IW athletics getting ahead with women’s wrestling addition

It's one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, but with fewer than 40 colleges offering it as of last fall, women's wrestling has enjoyed a rather quiet rise. The booming sport will be heard loud and clear, however, when it makes its southeast Iowa debut next fall.

Iowa Wesleyan announced the addition of wrestling earlier this month, and while men's wrestling wasn't a huge surprise, the announcement to form a women's team turned heads.

'The women's wrestling train is moving,” says Athletic Director Derek Zander. 'It's on a quick pace right now, and we need to be on it. I don't want to be looking back five years from now and see women's wrestling go where it's going to go, and us be on the back end of it.”

Females have long participated in the sport of wrestling, to the point where it's not rare to see a handful of girls on the local high school teams, but the sport is beginning to grow nationally, partially due to the additoin of state championships around the country.

According to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, theree are 14 states and territories that currently sponsor a state championship. Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Massachuseets, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Hawaii and Washington all recognize the sport and crown state champions every year.

Iowa had its first-ever state meet this fall, and Mt. Pleasant was represented right away when freshman Abby Blint competed in the opening match at 106 lbs. Zander says the girls' tournament, held in Waverly, caught his eye.

'We did it because the state of Iowa just had their first high school state championships this past year,” Zander said. '(And) we're trying to be a leader for women's rights and women's opportunities.”

The University will be launching the program in the fall of 2020, giving the sport one year of recruiting, much like they did with men's and women's cross-country, which launched in 2019, and with men's and women's track and field, which will launch next school year.

Zander has spearheaded a new strategic vision for Tiger Athletics, and part of that vision was to add to the growth and competitiveness of the school by offering more sports. He says wrestling in the Midwest was just a common-sense choice.

'When we were evaluating which other sports were important, we loked at where we're located and who we are,” Zander says. 'Wrestling in the Midwest, it just makes sense. Specifically on the men's side, it's huge in this area.”

The college will be hiring one wrestling coach over the summer, hoping to hire on someone by Aug. 1. That coach will recruit for both teams, but another full-time coach will be added on before the season starts so there will be two full-time coaches; one for men and one for women.

'There are a couple of reasons why we think that is important,” Zander says. 'One is to recruit for not only competitive success, but filling the rosters. But secondly, there is a difference between the Folkstyle in the men's wrestling and the Freestyle in women's wrestling. We believe for us to be truly successful, we want to bring in an expert in both fields to recruit and coach their respective sports.”

Indeed there are difference in the men's and women's competitions. Area wrestling fans are familiar with the folk-style points system, rewarding two points for every takedown or reversal, one point for an escape and bonus points for nearfalls. In Freestyle, not every takedown is treated the same.

In Freestyle wrestling, you still earn a win via pinfall, much like the Folkstyle format, but not every takedown is treated equally. Competitors can score anywhere between two and five points for a takedown, depending on points of contact and execution. 'Exposure” points can also be scored in a similar fashion as nearfalls.

Currently, both men and women's freestyle wrestling is offered in the Olympics. Greco-Roman, a different style than the other two, is also offered in the Olympics, while Folkstyle is not.

Zander says in preperation for adding wrestling, he spoke to Athletic Directors around the Midwest. He also sought council from IW Univeristy Provost DeWayne Frazier, who is heavily involved in the local youth club 'D.C. Elite,” which has rooms in Mt. Pleasant, Wrestling and Cedar Rapids. Frazier is also a wrestling parent. Son Blaine Frazier is competing for the U.S. national team and also making the state final in his freshman year of high school.

'As a parent of wrestlers, I was thrilled when Coach Zander came to me to dialogue about wrestling and its potential here at Iowa Wesleyan,” Frazier says. 'I have been blessed over the years to be at one of the NAIA powerhouse institutions for wrestling, in Campbellsville University, and was good friends with the head coach there, Franky James. Many of my former students were wrestlers and I keep in close contact with them.”

Frazier has kept a watchful eye on girls' and women's wrestling, and has seen it grown since the early 1990s.

'From 1994 until today, women's wrestling has grown from 804 to over 16,000,” Frazier says. 'There are so many outstanding wrestling minds in this state, because they have grown up watching the sport and their time is now.”

Frazier says Mt. Pleasant being in a hot zone for wrestling can only help IW and the future of the women's team.

'We are less than an hour away from one of the top training facilities in the world for Freestyle wrestling in Hawkeye Wrestling Club in Iowa City,” Frazier says. 'So this is going to be a huge draw for us to get women athletes and a strong applicant pool for our coaches as well.”

The average Division III women's roster is 18.9, which gives IW hope to fill a team sooner rather than later, but Zander knows it will still be a challenge early on. He says getting out on the road will help the Tigers bring in some experienced wrestlers to help grow the team.

'In doing our research, looking at rosters and demographics, and where students are coming from, there are really three states that compose 70-80 percent of those rosters,” Zander says. 'That's Texas, California and Oklahoma. Those three are women's wrestling goldmines (and) we're going to have to take advantage of them. I don't see that as a huge problem, because if you look at our rosters already, we get a lot of out of state students.”

Zander says the addition of the sport helps the university stay out in front of creating more opportunities for both men and women athletes. On a personal level, he says he's just excited to see what happens when the school gets to host its first home meet.

'The Ruble gets really loud during basketball games,” Zander says. 'When the first Iowa men's or women's wrestling meet comes to Mt. Pleasant, there are going to be a lot of people that are intruiged. I'm really excited to see the energy that comes to Ruble Arena.”