GREAT FALLS — The University of Providence women's wrestling team — the only collegiate women's program in Montana — enters a new season ranked No. 4 in the NAIA poll and returns six All-Americans as well as 11 national qualifiers.
For a program that is isolated from its normal competition, that will not be the case this upcoming weekend as Providence hosts the Battle of the Rockies to start the year.
"I love competing in front of my friends and family," 103-pounder Erin Hikiji told MTN Sports Thursday.
"It feels good to have a home tournament," 131-pounder Alyssa Randles said. "We don't gave a bunch of home events just because a lot of the schools we compete are far away."
"It'd be nice to perform for my Ohana, for my family," 138-pounder Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp said. "It is nice our first tournament is at home, so it just feels nice being comfortable with friends and everyone being there."
"We're building so much and we have so many ranked girls so now it's like everyone wants a piece of us," said 110-pounder Paige Morales.
All four are returning All-Americans and national qualifiers, and they all think this team could accomplish something special this season.
"I become hungrier every year," Hikiji, last year's national runner-up at 103, said. "It definitely hurts like kind of getting the same result the past two years, especially when I felt like I've grown so much."
"Definitely conference champs is a big one," Randles said. "But I also think there's a lot of goals at the national tournament too."
"I just feel like (the preseason ranking) fuels us, fuels our hunger, fuels us to just do better and continue to push as we do in the room," Estrella-Beauchamp said.
"I think our team could be dual national champions this year," Morales said. "We came up close, but not close enough last year."
Coach Matt Atwood said all the hard work the team has put in — as well as being recognized early on as a top-5 team — could put the Argos in the race 'to chase down that national title.'
"They're excited, they're working really hard," Atwood said. "They're finally starting to recognize like how good our team actually is, and that it's a possibility to chase down this national title that we've been talking about for years."
The Battle of the Rockies tomorrow, Nov. 9 at C.M. Russell high school.
