Knights’ Holloway ends college career with run at women’s wrestling nationals

JAMESTOWN, N.D. — St. Andrews senior Gabrielle Holloway qualified for the NAIA Women’s Wrestling National Championship tournament for the second straight year after earning an automatic bid by ranking in the top six of the 170-pound weight class in the NAIA rankings.

But her run at nationals, which were held March 8-9, was ended short after falling in back-to-back matches, despite winning her first match.

In the round of 32, Holloway was victorious by nine points or less, where the losing wrestler scored at least one point against York University’s Aime Hernandez-Perez after each wrestler scored two points. Holloway’s round of 16 opponent, Southern Oregon’s Shenita Lawson, who ended up finishing in fourth, defeated her the same way after a 7-2 point differential, and after receiving a bye in the round of 16 consolation bracket, Holloway lost to the University of the Cumberlands’ Chamira Cooper following a 9-0 final in the consolation round of 8.

Holloway was an NAIA All-American last year after placing in the top eight of her weight class at nationals.

She ends her career as the only wrestler from a North Carolina school to be an All-American at an officially sanctioned women’s national college championship, according to an X/Twitter post from St. Andrews coach Marquise Camp.