The NWCA has been privileged to support the growth of women’s wrestling across America. In 2004, women’s wrestling was sanctioned as an Olympic sport and the U.S. team quickly became a world power with two medals in 2004 and one medal in 2008. Equally encouraging, is the growth at the grass root and high school levels. Today, there are over 5,000 young women competing in high schools across America and three states, Texas, Washington, and Hawaii now sanction state championships for women. In fact, there are now twice as many high school women’s wrestlers as there are high school women’s rowers.
Collegiate Level: At the collegiate level, the NWCA has been privileged to work very closely with an allied organization, the Women’s College Wrestling Association (WCWA), to promote the growth of women’s wrestling on college campuses across America. The executive director of the WCWA, Kevin Black, also holds a seat on the NWCA Board of Directors. Specifically, the WCWA serves as the governing body for women’s college wrestling. Their primary role is to standardize the competition rules for women until the NCAA, NAIA, and/or Junior Colleges sanction it as an emerging sport (each governing body requires a minimum number of schools to sponsor a particular sport before they will sponsor a national championship). The WCWA competes in the Olympic discipline of freestyle wrestling and offers the following weight classes: 44kg/97lbs, 48kg/105.5lbs, 51kg/112lbs, 55kg/121lbs, 59kg/130lbs, 63kg/138.5lbs, 67kg/147.5lbs, 72kg/158lbs, 82kg/180lbs, 95kg/209lbs. The University of the Cumberlands was crowned team champions in 2008 while Oklahoma City University won the title in 2009.
Current members of the WCWA include: Jamestown College (North Dakota), Lindenwood University (Missouri), Lock Haven University (Pennsylvania), Menlo College (California), Missouri Baptist University, Missouri Valley College, Northern Michigan University, Oklahoma City University (Oklahoma), Simon Fraser University (British Columbia), University of Buffalo (New York), University of the Cumberlands (Kentucky), University of Regina (Saskatchewan), and University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Additions for the 2009-10 season already include King College (Tennessee).
In the absence of an NCAA or NAIA National Championship, the NWCA has filled the void by sponsoring a “women’s division” at the National Dual Meet Championships. This premier event affords all of the women participating on the collegiate teams with an opportunity to win a national dual meet championship. Eight teams participate annually for the dual meet national title. Oklahoma City University was the team champion in 2009. Click here for full results from the 2009 NWCA Women’s National Dual Meet Championships.
We encourage all coaches of male wrestlers to do everything possible to recruit female student-athletes into high school and college wrestling programs. The NWCA and WCWA have collectively developed some resources that will assist you in coaching women wrestlers. These resources include, but are not limited to, the following:
Together, let's work to make sure women's wrestling continues to grow at all levels!