Inside The Hawkeyes

Women's Wrestling Officially Added as the 91st NCAA Championship Sport

All three NCAA divisions voted it in on Thursday, January 16th, and Friday, January 17th.
Izabelle Cool|
Iowa's women's wrestling team walks out of the tunnel to receive their first-place team award on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the NCWWCs at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Iowa's women's wrestling team walks out of the tunnel to receive their first-place team award on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the NCWWCs at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Iowa Hawkeyes

On Thursday, Jan. 16, and Friday, Jan. 17, at the 2025 NCAA Convention, women's wrestling was voted to become an official NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III championship sport. The vote comes after several seasons of participation in the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. The first championship is slated to be hosted in March of 2026.   

There are amazing women out there, and if you give them the opportunity to have a place and a space to thrive and excel, then they will. The sky’s the limit for them, no different than the men.
Iowa head coach Clarisa Chun

Currently, women's collegiate wrestling is offered at 76 institutions with only four programs participating in Division I after the 2023-24 season. With the vote, many teams, including Iowa women's wrestling, hope to see more schools add women's wrestling so that the sport can grow and the championships include more than a handful of programs.

It is expected that 17 institutions will have women's wrestling added during the 2025-26 season.

Since I was a little girl, I dreamed about being an NCAA national wrestling champion. It will fulfill so many little girls’ dreams, including mine.
Iowa women's wrestling Kennedy Blades

Blades is a 2024 Olympic silver medalist, who hopes to add an NCAA accolade to her resume before she graduates. The Olympic committee added women's wrestling to the coveted event in 2004.

Before the vote, all schools in any division participated in a national competition at the end of the season organized by a coalition of wrestling organizations. In the team's inaugural year, Iowa won the 2024 National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships. The Hawkeyes narrowly defeated Division III North Central by 6 team points after the team had nine finalists to North Central's three.

Iowa Women's Wrestling Updates

Iowa remains ranked number one by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and has 16 ranked Hawkeyes heading into this weekend. Notable top-ranked wrestlers include Rianne Murphy (103), Brianna Gonzalez (117), Macey Kilty (145), Kennedy Blades (160), Kylie Welker (180) and Jaycee Foeller (207).

The Hawkeyes will host Augustana College on Sunday, January 18, at 6 p.m. CST. The dual will be streamed on the Big 10 + Network.

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Izabelle Cool
IZABELLE COOL

Izabelle is a master’s candidate at the University of Tennessee studying Sports Management. She received her Bachelor of Journalism with an emphasis in Sports Broadcast from the University of Missouri in 2024. She has been covering wrestling for Missouri On SI since 2023 and has covered wrestling for the Ohio State Buckeyes On SI and Iowa Hawkeyes On SI since 2024. Additionally, Izabelle has covered various Olympic sports, including track and field, soccer, and tennis, since 2021 with other outlets.

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