Iowa women’s wrestling faces little competition, but NCAA decision might start to narrow massive gap
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The past few days have been really good for the Iowa women’s wrestling program, on and off the mat.
On Friday, the NCAA added women’s wrestling as a sport, bringing its total number of team championships to 91.
Women’s wrestling had been labeled as an “emerging sport” for women, but this decision will give the sport more credibility, more exposure, more financial support, and hopefully, more competition, and more parity.
Because right now, the Iowa women’s wrestling team is facing very little resistance simply due to a lack of competition.
Iowa dominated its competition in its regular-season finale against Augustana College and No.4 Grand Valley State this past Saturday, winning by scores of 44-1 and 35-7, respectively.
Those two scores are typical of Iowa’s season as 15 points is the closest any opponent has come to beating head coach Clarissa Chun’s wrecking machine.
Iowa has shutout two opponents this season and held four to just one point, which is scored if the loser of the dual scores even one match point.
In the Hawkeyes’ inaugural season in 2023-24, they finished 16-0 in dual competition, captured the 2024 NWCA National Duals title, the NCWWC National Championship, had six individual national champions and 12 All-Americans.
Chun was named 2024 Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling, NCWWC and The Open Mat. She was also awarded the 2024 NCWC Trailblazer Award and was USA Today’s Iowa Woman of the Year.
The Iowa Athletic Department made history in September 2021 when it became the first NCAA Division I Power Five program to add women’s wrestling as an intercollegiate program.
That decision came on the heels of the Covid-19 global pandemic, and barely a year after Iowa announced on Aug. 21, 2020 that the UI men’s swimming and diving program would be cut due to budget cuts caused by the global pandemic.
The decision to cut the men’s swimming and diving program caused an uproar with supporters of the program, but it also made it easier for Iowa to add women’s wrestling while also maintaining a balance with Title IX issues.
That isn’t to suggest that Iowa sacrificed the men’s swimming and diving program solely for the purpose of adding women’s wrestling, but rather just pointing out that one decision might have impacted another decision.
Whatever the case, women’s wrestling is here to stay at Iowa, and now the challenge is for everybody else to narrow what appears to be a massive gap.
Somebody who is very familiar with the Iowa women’s wrestling program believes it’ll probably take three to five years before women’s wrestling at the NCAA Division I level becomes competitive, even for Iowa.
And while there are talented women’s wrestlers competing for other schools, and for established club teams throughout the country, no other team has Iowa’s collection of talent, or Iowa’s resources.
The push for more competition would require schools such as Oklahoma State and Lehigh to lift their programs from club status to full-team status, while also maintaining a balance with title IX rules.
Some fans enjoy watching their team annihilate one opponent after another, but it eventually gets old.
So, hopefully, the decision to add women’s wrestling as an NCAA sport will help to make the sport more competitive because Chun and the Hawkeyes show no signs of letting up or slowing down.
She was hired to build the Iowa women’s wrestling program into a national power, and to be a pioneer for the sport, and so far, it’s been mission accomplished in spectacular fashion.
It isn’t Chun’s fault that the competition leaves much to be desired, nor is it her responsibility to help make the sport more competitive.
Chun and the Hawkeyes have set the bar and they are committed to raising it each and every day.
Now it’s up to the other schools to start trying to catch up.