IRVING, Texas – Missouri Baptist University women's wrestler Dymond Guilford has a busy summer ahead and is once again back on the mat on the national stage.
 
Just two weeks ago, Guilford competed at the 2019 Senior Women's Freestyle U.S. Open in Las Vegas and finished seventh overall. This weekend is the UWW Women's National Championships in Irving, Texas, the same location and competition where Guilford burst onto the scene and secured a spot on the Junior World Team last May.
 
Friday was Guilford's opportunity to repeat as a UWW Nationals champion and claim a spot on the Junior World Teams for the second year in a row. Guilford started off with a bang in her Round of 16 bout with Grace Nelson of Team Washington. It took just 24 seconds for MBU's All-American to get the initial two-point takedown followed by consecutive ankle laces to quickly get the 10-0 tech fall victory.
 
The pace slowed in the 72kg quarterfinals, but Guilford still maintained her dominance by defeating Joy Levendusky (Team New York) via tech fall without yielding a point, 11-0.
 
The semifinals proved to be a bit more challenging for Guilford as she fell behind early against Kaylynn Albrecht from Team Texas. Albrecht nearly ended the match in the first period with a pair of near falls, however, Guilford was able to overcome the odds. Regrouping between periods, Guilford overpowered her semifinal opponent with a takedown into a pin at the 3:21 mark.
 
With the win, the Lancaster, Calif., native advanced to her third consecutive UWW Nationals title match in as many years.
 
In the finals, which was a best-of-three format, Guilford squared off with fellow 2018 Junior World Team member and WCWA All-American Alyvia Fiske from Simon Fraser. Although it was close throughout the entire Round 1 matchup, Fiske shut out Guilford, 6-0. In the second bout, Dymond led for a majority of the match, but surrendered a takedown in the final 10 seconds to finish as runner-up.