Coralville, IA (AP) – The Iowa City area is a fitting place to host the first NCAA women’s wrestling championships.
“What is it they say? ‘Wrestletown USA?’” McKendree University coach Alexio Garcia said. “I think it’s a great place for wrestling to be hosted. You go to some places, maybe a hundred people know wrestling. There, everyone lives it.”
The event will be held Friday and Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville, a couple miles from the University of Iowa campus, which is widely regarded as the epicenter of the sport.
“It really is ‘Wrestletown USA’,” Iowa coach Clarissa Chun said. “We’ve had World Cup events here. We’re going to have other big events here. So this is a big deal for our sport.”
Women’s wrestling moved from emerging sport to championship status in January 2025. There are 111 NCAA programs across all divisions. Iowa is among just six in Division I and the only one from a power conference.
The championships aren’t divided into divisions, so a school like McKendree, a Division II school located in Lebanon, Illinois, is competing against Iowa of the Big Ten. North Central College, a Division III school in Naperville, Illinois, won the National Duals with victories over McKendree and Iowa.
McKendree is ranked No. 1 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll and followed by Iowa and North Central. Each school won regional titles and advanced the maximum 10 wrestlers to nationals.
“The fact that we’re in this position now is nothing short of pretty amazing,” Garcia said. “I think we’re all lucky and blessed to be witnessing it, to be honest.”
It’s an event that Chun and her team have been waiting for since the Hawkeyes began competing in 2023-24.
“It’s going to be pretty electric,” Chun said. “It was pretty cool at regionals to see them get so excited when they saw the NCAA regional trophies. They were like, ‘It’s real. It’s happening.’ We’ve heard about it all year, but to see that and what it looks like puts a little extra on them, the feeling that this is happening.”
Wrestling organizations began a movement in 2017 to take the sport to the college level. The National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships began in 2020 as a tournament for NCAA programs, the same year the NCAA designated women’s wrestling an emerging sport. The sport can be considered for championship status when at least 40 schools sponsor it at the varsity level.
“Women’s wrestling is so competitive,” Chun said. “Some of the wrestlers in this tournament have been in the Olympics or on world teams. That’s what’s so exciting about the trajectory of where women’s wrestling is in the United States. Because what is that tagline that the NCAA has? ’Olympians made here.’ That’s the step in the direction that the NCAA can offer.”
McKendree began its women’s wrestling program in 2013 and was a member of the Women’s College Wrestling Association, which governed NCAA, NAIA and junior college programs.
“Our culture and environment have grown tremendously,” said Garcia, who is in his fifth season as coach. “The town that we live in is really nice. (St. Louis) is about a half-hour away. So it’s an attractive place. I think what’s drawing people here to our program at this point is the culture, the attitude.”
Garcia has four wrestlers who are top seeds — Heather Crull (103), Yu Sakamoto (117), Cameron Guerin (131) and Tristan Kelly (207).
Iowa, which is 49-1 in duals in its three seasons, has three top seeds — Reese Laramendy (145), Kennedy Blades (160) and Kylie Welker (171). Blades was a silver medalist in the 2024 Olympics.
Garcia understands the significance of this tournament.
“I’m excited for this, to say the least,” Garcia said. “I’m very proud of what we’re going to represent, not just my team, but everyone that’s going there. I have three daughters of my own, so hopefully 10 years from now they’ll be wrestling in it. And I know that at that point it’s going to be a lot bigger.”
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