North Central College made history at the NWCA National Duals on Saturday, taking down No. 8 Emmanuel University and Quincy University before upsetting No. 1 Iowa and sealing the national title with a win over No. 2 McKendree, 21-18. The 23-21 win over the Hawkeyes ended Iowa’s undefeated season and delivered the two-time defending National Duals champions their first loss in program history. Here’s how it happened:
Cardinals stop Iowa momentum with upset wins at 110, 117 pounds
Iowa entered the dual as the top-ranked program in the country and shot off to a hot start with a 12-0 tech fall win from No. 1 Valarie Solorio over Bri Graves. The Hawks couldn’t hold on to that 4-0 team lead for long, though, as North Central’s No. 4 Kaelani Shufeldt put the Cardinals on the board with a pin over No. 2 Nyla Valencia with just 22 seconds remaining in the match. North Central added another three team points when freshman No. 5 Riley Rayome topped No. 4 senior world team member Brianna Gonzalez in a 3-3 decision on criteria.
The Cardinals' No. 3 Sara Sterner extended the team’s lead with a fall over Iowa’s No. 5 Cali Leng at 124 pounds, giving North Central the 13-5 advantage going into 131 pounds.
Iowa veterans push for points, but Yearby’s fall at 207 pounds seals the deal
Despite trailing by nine points, Iowa’s No. 1 Karlee Brooks helped her team rally, as she clipped away at the deficit with an 8-4 decision over No. 9 Yele Aycock. Skye Realin built on that momentum with a gritty 6-6 criteria win for the Hawks at 138 pounds over Claire Dicugno.
Iowa then rolled out its trio of veteran winners. No. 2 Reese Larramendy scored three big team points for the Hawkeyes with an upset over No. 1 Bella Mir 10-4, and Iowa’s 2024 Olympic silver medalist No. 1 Kennedy Blades gave her team a second lead of the night after an 11-1 technical fall over No. 8 Taylor Graveman. Kylie Welker rounded out the back-to-back-to-back wins with an 8-2 decision over Jael Miller at 180 pounds in her tournament back for the season after taking an extended period off to recover from her international competition this fall that included a gold at the U23 world championships.
Larramendy, Blades and Welker put Iowa ahead 21-18, meaning only one person and one weight was standing between Iowa and victory: Dasia Yearby at 207 pounds. The North Central senior secured her team a victory with a key upset over No. 2 Jaycee Foeller with a pin at 1:38, securing the 23-21 win.
Cardinals look to build on win and chase more NCAA history
North Central’s win over Iowa was historic. The Cardinals have been chasing the Hawkeyes for the past two seasons, dropping to them at the NWCA National Duals 21-20 in 2024 and 28-13 in 2025. They also finished just 20.5 points behind Iowa at the NCWWC National Championships last spring.
But Iowa head coach Clarissa Chun believes her team will bounce back from this weekend’s loss and move forward with success.
“We fought, they fought, and we all went through this, we just have to move on to next weekend,” Chun said in the Iowa . “We can't dwell on what happened — that doesn't help us. We have to rise, and pick ourselves back up again.”
Iowa did recover from losing to North Central by finishing third at the National Duals after beating No. 4 Grand Valley State, 26-15
Iowa will compete next at the CK Mike Duroe Invite on Jan. 17 before taking on Lehigh in a ranked matchup on Jan. 18. North Central is splitting up its squad across two duals later this week on Jan. 15, hosting Elmhurst at 6 p.m. and traveling to Life University for a 7 p.m. match.
