Bacon signs with Iowa State
Emma Bacon has been piling up national titles since middle school. Now she is taking that resume to Ames.
Bacon, a senior at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and a native of Naples, Florida, signed with Iowa State during the early signing period. She is a three-time Junior Nationals champion in Fargo, a three-time Girls National High School Recruiting Showcase champion and a U17 Pan American gold medalist, and she represented the United States at the 2025 U17 World Championships. High School On SI ranks her No. 3 at 130 pounds in its latest 2026-27 preseason national girls rankings.
Bacon built much of her resume earlier in her career while wrestling for Wyoming Seminary. She won U15 national titles in 2022 and 2023, then broke through in Fargo as an eighth grader in 2023. Seeded No. 1 at 112 pounds in the 16U division, she racked up three technical superiorities and two falls before beating Libby Roberts of Washington 11-4 in the finals.
Her second Fargo title came in the Junior division in 2025. Bacon rolled to the 125-pound crown with a 16-5 technical superiority over Michigan’s Cecilia Williams in the finals, building a 10-2 lead at the break and closing with two takedowns and a turn.
She completed the Fargo trifecta this past July. Bacon pinned Arizona’s Camila Torres in 27 seconds in the 135-pound Junior finals, hitting a takedown and turning straight to a bar and half. The win was her second Junior title, and it gave Pennsylvania a six-point lead in the team race that it never gave up.
Bacon has been just as dominant at the Recruiting Showcase. She won back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025, pinning Washington’s Zorina Johnson in 2:13 in the 125-pound finals last year. In April in Las Vegas, she made it three straight with an 11-1 technical superiority in 1:43 over Junior Folkstyle Nationals champion Naima Ghaffar at 130 pounds.
Bacon has also competed on the world stage. In June 2025, she captured gold at 57 kilograms at the U17 Pan American Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She went on to represent Team USA at 57 kilograms at the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece, where she dropped a 5-3 decision to Japan’s Sayuki Tanada.
Bacon is the latest addition to a loaded first high school recruiting class for the Cyclones. Iowa State’s Class of 2027 also includes Christina Estrada of Buchanan (California) at 110 pounds, Violette Lasure of Chestnut Ridge (Pennsylvania) at 145, Landri Von Gonten of College Park (Texas) at 138, Bella Miller of Dubuque Hempstead (Iowa) at 138 and Ella Poalillo of High Point (New Jersey) at 160.
Bacon is far from the only international medalist in the group. Estrada is a two-time Super 32 champion and a two-time California state champion. Lasure joined Bacon atop the podium at the 2025 U17 Pan American Championships, winning gold at 65 kilograms, and added a Fargo Junior title at 145 pounds a few weeks later. Poalillo also struck gold at those Pan Ams at 73 kilograms, then won a bronze medal at the 2025 U17 World Championships. Von Gonten captured gold at 61 kilograms at the 2026 U17 Pan American Championships in Panama City, Panama, and Miller edged Von Gonten for the 135-pound title at this year’s Recruiting Showcase with a takedown in the final seconds.
The class will arrive in Ames in 2027-28, when Iowa State begins official NCAA competition. The Cyclones are competing as a club this season under head coach Alli St. John, formerly Alli Ragan, a two-time senior world silver medalist who won two women’s college national titles at King.
St. John has already assembled a roster with plenty of championship experience. Iowa State’s current roster includes four NAIA national champions, three of them two-time champions. Esther Kolawole won back-to-back NAIA titles at 138 pounds at William Penn, where Christianah Ogunsanya won two titles at 117 pounds. Jumoke Adekoye won NAIA titles in each of her first two seasons at Dickinson State. Piper Fowler, a 2023 U17 world champion, won the 2026 NAIA title at 180 pounds as a true freshman at William Penn. The roster also includes NAIA All-Americans Anaya Falcon, who finished runner-up for Life U, Makennah Craft, who placed third for Campbellsville, and Avy Perez, who placed seventh for William Penn, along with accomplished age-group wrestlers such as 2025 U20 World Team member Daniella Nugent and 2026 U20 national runner-up Molly Allen.
That gives Bacon and the rest of the Class of 2027 a group of proven champions to train with when they arrive in Ames. Before then, Bacon has one more high school season in front of her.
For a full list of high school commitments, check out HerMat’s college commitment list.