McKendree University women's wrestling team members Emma Bruntil, Alara Boyd, and Payton Stroud won their respective weight classes at this weekend's 2021 Women's Nationals. Bruntil earned a spot as one of 10 women on the 2021 U23 World Team, while Boyd and Stroud earned a spot on the 2021 Junior World Team.

*portions of this release were provided by the USA Wrestling official release

The winners at the 10 U23 weight classes will represent the USA at the 2021 U23 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, Scheduled for Nov. 1-7. The winners at the 10 Junior World Team weight classes will represent the USA at the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia, scheduled for Aug. 16-22. Runners-up will wrestle for the USA at the 2021 Junior Pan American Championship in Oaxtepec, Mexico, scheduled for June 9-13.

Emma Bruntil is a newcomer to the World Team, competing in the 62kg class. Bruntil defeated Ana Luciano (FL) in two matches 3-0 and 2-1, respectively.



Alara Boyd will make her way back to the world stage, competing in the 65kg class. In the finals match, Boyd dropped the first match to Katerina Lange (MN), but came back to win back-to-back matched 4-3 and 11-1, respectively.

Payton Stroud will make her way to Russia this summer as a U.S representative at the 55kg class. Stroud defeated Amani Jones (GA) in two matches, 14-3 and 10-6 respectively. She won three-straight matched by technical fall, giving up only one point in the challenge tournament.