Takedown Report

The Greatest Women’s College Wrestlers Of All Time

The complete list of the greatest women’s college wrestlers of all time.
Selecting the all-time women’s college wrestling team is tricky. 
The first women’s college national championships were hosted in 2004 at Missouri Valley University in Marshall, Missouri, without much fanfare. Some participants thought it was just another tournament, with brackets consisting of four to six participants. 
That changed in 2008 with the creation of the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA). This organization provided women with an opportunity to compete in a formal setting. It included all divisions, and the end-of-the-year tournament was considered the college national championship. The final WCWA championship was held in 2020.
In 2019, the NAIA held an invitational tournament until it sanctioned women’s wrestling for the 2022-23 season. The National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships included all NCAA programs (D1, D2, and D3), and the first national championship was held in 2020. The NCAA sanctioned women’s wrestling as its 91st sport for the 2025-26 season.
Of the four four-year divisions listed above, only the NAIA continues in its original form.  Up to 15 wrestlers per team qualified for the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships, and the brackets expanded to 32 per weight class.
The 2026 NCAA women’s wrestling championships feature 18-woman brackets and a maximum of one wrestler per team, per weight.  To celebrate the unique history of women’s college wrestling, we have selected the greatest college wrestler at every weight from each era. There is crossover between divisions, of course, and weight shifts, but this provides an overview of how the sport evolved. 
A wrestler is evaluated only during the years she competed in college, with caveats. Winning multiple college championships is important, but international success during college factors into a wrestler’s final evaluation. Post-college success is not considered, which is why Olympic gold medalists Sarah Hildebrandt and Tamyra Mensh-Stock did not make the list.  Below are the all-time women’s college wrestling teams by era, … more at … https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/14514726-the-greatest-womens-college-wrestlers-of-all-time

September 17, 2025 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | news, sports, wrestling