Women’s wrestling has hit another benchmark in accomplishment. The NCAA announced during its annual convention earlier this month that women’s wrestling will be added as the 91st championship after being approved by Division I, II and III. Establishing the 91st championship advances women’s wrestling from the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. The national collegiate championship will feature female athletes from all three divisions competing against one another.
“Right now, it’s D1, D2 and D3 competing in the same regional national tournament. I think this was the right step to build or divide that gap between D1, D2, and D3,” Simpson College assistant women’s wrestling coach Emma Cochran said. “It’s this first step in the right direction to separate those divisions.”
The NCAA wrote in its press release that for women’s wrestling to move to championship status and receive its recommendation from the Committee on Women’s Athletics, 40 schools had to sponsor the sport at varsity level and meet other competition and participant requirements. The sport eclipsed the sponsorship minimum in the 2022-23 academic year. The first championship set for winter 2026 will have its own women’s wrestling committee to work with NCAA staff on its development.
“I do think that making this a sanctioned championship is going to be the next step forward to see more D1 schools announce their programs, and we’re going to see a major boom in the sport of women’s wrestling,” Cochran said. “I think we are also going to see a major boom in wrestling in general.”
There were 76 women’s wrestling programs at NCAA schools in 2023-24, with projections pointing to an additional 17 programs in 2024-25. More than 1,200 women wrestlers are competing at NCAA schools today. At the high school level, KCCI reported that the National Federation of State H.S. Associations released statistics stating the number of girls in high school girl’s wrestling programs has doubled over the past year, with 31,654 competing in 2021-2022 and 64,257 competing in 2023-2024.
Cochran preaches one mantra to students: they’re a D1 athlete competing at a D3 school. “It’s kind of both worlds in the sense you get this amazing D3 academic degree while also competing at the D1 level,” Cochran said. The University of Iowa is currently the only Power Five school in the Big Ten to have a women’s wrestling program, which was announced in 2021.
“I think it’s [adding the championship] is going to make NCAA schools start taking it [women’s wrestling] more seriously, at least on the D1 level,” first-year women’s wrestling team member Paige Gershmel said. “I think now that there’s an actual sanctioned championship, schools are going to be a bit quicker to make programs and open more opportunities, and I think that’s really big and important.”
Gershmel was thrilled about the announcement, “It was definitely exciting, but also more of a ‘finally’ type feeling,” she said. Now, Gershmel will strive to make it to the championship next year. “I think every wrestler wants that,” she said.
Gershmel said most of the team saw the announcement on social media, but Coach Cochran’s speech during practice made the announcement even more meaningful. “It was very emotional. I understand why it was emotional for her,” Gershmel said. “She’s been in the sport at the collegiate level for a long time, and she never got that opportunity. And now, starting next year, we’ll get that opportunity.”
Cochran wrote down her planned speech in hopes of not being as emotional when reading it to the team, “I still couldn’t hold it back. I think this is the right step forward that we’ve waited for a really, really long time. So it’s really awesome finally seeing it unfold,” Cochran said. “It’s nice to know that in a sport that I grew up in and felt like I had no support, it feels really, really cool to know that the girls are going to have the recognition and support going forward.” Cochran’s speech to the team can be watched on the Simpson College Women’s Wrestling team’s Instagram.
The women’s wrestling team, which is in its third year at Simpson, has increased in numbers since it was established at the college. During its first year, the team had nine listed on its roster, and now, it exceeds over twenty wrestlers. The team’s future could benefit even more with the addition of the 91st championship.
“I think any time you can compete for an NCAA Championship, it enhances the value of the student-athlete experience and creates one more highly valued goal for individuals and teams to strive for,” Simpson athletic director Marty Bell said. “With the strong start our women’s wrestling program has enjoyed thus far, this will only strengthen our program and its value to current and future student-athletes.”