Kylie Welker is one win away from her third U23 world title.

The Iowa star blitzed the 76-kilogram field on Wednesday at the U23 World Championships in Las Vegas, winning all three of her matches without surrendering a point. Welker, a two-time U23 world champion and three-time national collegiate champion, notched two technical superiorities and a fall en route to the finals.

Welker punched her ticket to the title match with an 11-0 technical superiority over Russia's Mariia Silina in the semifinals. She controlled the action from the opening whistle, scoring three takedowns and picking up a caution point against Silina to build a 7-0 lead. Welker added a gut wrench to take a 9-0 advantage into the break before closing out the match with another takedown.

Welker opened her tournament with an 11-0 technical superiority over Poland's Patrycja Cuber. An early takedown and an ankle pick gave her a 4-0 lead. A step-out, a fleeing penalty, another takedown and a shot-clock point stretched the margin to 9-0 at the break, and Welker finished the match with a go-behind takedown.

In the quarterfinals, Welker needed just 1:05 to pin Türkiye's Elmira Yasin. She scored a quick takedown for a 2-0 lead, added another takedown after a restart and then turned Yasin to her back for the fall.

Welker will wrestle for the world title on Thursday.

Three collegiate wrestlers represented the United States in women's freestyle on Wednesday. Welker's Iowa teammate Everest Leydecker came within one win of joining her in the finals.

Leydecker, a two-time U20 world champion, reached the semifinals at 55 kilograms before being pinned by Hungary's Gerda Terek in 1:56. Leydecker struck first, scoring a takedown and adding a point off an unsuccessful Hungarian challenge to lead 3-0. Terek answered by locking up a cradle and securing the fall.

Leydecker will compete for a bronze medal on Thursday.

Before the semifinal setback, Leydecker had been nearly untouchable. She rolled through her first three opponents by technical superiority, outscoring them by a combined 31-0.

Leydecker opened with a 10-0 technical superiority over Moldova's Mihaela Samoil, scoring two takedowns for a 4-0 lead before turning Samoil three times to end the match. She followed with another 10-0 technical superiority, this time over Colombia's Yusmy Chaparro Urrego. Leydecker led 4-0 at the break, added consecutive takedowns and finished with a two-point exposure.

In the quarterfinals, Leydecker handled China's Tianai Shi 11-0. She led 3-0 at the break before adding a takedown in the second period and closing out the match with a series of leg-lace turns.

North Central College's Bella Mir, an NCAA champion, saw her tournament end Wednesday night at 68 kilograms. Mir dropped a 7-5 decision to Japan's Ray Hoshino in the quarterfinals and was eliminated from medal contention when Hoshino failed to reach the finals, closing the door on a repechage run.

The quarterfinal was a back-and-forth affair. Mir opened the scoring with a takedown, but Hoshino rallied to take a 4-3 lead into the break. Mir battled back in the second period, countering a pair of leg attacks before scoring a takedown to regain the lead, 5-4. With time running out, Hoshino came out of a scramble with the go-ahead takedown to move ahead 6-5. An unsuccessful U.S. challenge added the final point.

Earlier in the day, Mir opened her tournament with a 10-2 victory over Ukraine's Oleksandra Rybak. Mir used her counterattacks to control the match, converting two of Rybak's leg attacks into takedowns and adding another score late in the first period to build a 6-2 lead. She added two more takedowns in the second period to seal the win.

Three more women's collegiate wrestlers will begin their competitions on Thursday at the U23 World Championships, McKendree's Adaugo Nwachukwu (62 kilograms), Iowa's Reese Larramendy (65 kilograms) and North Central's Taylor Graveman (72 kilograms).