BOSSIER CITY, La. – Menlo College made a charge through the championship brackets Friday to take charge of the NCWA Championships and set themselves up for a run at the men’s title at the Brookshire Grocery Arena.

Five of the nine quarterfinalists won their bouts here Friday and five other wrestlers remain alive in consolation rounds that should maintain Menlo’s hefty lead over second place. The Oaks lead the field after two days with 176 points, 21 points ahead of The Apprentice School (155) and 25 ahead of first-day leader Tarleton State (150.5). Apprentice has 11 wrestlers still alive in the finals rounds but only two are in the finals. Tarleton State matches Menlo’s 10 total but with four in the finals.

In the women’s division, a five-team showdown will begin early in the day as Saturday’s placing rounds, minus the finals, begin at 9 a.m. CT. Washington State leads the field with 103 points and is tied for the teams’ lead with three finalists along with fourth-place UNLV (92.5) and sixth-place UCF (68). Utah Tech rests in second at 98.5 followed by Tarleton State with 94.5.

The national championship matches for both divisions begin at 2 p.m.

Six of the women’s national title matches have at least one wrestler from the current top five teams competing and four of the 11 weight classes offer both from contending teams. One of them, 110 pounds, features two Tarleton State wrestlers battling each other guaranteeing the Texans title team points as fifth-seed Rachel Corley takes on sixth-seed Emma Graves. One of them is a bout at 240 pounds between top seed O’Dessa Laititi of Utah Tech and two-seed Erin Kremer of Washington State that could decide the team title as well.

In the match just prior to it at 207 pounds, two-time national champion Renaeh Ureste of UNLV takes on two-seed Katrina Wangen of UCF. Ureste became the NCWA’s all-time wins leader in the women’s division during the tournament now with 59 career wins. Ureste won both titles wrestling for Grays Harbor College (Wash.) the past two years before GHC canceled its program last offseason.

Here is a class-by-class look at Saturday’s finals brackets, beginning with the men’s division:

125 lbs. – Two freshmen from transitioning teams battle for the title here having earned their first NCWA All-America finishes. Top-seeded Damion Ryan (27-9) of Menlo is the West Coast Conference champion and faces third-seed Trevor Wilcox (31-12) of Thomas More. More avenged an earlier loss when he upended second-seeded and two-time All-American Aiden Scheeringa of Liberty in the semifinals, 5-3. Scheeringa had pinned Wilcox in the third-place match at the National Duals in January.

133 lbs. – The cliché says the third time’s the charm. What does it say about the fourth? Apprentice’s Bruno Alves (21-4) looks for his first national title in four attempts Saturday as the top seed in this bracket. Alves rolled through the tournament thus far with three tech falls and an 8-4 decision in the semifinals, his 80^th career NCWA win. Can he finally get his first title? The last Apprentice wrestler to win a national title was Kolin Johnson at this weight in 2018. Alves takes on third-seeded Matthew Ellis (12-3) of Thomas More in a much-anticipated finals rematch from the NCWA National Duals when Ellis gave Alves one of his four losses, 12-9, in a pool match. Ellis has impressed in the bracket as well with two pins along the way to the final. Alves is one of only two wrestlers in national title matches for second-place Apprentice, a factor in the team race.

141 lbs. – Tarleton State gets its shot for the first national title in program history with upstart seven-seed Zachery Espalin (22-0). Under-seeded perhaps despite a 17-0 mark as the Southwest Conference champion, Espalin has taken it out on the bracket with three pins and a 9-2 decision semifinal win over last year’s 133-pound national runner up. The underdog Espalin faces another favorite in the final in two-time All-American Ryan Wilson (20-3) of Washington State. Wilson took seventh in this class last year and took advantage of a quarterfinals forfeit by the bracket’s top-seed in his half of the bracket to reach the final. He outlasted Liberty’s Garrett Good in the semifinals 2-1 on the second tiebreaker criteria. Espalin is the first of four Tarleton wrestlers in the finals looking to perhaps snap second place away from Apprentice.

149 lbs. – Menlo is up again in this final as top-seeded Noah Elliott looks to continue his roll that has produced three major decisions in his four tournament matches. He beat last year’s eighth-place All-American, Josiah Johnson of Washington State, 11-3 in the semifinals. He’ll face another of the NCWA’s best in the final against UCF’s Thomas McCane (16-0), now a four-time All-American (the NCWA’s 41^st in the men’s division) and a former national champion at 141 pounds from 2022. McCane placed third at 141 in 2024 and was the runner-up at 149 in 2023. UCF could jump into the top five of the team standings with a McCane win here.

157 lbs. – This weight class celebrates the NCWA’s recent expansion into Puerto Rico as the new Puerto Rico Conference now has its second title-match contender (also see 285 lbs.) in Rafael Garcia from Ana G. Mendez University. Garcia, a freshman, had only his conference title-match win on his ledger entering nationals but pulled off five wins in two days, two by tech fall, to reach the title. He faces another freshman, sixth-seeded Matox Allen of Liberty (27-10) in the final. Allen is the Mid-Atlantic Conference champion and Liberty’s lone finalist, although the Flames have eight wrestlers in the other placing matches Saturday. Liberty has had at least one national champion every season but one (2016) since it joined the NCWA in 2012. Allen is its only shot here, although it does extend its streak to 13 consecutive season with at least one national finalist.

165 lbs. – Tarleton State gets to showcase its roster here with both finalists, both of them freshmen. Finn Shepard (26-4), the eight seed, shook the bracket in the quarterfinals with an 11-6 win over top-seeded and two-time (now three-time) All-American, Keith Brubach of Slippery Rock. He’ll face teammate and three-seed Joseph Liescheski (23-3), who has two falls and two major decisions in the tournament thus far. Liescheski topped Shepard by major decision, 11-3, for the Southwest Conference championship two weeks ago.

174 lbs. – Menlo is up again here with perhaps its top wrestler, Ledger Petracek (20-5). The senior is a two-time NJCAA All-American having placed fourth at 165 pounds the previous two seasons. He’ll face the tournament’s lowest-seeded finalist, Nurrideen Ahmad-Statts of the Williamson College of the Trades. Ahmad-Statts was seeded 15^th as the runner-up in the Mid-East Conference but has taken down the second, seventh and third seeds in succession, all by decision, to reach the final.

184 lbs. – The only weight class to serve up the top two seeds may also offer its best matchup. Menlo is up again on one side with 30-match winner Maximus Zamora (30-2), the West Coast Conference champion senior. Zamora took seventh at 174 pounds at the NAIA National Championships last season. On the other side is one of the NCWA’s most accomplished wrestlers in recent years, senior Graham Carson (14-0) of the Ohio State WC. Carson is now a four-time All-American (the 42^nd in the NCWA) coming off third- (last year), fifth- and sixth-place finishes in this class the last three years. If there’s an upset to be made Saturday, this might be the match.

197 lbs. – This class gave us the most surprising result of Friday’s action despite pairing two undefeated wrestlers in the semifinals. Paul Detwiler (13-0) of the Maryland WC, seeded 12^th, took down defending national champion and last year’s Most Outstanding Wrestler, Cesar Ubico of Utah Tech, by major decision 12-4. Detwiler, a graduate student and the Mid-East Conference champion, had two tech falls in his four-match run into the semifinals, one of them a 17-1 blasting of the four-seed in the quarterfinals. He’ll have to test his undefeated record against another of Menlo’s best, however, in freshman upstart and second-seeded Diego Morales (17-4), who placed second to Ubico in the West Coast Conference.

235 lbs. – This is the key match in the team race between Apprentice and Tarleton State as the Builders’ veteran Caleb Hartung (30-5) takes on the Tarleton youngster in Koby Kidd (29-4) in a three-vs.-four-seed bout. Kidd is a returning All-American (now two-time) after taking sixth in this class a year ago and sending second-seeded Dylan Jahrling of UNLV to the consolations with an 11-4 decision in the semifinals. Hartung outlasted the field in the top half of the bracket after the top seed last in the Round of 32. Hartung has three pins and two major decisions in the tournament. With both programs jockeying behind Menlo, could this be the match that decides second place?

285 lbs. – This offers a feature match and another success story from the Puerto Rico Conference, Johnovan Smith (5-0) enters the title match with narrow wins over three opponents and a pin in the early rounds. Smith took second at heavyweight last season and is back to try and take the title again. He’ll face Utah Tech’s Micah Yuki (10-1), a returning (now two-time) All-American that took fifth in this class last season. Utah Tech could make a push into the top six teams with a win here and help from Ubico in consolations.