GREAT FALLS — At the North Central College Invitational in Naperville, Ill., on Dec. 15, University of Providence women's wrestler Erin Hikiji advanced to the 103-pound championship where she faced top-ranked NCAA wrestler Brianne Murphy from the University of Iowa.
Hikiji — who is a back-to-back NAIA national runner-up — defied the odds, taking down Murphy 13-2 in the match to win the tournament.
"I'm just really proud of my performance," the No. 1 ranked Hikiji said Thursday. "Really didn't know how the match was going to go. I mean, I've never wrestled this girl before, so I didn't really know what I would be going up against."
She said she felt a victory was possible about 30 seconds in to the match.
"I had already made it to the finals, I kind of had already thought to myself it's one more match. What is there to lose?" Hikiji said. "She's NCAA, it's not going to effect my ranking no matter how I do, so I might as well just go out there and show out."
Providence coach Matt Atwood said it was awesome to see.
"There's a lot of people around for the finals, so us versus Iowa," Atwood said. "Iowa's all there, we're all there. Everybody else in the country kind of wants to see the Iowa girl fall, so it was cool to see Erin dominate."
Hikiji said that while it's accomplishment she won't forget, she has to keep putting her best foot forward now as the season will continue to ramp up.
"I've really got to bask in the accomplishment but just have to keep moving forward because there's always someone else who's trying to be No. 1," Hikiji said. "There's always someone trying to take my spot."
The win over Murphy was an ultimate confidence boost, Hikiji said.
"It tells me like you can do this," Hikiji said. "Beating someone who's been to these world team trials, it's like, you can do these college nationals. You can. You can hang. You can do this."
Atwood said he knows very well Hikiji can go out there with the best wrestlers.
"She'll tell you too, the national tournament hurt last year," Atwood said. "She's on fire, she's ready for a re-shot" at a national championship
Hikiji and the Argos next hit the mats Jan. 10-11 at the NAIA national duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
