US Open + Women’s Nationals entries rolling in - including Lee, Kilty, DeSanto, Buchanan (and more)

Tanner Lafever

All-American
Jan 4, 2024
2,015
8,056
113
A big month on the freestyle scene is nearly upon us, and that means plenty of Hawkeyes will be in action around the country.

The US Open bonanza (April 21-26 in Las Vegas) is the headliner, with Women’s Nationals (April 9-12 in Spokane, WA) a pretty good ‘appetizer’ - featuring World Team Trials for every single age group except Seniors.

Here are the past/present/future Hawkeyes who’ve currently registered - with additional names potentially being added to the list in the coming days/weeks:

(Kennedy Blades, Kylie Welker and Real Woods all have auto berths to Final X after winning World medals last fall)

*denotes commit/signee

US Open

Senior Men’s Freestyle

57kg - Spencer Lee
61kg - Austin DeSanto
97kg - Stephen Buchanan
125kg - Tony Cassioppi

Senior Women’s Freestyle
50kg - Sterling Dias, Emilie Gonzalez, Val Solorio
53kg - Isabella Gonzales, *Everest Leydecker, Felicity Taylor, *Taylor Whiting
57kg - Karlee Brooks
59kg - Emily Frost, Bella Williams
62kg - Macey Kilty, Skye Realin
65kg - Cadence Diduch, Reese Larramendy
68kg - *Nora Akpan
76kg - Naomi Simon

U20 Men’s Freestyle
57kg - Paul Kenny
74kg - CJ Torres

Women’s HS Recruiting Showcase
135lbs - *Carley Ceshker

Women’s Nationals

U20 Division

50kg - Rianne Murphy
53kg - Isabella Gonzales, Harlee Hiller, *Taylor Whiting
55kg - *Everest Leydecker
57kg - Karlee Brooks, Mia Goodwin
59kg - Bella Williams
62kg - *Carley Ceshker
65kg - Cadence Diduch
68kg - *Nora Akpan
76kg - Naomi Simon

U23 Division
53kg - Ava Bayless
55kg - Cali Leng, Ava Rose
57kg - *Everest Leydecker
59kg - Emily Frost
62kg - *Carley Ceshker, Skye Realin
 

funkisfun10

Senior
Aug 20, 2017
150
677
93
A big month on the freestyle scene is nearly upon us, and that means plenty of Hawkeyes will be in action around the country.

The US Open bonanza (April 21-26 in Las Vegas) is the headliner, with Women’s Nationals (April 9-12 in Spokane, WA) a pretty good ‘appetizer’ - featuring World Team Trials for every single age group except Seniors.

Here are the past/present/future Hawkeyes who’ve currently registered - with additional names potentially being added to the list in the coming days/weeks:

(Kennedy Blades, Kylie Welker and Real Woods all have auto berths to Final X after winning World medals last fall)

*denotes commit/signee

US Open

Senior Men’s Freestyle

57kg - Spencer Lee
61kg - Austin DeSanto
97kg - Stephen Buchanan
125kg - Tony Cassioppi

Senior Women’s Freestyle
50kg - Sterling Dias, Emilie Gonzalez, Val Solorio
53kg - Isabella Gonzales, *Everest Leydecker, Felicity Taylor, *Taylor Whiting
57kg - Karlee Brooks
59kg - Emily Frost, Bella Williams
62kg - Macey Kilty, Skye Realin
65kg - Cadence Diduch, Reese Larramendy
68kg - *Nora Akpan
76kg - Naomi Simon

U20 Men’s Freestyle
57kg - Paul Kenny
74kg - CJ Torres

Women’s HS Recruiting Showcase
135lbs - *Carley Ceshker

Women’s Nationals

U20 Division

50kg - Rianne Murphy
53kg - Isabella Gonzales, Harlee Hiller, *Taylor Whiting
55kg - *Everest Leydecker
57kg - Karlee Brooks, Mia Goodwin
59kg - Bella Williams
62kg - *Carley Ceshker
65kg - Cadence Diduch
68kg - *Nora Akpan
76kg - Naomi Simon

U23 Division
53kg - Ava Bayless
55kg - Cali Leng, Ava Rose
57kg - *Everest Leydecker
59kg - Emily Frost
62kg - *Carley Ceshker, Skye Realin
Strong women's team....
 

HollisterHawk

Freshman
Jun 8, 2025
22
61
13
Hey all. This year will be my first time attending the US Open and I have some nurdy *** questions I don't want to bog down thread with. Anybody willing to answer a couple questions via email? ([email protected]) not much of a "figure it out when I get there" kind a guy. Especially in Vegas haha
 

Squatch96

Senior
Jul 3, 2025
371
951
93
Based on his Soldier Salute,I would hope we can get a better 65 for next year.
Don't think he'd be ready day 1 but that was his first college tournament he can redshirt next year as well just think hes someone who could do well eventually do well and hes good depth which has been a problem for iowa at times just my opinion
 

Trakker

All-Conference
Jan 1, 2023
761
2,080
93
Hey all. This year will be my first time attending the US Open and I have some nurdy *** questions I don't want to bog down thread with. Anybody willing to answer a couple questions via email? ([email protected]) not much of a "figure it out when I get there" kind a guy. Especially in Vegas haha
Feel free to bog down.
Been to the last 3 and will be going again this year.
 

HollisterHawk

Freshman
Jun 8, 2025
22
61
13
Feel free to bog down.
Been to the last 3 and will be going again this year.
1. Are the mats segregated by classification? Like #? - #? Greco, #? - #? Seniors, etc, etc?
2. If they aren't segregated, is there a cool place to set up to watch mens seniors? Watching last years event online it looks like the center bleachers is a good location to post up.
3 what's up with those crazy premier seating $400 tickets? That's crazy expensive!


Thanks in advance
 

Trakker

All-Conference
Jan 1, 2023
761
2,080
93
For the most part, greco and fs are ran separately. For the seniors, no really wrestles both styles so they overlap one day. Each is two days and for the senior div they overlap one day

For 15u, 17u and 20, more kids wrestle both styles so they wrestle all greco first and then all fs.

Typically, for both styles they will wrestle each age div on the same mats in the auxillary areas and then the finals of all styles for all divisions ste wrestled on the four main mats on the elevated stage.

Previous years, the event was held in a decent size arena that i would say had arena style seating for 5-6 thousand people, so seating was not an issue. Last year, they moved it to the Expo center which is much smaller, has no permanent seats and is essentially a large single level convention center. The good thing us you can pretty match stand mat side and watch any of the none main stage mats and chit chat with all if the wrestlers and coaches. The down side is that fir the four elevated main mats, they have temp bleachers set up but those only have room for about 300 people. Open seats were few and far between last year, as it was all general admission . Thus is the first year they will be trying out the all session premium seating option, which is quite pricy. Interested to see how that works out. Luckily for me, i have an all session coaches pass so i dont have to deal with it.