Kiley Welker, Kennedy Blades and Macey Kilty of the University of Iowa have been named as three of the eight finalists for the USA Wrestling 2025 Women’s College Wrestler of the Year.
Welker, Blades and Kilty were a combined 80 this season in leading Iowa to their second straight NCWWC National
The award will be selected by a vote from three major groups: wrestling journalists, women’s college head coaches and the fans.
Each of these groups will account for one-third of the vote.
Fan voting opens today and runs through Sunday April 6 at https://usawrestlingevents.com/wcwoty.
The winner of 2025 USA Wrestling’s Women’s College Wrestler of the Year will be announced on FloWrestling on Thursday, April 8.
Welker, a redshirt sophomore from Franksville, Wisconsin, was 27-0 with 21 tech falls and six pins while not surrendering a single point all season for the NCWWC title at 180.
Last season Welker won the title at 170 and is on track to be a four-time national champion.
This past summer Welker won a U23 World Freestyle title and bronze medal at the 2024 Senior World Championships.
Welker was also a 2021 Junior World champion, 2021 U23 World Bronze medalist, and placed 10th at the 2021 Senior World Championships.
Kylie Welker was the first recruit to commit to the University of Iowa Women’s Wrestling program in February of 2022.
In her first year of college wrestling Blades won a national title at 160 by going 25-0 with all 25 wins coming by fall or technical fall. She was also named the 2025 NCWWC Most Outstanding Wrestler.
This past summer Blades won a silver medal at the Olympics.
Blades, originally from Chicago, Illinois, was a 2021 U20 world champion, 2023 U20 bronze medalist and a 2023 U23 silver medalist.
Kilty, from Stratford, Wisconsin, transferred into the program this summer with one year of eligibility remaining and won a national title at 145.
Kilty went 28-0 with 20 tech. falls, three pins and four decisions for the season.
She won silver at 65kg at the 2023 Senior World Championships and was a 2018 Cadet World champion. She has won six age-level World medals for Team USA.
Best of luck to Kiley Welker, Kennedy Blades and Macey Kilty in the voting for Women’s College Wrestler of the Year..
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
