Kennedy Blades won gold at 68 kg at the Senior Pan American Championships in Monterrey, Mexico.
Blades battled Nathali Griman Herrera (Venezuela) in the Round of 16 and the finals. In the Round of 16 Blades won by a 6-2 decision. In the finals Blades defeated Herrera 14-5 for the title.
Blades won by a tech fall in the Quarterfinals over Grabriela Pedro Da Rocha (Brazil), 11-1 and by a 10-0 tech fall over Virginia Jimenez Fernandez (Chile) in the semifinals.
The 2025 Senior Pan American Championships is part of the UWW Ranking Series that is used to determine seeds for the Olympic Games and the Senior World Championships
In the 2024 Olympics Blades won silver at 76 kg and she is now competing at 68 kg.
This past season Blades won an NCWWC national title for Iowa at 160 lbs. Two weeks ago Blades rolled to a U.S. Open title at 68 kg and qualified for Final X in Newark, New Jersey on June 14.
The winner at Final X will represent Team USA at the 2025 World Freestyle Championships in Zagreb, Croatia on September 14-18.
Blades was coached by former Iowa national champion Terry Steiner who is the National Women’s Coach and by her former club coach Izzy Martinez.
Macey Kilty(65kg) and Kylie Welker(76kg) will compete for a Senior Pan Am title on Saturday.
68 kg – Kennedy Blades
Round of 16: Kennedy Blades dec over Nathali Griman Herrera (Venezuela), 6-2
Quarterfinals: Kennedy Blades tech fall over Grabriela Pedro Da Rocha (Brazil), 11-1
Semifinals – Kennedy Blades tech fall over Virginia Jimenez Fernandez (Chile), 10-0
Finals – Kennedy Blades dec over Nathali Griman Herrera (Venezuela), 14-5
Senior Pan American Championships in Monterrey, Mexico
Macey Kilty – 65 kg
Kylie Welker – 76 kg
Saturday, May 10
Women’s Freestyle 53 kg -59 kg – 65 kg –76 kg
11 AM – Preliminaries
2:PM. – Semifinals
3 PM – Repechage
6 PM – Medal Match finals
***Times listed are CST
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
