College Wrestling: NCAA Invitational Set by Brand New Coalition

Adrian’s Zoe Nowicki works on a turn against Tiffin. Adrian College will host the first-ever National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships. Photo courtesy of The Daily Telegram.

by Derek Levendusky, AWW staff writer

Women’s NCAA programs have formed a coalition called the WCWC (Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Coalition). This group will serve to carry along the women’s college wrestling movement within the NCAA as last June, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics recommended adding women’s wrestling to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. If adopted, women’s wrestling would join the program Aug. 1, 2020.

One of the WCWC’s first acts was to create this year’s NCAA invitational, an event they titled the “1st Annual Cliff Keen National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships.” It will be hosted by Adrian College and held on March 6-7, 2020.

Invited programs must be institution-supported “with a link of their institution’s athletics web page, a posted roster & schedule online and a coach that is an employee of the institution.” Teams must have a minimum of five wrestlers competing in a minimum of five weight classes with a minimum of five dates of intercollegiate freestyle competition. Teams must also have implemented the OPC (Optimal Performance Calculator) for a minimum of five dates of intercollegiate competition.

NCAA teams can compete in this year’s NCWWC with up to 15 wrestlers, no more than two per weight class. Team scoring will be based on ten wrestlers named in advance.