Top 15 Stories in 2019

by Derek Levendusky*, AWW staff writer
*Information gathering assisted by Sally Roberts & Wrestle Like a Girl

Here’s the top 15 stories in women’s wrestling in 2019! They’re listed in “countdown” order, and though you may argue what order they should be in, it’s clear that 1) this year was huge for women’s wrestling and 2) women’s wrestling is exploding.

15. NFHS Brings Us Good News
The National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS) reported that within the last year, the biggest jump for participation within wrestling at the high school level came among the girls, as it grew for the 30th straight year. In 1994, there were 804 reported female high school wrestlers. In 2018-19, there were 21,124 girls competing, an increase of 4,562 athletes from the previous year. That’s a whopping 27.5% increase in one year. This growth in wrestling has occurred simultaneously with the decline of participation in all high school sports, which is the first time overall participation has declined in 30 years.Further, the number of schools that reported girls participation in wrestling grew to 2,890 programs, an increase of 539 from the previous year, which amounts to a 22.9% increase.

14. Launch of Multiple Women’s Media Services
The Open Mat launched a women’s podcast for the first time, with Senior level wrestlers and personalities Alexis Porter & Arian Carpio, Waldorf wrestling alum Gabrielle Lord-Klein, a 2x WCWA All-American, launched Transition Wrestling with a primary focus on women’s college wrestling, and we launched American Women’s Wrestling. Add these to Wreaper Wrestling and Wrestle Like a Girl’s consistent dissemination of what’s-happening-in-the-movement information, and for the first time we have a pretty solid team of wrestling journalists and advocates dedicating their time to cover women’s wrestling.

13. Wrestle Like A Girl Takes More Ground
Besides their work to support states sanctioning women’s wrestling at the high school level, WLAG also continued to lead the NCAA effort toward getting women’s wrestling recognized, first an Emerging Sport, then with the ultimate goal of women’s wrestling being fully sanctioned as an NCAA Championship sport. WLAG also hired Julia Salata to help in their efforts, and hosted numerous events to inspire, equip, and propel the movement forward, including hosting 13 Empowerment Camps & Clinics with over 500 participants, hosting their 4th annual Gala at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, organize the 1st Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill with the newly established Congressional Wrestling Caucus, and honor the 2019 Afsoon Courage Award Recipient.

12. New College Programs 
This year the number of new women’s college programs reached 23 since the fall of 2018. Iowa led the way, adding four new programs, Pennsylvania & Wisconsin each added three, while California & Michigan both added two. 

11. Team USA Grabs 5 Medals at Cadet Worlds
U.S. women showed up at Cadet Worlds in Sofia, Bulgaria, coming home with five medals. Sterling Dias (40 kg), Cristelle Rodriguez (49 kg), and Skylar Hattendorf (57 kg) all grabbed silver medals, while Kylie Welker (61 kg) and Emit Alor (69 kg) won the bronze. Team USA landed in 3rdplace behind Japan and China, respectively. 

10. More States Supporting Women’s Wrestling
With Wrestle Like a Girl’s support, seven states held their first-ever state-supported high school state championship for girls in 2019. Arizona (481 girls), Colorado (140 girls), Georgia (427 girls), Maine (78 girls), Massachusetts (126 girls), Kansas (276 girls), and New Jersey (477 girls) all hosted their first-ever championship division. News also broke that 2020 will feature four more states, as Maryland (199 girls), New Mexico (154 girls), Connecticut (131 girls), and Arkansas (54 girls) will all host girls’ state championships. Utah will host a state championship in 2021.

9. Olympic Season Begins
Olympic talk dominated the news in late 2019, as qualifying events started hitting the calendar, including the Bill Farrell in November and Senior Nationals in December. Meanwhile, world teamers and top-ranked Senior level athletes started moving around to new weight classes, as 10 weight classes shrink to 6 during an Olympic year. #1 at 65, Forrest Molinari, slid up to 68 kg, and recently won Senior Nationals at that weight, setting up a potential showdown between Molinari, who took 5that Worlds in 2019, and world champion Tamyra Mensah-Stock. Molinari declared, with Mensah-Stock matside calling the match, “This is my weight!”—after she downed fellow world teamer Victoria Francis in the finals, who had also moved into that weight class from 72 kg. Alli Ragan also announced that she is moving down to 57 kg from 59 kg. Stay tuned as more will certainly qualify for the Olympic Trials through WCWA Nationals and the Last Chance Qualifier.

8. Miracle & Kilty U23 Silver
That arm wrap in the semis though. Miracle made us all cheer when she won her semi by fall at U23 Worlds againstIlona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine after falling behind 7-0. She eventually fell in the finals 3-0 to Japan’s Yuzuka Inagaki totake silver. Kilty dominated her way to the finals, outscoring her opponents 31-0, before falling in the finals 7-2 to Japan’s Masako Furuichi. After McKendree Bearcats Alexandria Glaude and Kori Bullock both won bronze medals in 2018, the first-ever medals for U.S. women at the U23 World Championships, Miracle and Kilty followed it up with two silvers, a new high-water mark for Team USA. Kilty also won a silver at Junior Worlds this year.

7. Team USA 2nd at World Cup
U.S. Women took 2ndto Japan at the 2019 World Cup in Narita, Japan on November 16th. Senior level newcomer Macey Kilty helped secure the silver with a 2-1 performance. The U.S. team also had solid performances by world champions Jacarra Winchester (55 kg), Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg) and Adeline Gray (76 kg).

6. Alyssa Lampe Returns
Alyssa Lampe is back. The 2x world bronze medalist returned to the mat, the first time since 2016 at a USAW event, and ran through her competition to win Senior Nationals just a few weekends ago in Fort Worth. She took out old rival Victoria Anthony by fall, coming back from a 6-2 deficit, shocking the watching wrestling world. Lampe and Anthony will both compete at the Olympic Team Trials in April. 

5. Ladies and Gentlemen, Emma Bruntil 
A year ago she was watching the U.S. Open, teary-eyed because she couldn’t compete due to Tommy John surgery on her elbow. On December 22nd, she won the U.S. Open Senior Nationals and qualified for the Olympic Trials. Bruntil has been a headline since she stepped back on the mat as a McKendree Bearcat in November, winning the SFU Open, the Missouri Valley Open, beating world medalist Mallory Velte at the Bill Farrell (Velte won the rematch by tight margin), and then winning Senior Nationals. She’s only begun. Olympic Trials in April is going to be a show for sure.

4. Menlo Wins WCWA National Title
A Life University last February 8th-9thin Atlanta, GA, Menlo University put their freshmen phenoms on display at the 2019 WCWA Nationals and won the team title for the first time in school history as freshmen Grace Figueroa and Alleida Martinez both won national titles. Sophomore Solin Piearcy also won it all as Menlo topped loaded programs Simon Fraser & McKendree, who took 2ndand 3rd. The McKendree squad had won the NWCA National Duals title in January.

3. Trista Blasz Denied Opportunity to Wrestle
When Dr. Michael Terranova from Lancaster Central Schools in New York denied Trista Blasz the opportunity to wrestle on her school’s team with the handwritten note, “Girls don’t play boys sports in Lancaster schools,” the wrestling community came to Trista’s side. In fact, the whole country came to her side. After her mother posted what was happening on several Facebook accounts in mid-November, A.W.W. ran the story first on November 21st. Within the next three days, local news had picked it up, and it was like wildfire as Trista’s story went all across the country and was even featured on CNN and in the Washington Post. Lancaster terminated their contract with Dr. Terranova on November 23rd. Blasz was approved on November 26thby a new panel and is now competing, with much success, for her school’s JV squad.

2. Multi-Divisional College Wrestling Materializes
Last March, the NAIA held their inaugural NAIA Invitational Championship, a huge step toward being sanctioned by their governing body. Last June, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics recommended adding women’s wrestling to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Womenprogram. If adopted, women’s wrestling would join the program August 1st, 2020. NCAA coaches also announced the first-ever NCAA National Duals division at the NWCA Duals in just a few weeks and their own NCAA national invitational championship at Adrian College in March.  

1. 2019 Worlds 
Three world champions. You know who they are—Jacarra Winchester (55 kg), Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg) and Adeline Gray (76 kg) all grabbed gold at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. This was the first time Team USA had three female world champions in the same year. Team USA took 3rdin the team race behind Russia and Japan. Gray now stands alone as the only Team USA wrestler ever to win five world titles. Including her two bronze medals, Gray now has a total of seven world medals, putting her even closer to Kristie Davis, who won nine world medals for Team USA, though she only had two world titles. Gray is now 5 for 5 on visits to the finals at world championships. She defeated Hiroe Minagawa Suzuki 4-2 in the finals.