Women’s College Wrestling League Overview

[wrestle87]

Can someone far more in the know please give an overview of who the teams are to watch?  Obviously the Hawkeyes, but this feels to me like it is getting no airtime.  Ostensibly these will be our future olympians, so I’d like to be less than completely ignorant about the structure of the season, conferences, an NCAA tournament, etc.  

I consider myself entirely ignorant at present besides the fact that it is in fact freestyle wrestling, and I know Iowa and Princeton have teams.

[SetonHallPirate]

6 minutes ago, wrestle87 said:

Can someone far more in the know please give an overview of who the teams are to watch?  Obviously the Hawkeyes, but this feels to me like it is getting no airtime.  Ostensibly these will be our future olympians, so I’d like to be less than completely ignorant about the structure of the season, conferences, an NCAA tournament, etc.  

I consider myself entirely ignorant at present besides the fact that it is in fact freestyle wrestling, and I know Iowa and Princeton have teams.

There are 75 teams, split into six regions (numbered 1-6, pretty similarly to how NCAA Division II is structured, but with some differences in the locations of teams...for example, Bluefield State is in Region 2 for women's, but Region 3 for D-2 men's). I believe, but am not sure, each team can enter 15 wrestlers into the regional tournament, and the top four from each region per weight qualifies for nationals.

[flyingcement]

Thanks for asking the question which I had also wondered.  I wonder if we will get any duals or tournaments streamed?  I'd love to watch that and especially with my daughter

[alex1fly]

OK State got the go ahead to start a club team this year. Don't know much else about it but I'll be keeping an eye out this season.

[CHROMEBIRD]

25 minutes ago, alex1fly said:

OK State got the go ahead to start a club team this year. Don't know much else about it but I'll be keeping an eye out this season.

Is Jacarra still wrestling out of the Cowboys RTC? That could be a nice kick start to building the club towards D1 status.

[MIZ-DPT]

Morgan Kopitsky has been doing recaps for Women's wrestling this season!

Week One: 

Week two should be coming soon. Her author profile also has some great preseason content taking a look at what the top teams from last season are looking like. Jason Bryant also puts out daily events for men and women's wrestling. It seems like outside of Iowa a lot of schools have some basic streams on their sites but not sure of the consistency. 

 

 

[FanOfPurdueWrestling]

Flo has done a good job covering it, especially the D1 programs. I love wrestling and cannot recommend Flo’s pro membership enough. I love it, and love InterMat for the forum. 

[flyingcement]

this thread had me wondering - where in the heck has Mike Parrish been?

 

also I had intended on asking him a question about coed youth wrestling programs in SoCal (per a recommendation from a fellow poster).  My daughter is 7 and my son is 4 - I'd like to get them both in a program, but I can't seem to find anything for them on my side of LA (traversing the city can take two hours).  Has me considering to start a program, find a place for everyone to practice but I don't know if I could generate enough interest and also - who would we compete against?

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by flyingcement

[1032004]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:50 PM, wrestle87 said:

Can someone far more in the know please give an overview of who the teams are to watch?  Obviously the Hawkeyes, but this feels to me like it is getting no airtime.  Ostensibly these will be our future olympians, so I’d like to be less than completely ignorant about the structure of the season, conferences, an NCAA tournament, etc.  

I consider myself entirely ignorant at present besides the fact that it is in fact freestyle wrestling, and I know Iowa and Princeton have teams.

Princeton doesn’t have a team do they?  Ayres is listed on the mens roster 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, flyingcement said:

this thread had me wondering - where in the heck has Mike Parrish been?

 

also I had intended on asking him a question about coed youth wrestling programs in SoCal (per a recommendation from a fellow poster).  My daughter is 7 and my son is 4 - I'd like to get them both in a program, but I can't seem to find anything for them on my side of LA (traversing the city can take two hours).  Has me considering to start a program, find a place for everyone to practice but I don't know if I could generate enough interest and also - who would we compete against?

 

Mike and LJB both disappeared.

[flyingcement]

3 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Mike and LJB both disappeared.

Funny I actually saw LJB may have ended up at the Indiana Mat boards with our Iranian pals

Edited November 16, 2023 by flyingcement

[wrestle87]

6 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Princeton doesn’t have a team do they?  Ayres is listed on the mens roster 

I guess this brings up the next question.  What determines if a school has a women’s team?  Ayres is on the men’s roster, but she competed in the women’s freestyle division.

This is significant bc waaay back in the day in 2005, Princeton had Audrey Pang wrestling folkstyle for them at 125 on the men’s team.

[gimpeltf]

41 minutes ago, wrestle87 said:

I guess this brings up the next question.  What determines if a school has a women’s team?  Ayres is on the men’s roster, but she competed in the women’s freestyle division.

This is significant bc waaay back in the day in 2005, Princeton had Audrey Pang wrestling folkstyle for them at 125 on the men’s team.

It's a club. She's listed on the team site- but not in the OPC.

[Jason Bryant]

I guess this brings up the next question.  What determines if a school has a women’s team?  Ayres is on the men’s roster, but she competed in the women’s freestyle division.
This is significant bc waaay back in the day in 2005, Princeton had Audrey Pang wrestling folkstyle for them at 125 on the men’s team.

Audrey was actually their entrant in the EIWAs one year.

[alex1fly]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:20 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

Is Jacarra still wrestling out of the Cowboys RTC? That could be a nice kick start to building the club towards D1 status.

She is. Seems to be running over opponents left and right. 

[d3wrestle.com]

I try to keep an updated list of all DIII teams who have or have announced women's wrestling at the bottom of this page: https://www.d3wrestle.com/division-iii-team-sites/

If I've counted right, there are 60 DIII schools with teams or plans to start one. Four in DI (Sacred Heart, Presbyterian, Lindenwood, Iowa). Not sure about DII, though it looks like there were 18 DII teams at last year's national tournament. There is also an NAIA championship that is separate from the NCAA schools.

What determines if a school has a women's team? It's like any other sport. Does the athletic department sponsor it as a varsity program? Do they meet the minimum participation requirements to compete in the postseason?

[Jason Bryant]

And to piggyback on @d3wrestle.com's post, here's my list of announced or active college women's teams. The distinction is NCAA, NAIA and Junior College. 

NCAA has three divisions, but without a divisional structure as of now with women's wrestling, it would be considered "national collegiate." The Junior Colleges actually have more of a hodgepodge because there's the NJCAA, then the Northwest Conference, which is its own thing separate from the NJCAA (but there are schools that dual affiliate for wrestling) and then there's Springfield Tech, which is a two-year school, but opts to compete with the NCWA. 

https://almanac.mattalkonline.com/womens-college-wrestling-teams/