There Is Great Breaking News In Women’s Freestyle Wrestling

December 29, 2022,

There is much to be excited about, right now, when it comes to collegiate women’s wrestling.

At all high school and collegiate levels.

As reported by the industry insiders at teamusa.org, “An Olympic sport for nearly two decades, women’s wrestling has charted explosive growth. The National Wrestling Coaches Association estimates that more than 28,000 high school women wrestled in 2021, compared with just 804 in 1994—an increase of more than 3,300 percent.”

See what we mean. Talk about becoming popular.

Across the country media outlets are taking notice.

At the Modesto Bee they share, “In 2018-19, high school participation in the sport declined for the first time in 30 years but girls wrestling increased by 27%, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. There were 21,124 girls who wrestled last year compared to 16,562 during the 2017-18 year. In California, there were almost 1,000 new girl wrestlers in 2019 while the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section has doubled its participation from 2016 (540) to this year (1,095).”

All arrows appear to be pointing up.

An organization that is super charging that endeavor is the NAIA.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America.

Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its student athletes.

For the 2021–22 season, it has 252 member institutions, of which two are in British Columbia, one in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the rest in the conterminous United States, with over 77,000 student-athletes participating.

The NAIA, whose headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, sponsors 27 national championships.

The CBS Sports Network, serves as the national media outlet for the NAIA.

In 2014, ESPNU began carrying the NAIA Football National Championship.

The NAIA began sponsoring intercollegiate championships for women in 1980, the second coed national athletics association to do so, offering collegiate athletics championships to women in basketball, cross country, gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track and field, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball and now Women’s Wrestling.

Big time impressive.

At their home naia.org, they educate, “The NAIA is the ONLY athletic association that serves the interests of small colleges through holding national championships and by driving student-athlete enrollment and financial sustainability. The NAIA provides members the tools and opportunities to support their institutional strategic priorities. The NAIA has a broader focus – developing student-athletes to their full potential and helping our members meet their overarching goals.”

The team has certainly helped women’s wrestling at the collegiate level reach their potential.

On October 27, 2022 they reported, “Winners of last year’s NAIA Women’s Wrestling Invitational, Campbellsville (Ky.) starts the sports first-ever championship season campaign with top billing in the NAIA Women’s Wrestling Coaches’ Top 20 Poll. Southern Oregon, Grand View (Iowa), Menlo (Calif.), and Cumberland’s (Ky.) round out the Top Five. Central Methodist (Mo.) sitting 14th, was unranked at the end of last season, while York (Neb.) bumps forward from receiving votes previously to 20th this time.”

We have written about Campbellsville before, led by Coach Lee Miracle, who has built a consistent powerhouse program.

Time for an update on December 12, 2022.

The informative source ottawabraves.com posted, “Southern Oregon remains the leader in the second regular season NAIA Women’s Wrestling Coaches’ Top 20 Poll. Grand View (Iowa) moves up one spot into second place, Life (Ga.) moves two spots to third, Campbellsville (Ky.) drops a pair of places, and Texas Wesleyan joins the Top Five. Doane (Neb.) is back into the poll after one cycle receiving votes and Waldorf (Iowa) makes its first appearance in 2022.”

Sounds exciting.

Perhaps the most exciting news in the last year was having a Division One, Power Five school field a women’s wrestling team.

As reported at hawkeyesports.com, “The University of Iowa Athletics Department is adding women’s wrestling as an intercollegiate program, becoming the first NCAA Division I, Power Five conference institution to offer the sport.”

That is amazing historical news.

The Power Five conferences are five athletic conferences which are considered to be the elite in college football in the United States.

They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation.

The conferences are the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC).

The NCAA adds, “The Iowa wrestling room inspires a special kind of determination. Hawkeye Wrestling Club wrestler Victoria Francis describes a “we’re going to work hard, we’re going to bang heads” kind of mentality — that grit. This culture produced NCAA and Olympic wrestling champions and helped Iowa become known as one of the most premier wrestling institutions in the country.”

In terms of being one of the premiere brands in collegiate women’s wrestling, Iowa has surpassed expectations.

On November 19, 2022, the Des Moines Register announced, “Seven Hawkeye women’s wrestlers competed at the prestigious Missouri Valley Open on Friday and Saturday. Five of the seven won individual titles: Sterling Dias at 101 pounds, Nyla Valencia at 109, Felicity Taylor at 116, Nanea Estrella at 136, and Reese Larramendy at 143.”

Way to go Hawkeyes.

Hard work really can pay off. Perhaps this is the most powerful breaking news of all.

The Hawkeye athletic department (hawkeyesports.com) alerted, “The University of Iowa Athletics Department and its multimedia rightsholder, LEARFIELD’s Hawkeye Sports Properties, today announced that UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, will serve as a proud sponsor of the men’s and women’s wrestling programs.

This marks the first college sports sponsorship for UFC, which chose Iowa for its longtime tradition of wrestling excellence within the men’s program and for support of the university’s newest intercollegiate program, women’s wrestling. Iowa is the first NCAA Division I Power Five institution to offer the sport, as announced Sept. 23, 2021, with Clarissa Chun serving as the team’s first head coach.”

CLARISSA CHUN (RIGHT)