Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

Blades, Hikiji, Jimenez, Rodriguez and Welker named finalists for 2026 USA Wrestling Anthony-Maroulis Trophy

Five finalists have been selected for the 2026 USA Wrestling Anthony-Maroulis Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation’s best women’s college wrestler—Kennedy Blades of Iowa, Erin Hikiji of Providence, Audrey Jimenez of Lehigh, Cristelle Rodriguez of Doane and Kylie Welker of Iowa.
Blades, Jimenez and Welker were champions at the inaugural NCAA Women’s Wrestling National Championships. Hikiji and Rodriguez earned national titles at the NAIA Women’s Wrestling Championships.
The award winner will be selected by a vote from three constituent groups—women’s college head coaches, national wrestling media and the fans. Each group accounts for one-third of the total vote.
Public voting is now open at usawrestlingevents.com/wcwoty and will run through Tuesday, March 31. The winner will be announced on Thursday, April 2.
Finalists were determined by the Anthony-Maroulis Trophy oversight committee, which includes representatives of USA Wrestling, college coaches, media, officials and past winners.

The following criteria were considered when evaluating finalist candidates, using data from the 2025-26 season only:•  Season record•  Bonus percentage•  Number of falls•  Number of technical falls•  Quality of competition•  Integrity and sportsmanship•  Impact on program and team success•  Cultural impact on women’s college wrestling
The USA Wrestling Anthony-Maroulis Trophy is named after Victoria Anthony and Helen Maroulis, who are the first four-time women’s college national champions. Both women won a fourth WCWA national title in 2014 as teammates at Simon Fraser University, becoming the first wrestlers in history to achieve the feat.Previous winners of the award were Yelena Makoyed of North Central (2023), Adaugo Nwachukwu of William Penn (2024) and Kennedy Blades of Iowa (2025).USA Wrestling created the Anthony-Maroulis Trophy to elevate a new award for women’s college wrestling that has significant cultural impact seen with other college athletic awards, such as the Dan Hodge Trophy in men’s college wrestling and the Hesman Trophy in college football.

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , | Leave a comment

Hayden Hidlay Returns to NC State Wrestling

RALEIGH – NC State wrestling’s first-ever five-time All-American is returning to Raleigh to rejoin the NC State wrestling staff, this time as an assistant coach, as announced by head coach Pat Popolizio on Tuesday.
One of the most decorated athletes to come out of the NC State wrestling program, a Raleigh reunion will be had with Hayden Hidlay as he returns to his alma mater.
Hidlay joins the Wolfpack staff after spending the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons as an assistant coach at Stanford, as well as the 2023-24 season at North Dakota State. Immediately following his graduation from NC State back in 2022, the five-year member of the Pack served as the student-athlete development coordinator for NC State wrestling.
“Hayden was one of the most impactful student-athletes we’ve ever had, not only just within our program, but both at the conference and national levels too,” said head coach Pat Popolizio. “As one of the winningest wrestlers in NC State school history, he was our program’s first-ever five-time All-American, all while accumulating academic accolades across the board as well.
He’s spent the last few seasons growing, as a coach and as a man, at Stanford and North Dakota State. Just days ago, he guided Aden Valencia to his first national championship as a 10th-seeded redshirt-freshman at the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Cleveland.
Hayden will continue to instill our program’s culture that he helped build as an athlete. We are thrilled at the opportunity to have him back in Raleigh, back in the wrestling room that he accomplished so much in.”
Over the last two seasons, Hidlay helped the Cardinal produce tremendous results during their first inaugural years in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The squad is coming off a historic season with its highest-ever finish at the NCAA Championships in sixth place and the third national champion in program history, a wrestler whom Hidlay closely oversaw.
“I am honored to be returning to NC State wrestling,” said Hayden Hidlay. … more at … https://gopack.com/news/2026/3/24/hayden-hidlay-returns-to-nc-state-wrestling

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , | Leave a comment

Newberry Men’s Wrestling Awarded Thrivent Community Service Team of the Week

This week’s Thrivent Newberry College Athletics Community Service Teams of the Week is the Wolves Men’s Wrestling team. The Wolves men’s wrestling team assisted the Newberry College Admissions team with set up in preparation for Admissions Preview Day.
Thrivent is a membership-owned fraternal organization dedicated to serving the unique needs of our clients—guiding them toward financial choices that will help them live the lives they want today and … more at … https://newberrywolves.com/news/2026/3/23/newberry-mens-wrestling-awarded-thrivent-community-service-team-of-the-week.aspx

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UMO Features 111 Student-Athletes on the Winter Spring Academic All-Conference Teams

MOUNT OLIVE – A total of 111 University of Mount Olive student-athletes were named to the Winter/Spring Academic All-Conference teams presented by Barnes and Noble College Thursday morning.
The Conference Carolinas Academic All-Conference teams consist of junior and senior student-athletes in the conference who have competed in a conference-sponsored sport and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or higher on a 4.0 scale in all work completed at their member institution.
The GPA is calculated based on the cumulative averages of the student-athletes through the previous semester and each student-athlete must have attended their member institution for at least one academic year. … more at … https://umotrojans.com/news/2026/3/19/baseball-umo-features-111-student-athletes-on-the-spring-presidential-honor-roll.aspx

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment