Women's Wrestling Wins First Conference Title; Wood and Turner Individual Champs

York, Ne – The Hastings College women's wrestling team has made history winning the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship for the first time in school history on Saturday.

Hastings finished the tournament with 156.5 points while Midland settled for second with 144.5 points.

The Lady Broncos also picked up two more individual titles as Kaydince Turner went back-to-back at 143 and Tabitha Wood won her first conference title at 136.

Turner started her day by defeating Sam Segura Veliz via an 11-0 tech fall which set her up against teammate Lisa Hoeflich. Turner defeated Hoeflich with a 10-0 tech fall win. This put her in the championship match where she faced off against Aevri Ciha of Doane where she dominated to an 8-1 victory for her back-to-back championship. Turner is the first in school history to win back-to-back conference titles. Hoeflich would not end her day in the consolation bracket as she beat Livia Swift of Ottawa via pin to move into the third place match. There she pinned Abigail Sebesta of Ottawa to bring home third place.

Wood worked her way into the semifinals due to a disqualification to Elizza Easley of Friends. She then met up with Byanca Cook of Avila where she pinned her in the second period to move into the championship match. There Wood dominated Gianna Moreno of Friends 12-1 to win her first career conference title.

Larissa Kaz just missed a conference title at 123 as she began her day defeating Prethy Enriquez due to a forfeit. She advanced to the title match by pinning Katy Figueroa of York just :36 into the match. In the title match, Kaz jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Arianna Marrufo got Kaz on her back for the pin as Kaz brought home the silver.

Candice Brickell (109) won her first match up against Lexis Vasquez of York to move in the semifinals where she would lose 10-0 to Jenna Gerhardt. In the consolation bracket, Brickell went a perfect 2-0 defeating Evelin Geronimo of Ottawa via pin. She then brought home third place by pinning Angie Rediger of Saint Mary.

Kimberly Pollak (155) dropped her first match of the day but went 3-0 in the consolation bracket as she first defeated Marissa Gaylor of York via pin. Pollack then pinned Tyeisha Takamori of Midland at the 1:20 mark to move into the third place match up. There she defeated Hannah Crowson by pinning her at the 1:53 mark for the bronze medal.

Taylor Rickley (170) dropped her semifinal match and moved into the consolation bracket. There she defeated Ingrid Beltran-Gonzaga via pinfall to move into the third place match. There she was defeated and had to settle for fourth place.

Bemnet Tesfa would finished fifth at 101 as she would defeat Graciela Reyes of York via pin just :15 into the match. Lily Gomez picked up her first collegiate victory as she finished in seventh place at 116. Gomez pinned Salem Scobee of Midland for her first win.

Hastings will take Hoeflich, Turner, Kaz and Wood to nationals on March 10 and 11 up in Jamestown, ND.