Women’s wrestling took another big step on Wednesday, officially being approved as an NCAA championship sport by the Division I Council.
Women’s wrestling is the 91st championship sport and the sixth to reach championship status through the Emerging Sports for Women program. Division II and Division III will hold their votes on Friday and are likely to follow suit.
The first NCAA women’s wrestling championship is slated for the 2026 season.
As of May, there were 96 NCAA schools with women’s wrestling teams across all three divisions. Three are in New Jersey: Centenary University, Felician University and New Jersey City University.
The approval comes nearly a year after being first recommended at last February’s NCAA meeting. An Olympic sport since 2004, women’s wrestling gained approval at this week’s annual NCAA convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
“It’s been a long time coming. It’s long overdue,” Team USA member and Warren County native Skylar Grote said by phone on Wednesday night. “Today’s announcement and approval opens opportunities going forward. We’re going to see a boom and explosion of women’s college wrestling. It’s great to see.”
Grote, who grabbed headlines last April at the US Olympic Trials, going 3-2 and finishing fifth/sixth, didn’t have many opportunities to compete on the college level after graduating from storied Blair Academy in 2012.
“A few years ago, the opportunity for a girl to go to a good academic and wrestling school was slim to none,” said Grote, speaking by phone from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “You start to see growth when there’s change at the highest level. The sport is going to expand now and I expect to see more opportunities open up.”
The number of women’s wrestling teams has exploded in recent years. Numbers have more than doubled from the 41 that sponsored the sport in the 2022-23 academic year.
New Jersey has seen significant growth at the high school level since 2018, when the NJSIAA became the 12th state association and first in the Northeast to have a girls state tournament. Year-over-year, new programs are being added and interest continues to grow.
John Gardner, the longtime High Point boys wrestling coach and first-year Wildcats girls coach, was pleased to hear Wednesday’s news.
“Girls wrestling continues to break down more barriers. This is a gamechanger,” Gardner said. “Girls that I coach that never wrestled before now aspire to compete on the next level. There’s new opportunities and new schools that are introducing women’s wrestling every year. It’s great to be a part of it all and see it continue to come together.”
