The 6 National Championships for College-Aged Women

guest writer Shannyn Gillespie
IG: @coachshannyntalks
Twitter: @coachshannyn

With all of the opportunities for college aged women wrestlers nowadays, we thought it was a good idea to break down some of the most popular freestyle tournaments for them…

First, female wrestling in the USA is growing at an unprecedented pace at the high school (20,000+ folkstyle participants) plus college levels (1,000+ freestyle participants). And, as of this writing, there are 80+ junior college, college, or university women’s wrestling programs (varsity & club) that plan to send wrestlers to the below Olympic style wrestling competitions.  This list of freestyle national tournaments is in chronological order from the inaugural events...

Sr. Nationals

This freestyle competition allows wrestlers 17 years or older to compete for an opportunity to qualify for the World Team Trials.  And, the WTT is the qualifier for the Sr. World Championships. Sr. Nationals, along with the aforementioned WTT, started for women in 1989.  Incidentally, 1989 was the first year Team USA sent a women’s team to the Sr. World Championships. (The inaugural Sr. Worlds for women’s wrestling was 1987.)   

Sr. Nationals are typically held in the spring, and in recent years, rotates to the winter in the Olympic years. This tournament is organized by USA Wrestling and USAW is the national governing body for wrestling at the World Championships & the Olympic Games.

U20 (Juniors)

The “U” in front of numbers of most athletic competitions or teams or leagues stands for “Under” and are generally age group competitions.  In this case, U20 stands for Under 20 years old. (There are also these age groups U17, U15, etc.) So the U23 Nationals, a freestyle competition, is generally another qualification tournament for the U20 World Championships or U20 Worlds.  

The U20 Nationals is typically held in the spring or summer and most U20 Worlds are held in the summer or early fall. The U20 Worlds is also known as Jr. Worlds. It’s unclear when the first U20 Nationals were held but the first Jr. World Championships were held in 1988. The U20 Nationals are organized by USA Wrestling and are typically held in the spring.

WCWA 

The Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association Nationals began in 2008 and the first Women’s College Nationals (a different tournament) was held in 2004.  The WCWA Nationals, a freestyle competition, was the first sanctioned college organization to hold a national tournament for college women’s teams from the NAIA, NCAA, & many non-represented community colleges or junior colleges.  

One of the interesting questions going forward could be “Is there still a need for a WCWA Nationals?” due to the below other national collegiate competitions. This tournament is organized by the WCWA (organized by women's college coaches) and is typically held in late January or early February.

U23

The under 23 age group is used around the world in many Olympic sports and the first U23 World Championships for wrestling was held in 2017.  This under 23 (years of age) competition means that if an athlete turns 24 in the year of the competition, they are ineligible.  So, this fits most US college student athletes who traditionally enter college at around 17 and leave around 23. The U23 Nationals, a freestyle competition, (in conjunction with a world team trial) is the qualifier for the U23 Worlds, is organized by USA Wrestling, & is typically held in the spring.  

NAIA

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics held its first women’s wrestling National Invitational in 2019.  Although the NAIA Invitational happened 11 years after the first WCWA Nationals, and 15 years after the Women’s College Nationals, it is considered a success because…  The NAIA is the first college athletics association (i.e. NAIA, NCAA, NJCAA) to organize and hold a national type competition for college women wrestlers. The NAIA Invitational is held in the winter and is a freestyle competition. 

According to the NAIA, “Once a sport has established at least two years under invitational status, the National Administrative Council (NAC) will review whether or not the sport is ready to become a championship sport."  This means that likely next year, the NAIA Invitational for women’s wrestling could become the official NAIA National Championships.

WCWC

The Women's Collegiate Wrestling Coalition Championships is for NCAA member schools and the actual name of the competition is the Cliff Keen National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships.  The WCWC Nationals, a freestyle competition, was first held in 2020.  

Because wrestling is an NCAA emerging sport and according to the NCAA, "Bylaws require that emerging sports must gain championship status (minimum 40 varsity NCAA programs for individual and team sports; with the exception of Division III requiring only 28 varsity programs for team sports)..."   

This means that at least 40 NCAA schools must maintain women’s wrestling varsity programs in a 10 year span for the sport to continue to be an emerging sport.  It’s not clear how long it takes to become an NCAA Championship sport, but when that happens, the competition will be called the NCAA Championships.

What’s next?

It’s clear all of female wrestling is growing in the US from the high school, to college, & even the Olympic levels.  What is unclear, is what will happen to the WCWA Nationals when both the NAIA & NCAA reach “Championship” status?  

Another question is what will happen to the non-represented college organization student athletes like the community college or junior college women wrestlers i.e. Will there be a need for an NJCAA Nationals or will these student athletes get left out?  For now, the WCWA Nationals (the longest standing women’s wrestling college national championships) allows all college women to compete…

Part of the answer is that community colleges & junior colleges likely will  have a version of a National tournament of their own...

According to Gary Abbott from USA Wrestling, "A group of women’s college wrestling coaches and administrators from two-year universities held a historic meeting with members of the USA Wrestling staff on Wednesday, Feb. 26, to begin planning to launch a Community College Women’s Wrestling National Championships in 2021."

This could make the WCWA Nationals less valuable/needed or be replaced with another women's college national tournament.  And, this might help grow more community college & junior college women's wrestling programs.”

A final question, and maybe the most important question, is how do girl high school wrestlers prepare for the above freestyle college competitions when all of the sanctioned high school state tournaments are folkstyle competitions?  

This question is important because many high school girl wrestlers (and their parents), principals, & athletic directors may be unaware that female high school & college wrestling are different styles  — similar to how baseball is different than softball.  

The author doesn’t know the answer to that question, but has spent some time asking expert women wrestlers and women’s college wrestling coaches their thoughts, ideas, & opinions about that question... The Great Debate for Female High School Wrestlers: Freestyle or Folkstyle.