A shot of the Augsburg wrestling room, with the words
Don Stoner

Facts about women's wrestling

• Collegiate women's wrestling is administered by the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association, while awaiting formal certification by the various college athletic associations in the United States (NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, etc.).

• The WCWA conducts meets with 10 weight classes in the freestyle format: 101 pounds, 109, 116, 123, 130, 136, 143, 155, 170 and 191.

• Women's wrestling has been an Olympic sport since 2004, with competition currently in six freestyle weight classes. American women's wrestlers have earned five medals (one gold, one silver, three bronze) in Olympic competition.

• According to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, the number of girls who wrestle at the high school level has grown from 804 in 1994 to 16,562 in 2018, and 16 states now sponsor high school girls' wrestling championships.

• The NAIA added women's wrestling as an "invitational" sport in 2018 and held its first NAIA Women's Wrestling Invitational championship this March in Jamestown, N.D.

• In recent years, the NWCA has added a 16-team women's wrestling dual-meet championship to its annual Multi-Divisional National Duals event each January.

• Several wrestling organizations, including Wrestle Like A Girl, Inc., the NWCA, USA Wrestling, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, have petitioned the NCAA to add wrestling to its list of "emerging sports" for women, which could significantly speed the sport's growth at the collegiate level.

UNITED STATES COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES WITH VARSITY WOMEN'S WRESTLING PROGRAMS (updated 6/3/19):
NCAA DIVISION III (14):

Adrian College (Michigan)
Augsburg University (Minnesota) - starting in 2019-20
Delaware Valley University (Pennsylvania) - starting in 2019-20
Ferrum College (Virginia)
Fontbonne University (Missouri) - starting in 2019-20
Iowa Wesleyan University (Iowa) - starting in 2010-21
Lakeland University (Wisconsin)
MacMurray College (Illinois)
New Jersey City University (New Jersey) - starting in 2020-21
North Central College (Illinois) - starting in 2019-20
Pacific University (Oregon)
Schreiner University (Texas)
Westminster College (Missouri) -- starting in 2019-20
Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (Wisconsin) - starting in 2019-20

NCAA DIVISION II (13):
Alderson Broaddus University (West Virginia) - starting in 2019-20
Colorado Mesa University (Colorado)
Davenport University (Michigan) - starting in 2020-21
East Stroudsburg University (Pennsylvania) - starting in 2019-20
Emmanuel College (Georgia)
Gannon University (Pennsylvania)
King University (Tennessee)
Limestone College (South Carolina) - starting in 2019-20
Lindenwood University-St. Louis (Missouri)
Lock Haven University (Pennsylvania) - starting in 2019-20
McKendree University (Illinois)
Simon Fraser University (British Columbia-NCAA)
Tiffin University (Ohio)

NCAA DIVISION I (1):
Presbyterian College (South Carolina)

NAIA (30):
Baker University (Kansas)
Brewton-Parker College (Georgia)
Campbellsville University (Kentucky)
Central Christian College (Kansas)
Central Methodist University (Missouri) - starting in 2019-20
University of the Cumberlands (Kentucky)
Eastern Oregon University (Oregon)
Grand View University (Iowa) - starting in 2019-20
Indiana Institute of Technology (Indiana) - starting in 2020-21
University of Jamestown (North Dakota)
Life University (Georgia)
Life Pacific College (California) - starting in 2019-20
Lindenwood University-Belleville (Illinois)
Lyon College (Arkansas)
Menlo College (California)
Midland University (Nebraska)
Missouri Baptist University (Missouri)
Missouri Valley College (Missouri)
Oklahoma City University (Oklahoma)
Ottawa University (Kansas)
University of Providence (formerly Great Falls) (Montana)
University of Saint Mary (Kansas)
Simpson University (California) - starting in 2019-20
Southern Oregon University (Oregon)
Southwestern College (Kansas)
Texas Wesleyan University (Texas) - starting in 2019-20
Waldorf University (Iowa)
Warner Pacific College (Oregon)
Wayland Baptist University (Texas)
York College (Nebraska)

NJCAA (6):
Big Bend Community College (Washington)
Grays Harbor College (Washington)
Nassau Community College (New York)
Southwest Oregon Community College (Oregon)
Springfield Technical Community College (Mass.)
Umpqua Community College (Oregon)

CANADIAN COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES WITH WOMEN'S WRESTLING PROGRAMS:
U SPORTS (FORMERLY CIS) (15):

University of Alberta (Alberta)
Brock University (Ontario)
University of Calgary (Alberta)
Concordia University (Quebec)
University of Fraser Valley (British Columbia)
University of Guelph (Ontario)
Lakehead University (Ontario)
McMaster University (Ontario)
University of New Brunswick (New Brunswick)
Queen's University (Ontario)
Ryerson University (Ontario)
University of Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan)
University of Toronto (Ontario)
Western University (Ontario)
York University (Ontario)
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