Women’s Wrestling Hosts Inaugural Jimmy May Open
BALDWIN CITY - Baker women's wrestling closed out with its final competition of the regular season by playing host to the inaugural Jimmy May Open on Saturday inside the Collins Center.
The Wildcats welcomed over 20 teams and nearly 170 wrestlers to their home finale tournament, which honored legendary coach Jimmy May, who has spent 48 years coaching wrestling and pioneered the start of the Baker men's wrestling program back in 2009. May serves as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's wrestling teams at BU.
Overall, Baker totaled seven placement finishes, including runner-up outings from Kylee Slyter (110) and Jaclyn Daley (207). Katherine Heath (117) and Audrey Darnell (138) both picked up fourth-place honors, while Jannell Avila (180) placed fifth. Kylie Robledo (124) and Mariam Shariq (117) each came away with sixth-place finishes.
Wrestling up a class at 207 pounds, Daley won three straight matches to earn a spot in the championship where she fell to the NAIA's fifth-ranked wrestler. The sophomore from Reno, Nev. came out on top of her two previous ranked matches, defeating No. 8 Aniya Herbin of Missouri Valley by decision and No. 19 Abigail Chandler of Missouri Baptist on a tech fall.
Slyter opened up her day in the 110-pound bracket with back-to-back tech falls before winning on a tiebreaker in the semifinal match. She fell in the championship match to a ranked opponent and earned her highest finish at a tournament this season.
Like her teammate Daley, Darnell also had a pair of ranked wins and added a win over an NCAA wrestler in her first match of the tournament. She defeated the No. 18 and No. 20 nationally-ranked wrestlers with a hard-fought 7-4 decision in the semfinal bout.
Heath won three of her four matches by pin and secured a tech fall in her second match at 117 pounds. She battled in the placement match with Damiyah Smith of Oklahoma State, but came up short and took fourth in her final tune-up before the postseason.
Wrestling alongside Heath at 117 pounds, Shariq tallied three wins on three pins to place sixth overall in the weight class.
Avila and Robledo also recorded three wins on Saturday with Robledo winning her first three matches of the tournament at 124 pounds. Avila pinned two straight NCAA wrestlers to start her outing before earning a pin in the placement match to finish in fifth.
With their home tournament putting a bow on a successful 2024-25 regular season, Baker will now turn its attention to the Heart of America Conference Championship which is set to take place on March 1st in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
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