welker – 1st at 180 pounds (6-0)
- Samantha Calkins – 4th at 207 pounds (4-2)
- Alivia White – 2nd at 207 pounds (3-1)
- Katja Osteen – 5th at 207 pounds (3-2, 3-1 vs. non-Hawkeyes)
Match-by-match results can be found on trackwrestling.com
This story was updated to add new information.
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.
Iowa
Pat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
Cyclones star Audi Crooks on Iowa State’s loss to Baylor
Iowa State’s Audi Crooks on her team’s first loss of the season to Baylor.
Audi Crooks and Iowa State women’s basketball are officially sweeping the nation.
On Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, the Cyclones’ star and NCAA women’s basketball scoring leader garnered significant praise from the former-NFL-punter-turned-media-personality.
“I’m a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan,” McAfee said. “She just gets buckets. That’s literally all she does.
“Did I know anything about Iowa State’s women’s basketball team ever? Nope. But Audi Crooks highlights pop up on my (algorithm), and I say, ‘Boys, immediately, I’m making a song, we’re making a highlight,’ because people are trying to take shots at Audi right now.”
The song and video McAfee referenced was posted on his social media and played on his show before his monologue about Crooks. It features a stylish edit of Crooks points accompanied by what appears to be an AI-generated song with the chorus of, “You’re about to get cooked, by Audi Crooks.”
The “shots” at Crooks that McAfee mentioned refer to a TikTok posted by ESPN with the caption, “Baylor exposed Audi Crooks on defense,” which came in ISU’s first loss of the season on Jan. 4.
Audi Crooks stats
- 2025-26 season (14 games): 29.1 points (NCAA leader), 6.7 rebounds, 71% shooting
- 2024-25 season: 23.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 60.5% shooting
- 2023-24 season: 19.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 57.7% shooting
Iowa
Iowa women’s basketball, Chit-Chat Wright sick, Kylie Feuerbach update
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about Northwestern game
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about victory at Northwestern on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Evanston, Illinois.
Iowa women’s basketball was lacking some of its vocal leadership on Monday at Northwestern.
Part of that was the fact that Hawkeyes senior Kylie Feuerbach is still sidelined with an ankle injury. Another part was the fact that Chit-Chat Wright was not feeling great.
“No excuse, but Chat’s really sick,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said after the Hawkeyes’ 67-58 victory. “She didn’t have the flu game like (Michael) Jordan. But she’s really sick, like fever. And I think that just threw her. She was really not vocal tonight. So we were kinda searching, because Chat had been coming (as a leader).”
Wright fought through it and played 34 minutes, scoring 12 points and dishing out seven assists.
Jensen confirmed that Feuerbach remains day-to-day. She hasn’t played since getting hurt Dec. 20 vs. UConn.
“I think (our leadership tonight) was by committee,” Jensen said. “It just wasn’t the same person every time. … It’ll be nice to get Kylie back in that lineup.”
Feuerbach, the team’s best perimeter defender, has missed Iowa’s last three games. Jensen said she is pleased overall with how her team has played defensively in Feuerbach’s absence.
“(Against Northwestern) it was more an ‘us’ problem offensively,” Jensen said. “Our defense held. … We turned the ball over 20 times.”
Iowa
Two killed in Dubuque after bar fight escalates into police shooting
Two people are dead after a Dubuque bar fight escalated, with one man shooting another and then being killed by police.
An officer with the Dubuque Police Department was outside the Odd Fellows bar just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4, when he witnessed a physical altercation, according to a news release from the Dubuque Police Department.
As the officer exited the patrol vehicle, an adult man allegedly used a handgun to shoot one of the people involved in the fight. The officer fired at the offender, who then ran into the bar.
The victim who was shot first was provided medical treatment by officers at the scene and then transported to MercyOne Hospital in Dubuque.
The offender was treated by police officers inside the bar and then transported to UnityPoint Finley Hospital.
Both were later pronounced dead.
The names of those involved are not being released at this time pending notification of family members.
The incident is being investigated by the Dubuque Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The officer involved was not injured and has been placed on critical incident leave in accordance with the department’s policies.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
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