LEBANON, Ill. | The Open Mat - Head Coach Alexio Garcia of No.3 McKendree University women's wrestling earned his first collegiate coaching honor on Monday evening as he was named The Open Mat NCAA Women's Coach of the Year. Garcia led the three-time national champion Bearcats to a third-place finish with 147.5 points between eight wrestlers at the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships (NCWWC) with three individual national titles and eight All-Americans.

Garcia finished his first year as the new leader of the Bearcats with that third-place finish at NCWWC while also helping push three wrestlers to defend their national titles as 109 Emily Shilson, 130 Cameron Guerin, and 191 Sydnee Kimber all earned belt defenses in Cedar Rapids. Shilson and Kimber each grabbed their fourth-straight NCWWC titles while Guerin, a wrestler Garcia has worked with for nearly 10 years, tallied her third-straight national title. All three of the title-winning Bearcats were named to the final FloWrestling Women's Collegiate Pound-For-Pound rankings as Shilson was No.5, Guerin was No.9, and Kimber was No.13. 

Garcia has made a splash in collegiate wrestling over his first season while laying groundwork for further development of a top-collegiate women's wrestling program in McKendree. 

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The Bearcats will be at the US Open (freestyle) this April with wrestlers competing from April 14-16 in Spokane, Washington. 

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