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Amateur Wrestling Reports

Xtream Arena to host women’s college wrestling national championships in 2025

The National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships will have a new home in 2025, moving from Cedar Rapids and Alliant Energy PowerHouse to Coralville and Xtream Arena.
The news comes just days after the Missouri Valley Conference announced that Xtream Arena would also be home to the women’s college basketball conference tournament in 2026. That means the arena will be quite busy in the coming years in addition to its minor league hockey team and hosting several other sporting events throughout the year.
Annually, the Soldier Salute, the Dan Gable Donnybrook and the girls high school state wrestling tournament are held at Xtream Arena.
In addition to this announcement, the National Wrestling Coaching Association announced which regions each team will be a part of in 2025, expanding from six to eight regions. Still, the top four winners will advance to the NCWWCs. The Hawkeyes will be in Region 7 with fellow Iowa programs Central College, Cornell College, Dubuque University, Loras College, Simpson College, Upper Iowa University and Wartburg College.
With the NCAA set to make women’s wrestling a sanctioned sport in 2026, this will be the final year that the NCWWC will organize the event. “It is going to be an amazing final year of the NCWWC … more at … Press-citizen.com/NCWWCS-to-take-place-in-xtream-arena-in-coralville-in-2025

May 1, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

‘They’re as tough as anybody’: As women’s wrestling is on the rise nationwide

By Roberta Simonson and Alexandra Duggan The Spokesman-Review

As 15-year-old Raenah Smith looked around at the thousands of women and girls filling the Podium in Spokane, all there to wrestle in the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s National Championships, she marveled at how the sport has given her trailblazing female role models in a male-dominated sport. “I look up to a lot of the college women wrestling right now,” Raenah said at the tournament on Friday. “And I want to be like them.”
Raenah is home-schooled, but wrestles for Mead High School. She’s competing this week in the championship but has wrestled girls and boys since age 9. In the last six years, she’s seen the sport grow significantly, she said at the tournament on Friday. No longer are girls wrestling only boys; they’re able to have a tournament to themselves. “I try my best against boys. They’re stronger. It’s hard. But it gives me a sense of confidence because you’re beating someone bigger,” she said.
Women’s wrestling is the fastest-growing high school sport in the United States, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. The number of high school girls who competed in wrestling more than quintupled from 2013 to 2023, growing from 6,545 to over 50,000. The championships hosted in Spokane span eight divisions, ranging from age 7 to 23.
Champions in the four age divisions this weekend are eligible to earn a spot on Team USA for the Pan-Am and World championships later this summer. “This tournament has been going on for so long. But every single year it grows, and so does women’s wrestling,” 21-year-old Yele Aycock said, just as she stepped off the mat after winning her first round. Women and girls fly in from around the country just to be part of the championship. Some were sporting shirts from Iowa, California, Montana, Idaho and more.
Aycock is competing in Spokane from North Central College in Illinois, but she’s from a small town in New Mexico – a town that never had girls and women’s wrestling tournaments. “Coming from there where there’s no girls tournaments, to here, where it’s all women’s wrestling and we’re taking up 18 mats – I think it’s super cool,” she said. “It’s amazing to see.”
Aycock and Smith both grew up watching their brothers wrestle. And they both knew they could do it, too. “I think it’s a really big confidence booster where, maybe you lose a match to a guy just because he’s a lot bigger. But when you win a match, it’s because you’re just better at wrestling,” Aycock said. “Now that women are wrestling women, it’s really a show of skill and how good you are at the sport.”
With more than 70 schools intending to sponsor the sport in 2023-24, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced plans in February for its first women’s wrestling championship in 2026. This is the second time the city has hosted this event. In 2022, Spokane was selected as the host city for the championships for three consecutive years starting in 2023. “Last year we had 1,473 athletes, and this year we already have 1,520 athletes registered. Registration doesn’t even close until Friday,” said Cherie Gwinn, senior director of events with Spokane Sports.
The increase isn’t surprising, given national trends. “It’s certainly exceeded our expectations,” Gwinn said of the increase in registration, “I think it shows how strong women’s wrestling is here in Washington state, but specifically West Coast.”
After California and Illinois, Washington has the highest number of female wrestlers, Gwinn said. “I think that’s the true compilation of just how hard we work to recognize women in sports,” Gwinn said.
Rogers High School girls wrestling coach Whitney Bowerman is seeing the same thing here in Spokane, she said. Even in middle school, it’s “just been blowing up.” … more at … Spokesman.com/Theyre-as-tough-as-anybody-as-womens-wrestling-is

May 1, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Carolina Beach Nationals on May 11 is qualifier for U17 & U20 Beach World Teams

Apr. 30, 2024, 8:54 AM (ET) by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
USA Wrestling’s Executive Committee has approved the 2024 Beach Wrestling Team Procedures, which spells out how athletes can qualify to compete for Team USA at the international level.
According to the procedures, the Carolina Beach Wrestling Nationals, set for Carolina Beach, N.C. on May 11 will serve as the qualifying event for the U.S. teams that will compete at the U17 and U20 Beach World Championships, which will be held in September 19-20 in Katerini Pierria, Greece.
There are three spots on the U.S. team in each of the four weight classes for both men and women. The teams will be selected according to these approved procedures.

  1. Top four placement at the specific weight class at the 2024 Carolina Beach Nationals, based upon finish.
  2. Past U17 or U20 World medalists and past U17 or U20 Pan American medalists
  3. Participation at the 2024 Carolina Beach Nationals
  4. Open to the general public to athletes that meet age-group and eligibility requirements on a first-come, first served basis
  5. There will be specific divisions at the Carolina Beach Nationals for these UWW age groups. The official weight classes and eligibility for the U17 and U20 Beach World Championships are below. … more at … Themat.com/Carolina-beach-nationals-on-may-11-is-qualifier-for-u17-u20-beach-world-teams

May 1, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment