Three Eagles Place at Falcon Invite

PARK CITY, Kan. – Led by a personal best finish from Sara Soureshjani, Avila women's wrestling competed in its first open invitational of the 2023-24 campaign, the Falcon Invite at Hartman Arena, where three total Eagles finished in the top three of their brackets to start off the year.

Hartman Arena and Friends University host one of the perennially biggest wrestling events of the first semester every fall, and Avila has been a mainstay in the event lineup in each of its first three years of existence. And, interestingly enough, Avila's list of three event placers consisted of one first-year Eagle, one second-year Eagle, and one wrestling in her third Falcon Invite.

That third-year Eagle was Markayla Lottie, one of Avila's three nationally-ranked wrestlers, who competed for the first time this season on Saturday. Lottie went 4-1 on the day, with her only loss coming to Jaia Ashley of Division III Schreiner University. She defeated York's Allison Doppenburg twice on the day, the last of which came via a 10-0 tech fall victory to secure third place in the 116 division.

Freshman Asha Pearson also hit the mat for her first real competition of her collegiate career, defeating Ottawa's Patience Okemba in her first official match. Pearson also finished the day 4-1, defeating an old high school foe, Ottawa's Makenna Alden, in a tight 8-7 decision to earn third place in the 101 bracket.

Second-year Eagle Sara Soureshjani had to bump up a few weights in Avila's season-opening dual against William Woods but looked right at home wrestling at 143 this weekend, earning three dominant results to advance all the way to the title match. She tech-ed her first two opponents in identical 10-0 scorelines, which included a nationall-ranked win over Maryellen Lafferty of Texas Wesleyan, before pinning York's Brisa Salas to advance to the title match, where she was ultimately pinned by another nationally-ranked wrestler, Doane's Aevri Ciha. Still, Soureshjani finished the day in second place, the best finish of any Eagle this weekend and the best finish of her career.

Elsewhere across the invite, Shannon Briggs went 2-2 at 191, and Jaclyn Riedinger, Byanca Cook and Erma Williams each scored victories. Ruby Scarborough, Zoey Mzeru, Dav'Yona Beatty, Julia Datus and Allison Calentine were also in action for the Eagles.

Up next, women's wrestling has this coming weekend off of competition before the Eagles head over to Marshall, Missouri for a two-day event, the Missouri Valley Open, on November 17 and 18. Further details will be posted on our website when they become available, and you can follow all the results live on TrackWrestling.