Iowa women celebrate NCAA announcement after dominating wins

IOWA CITY — Clarissa Chun echoed a line from a beloved Iowa film to describe the news.

“If you build it, they will come,” the Iowa women’s wrestling coach said Saturday.

The memorable quote from 1989’s “Field of Dreams” felt appropriate during a week in which the women’s wrestling community celebrated Friday’s NCAA announcement that the burgeoning sport would be added as its 91st championship sport at the Division I, II and II levels beginning in 2026.

“Yes, finally!,” Chun said after No. 1 Iowa routed No. 4 Grand Valley State, 35-7, at the Iowa Duals II women’s wrestling triangular before 4,054 fans Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “Great news. Exciting news. Hopefully more teams will follow shortly after.

“I’m excited for the future of women’s wrestling and the growth of it. Looking forward to more powerful teams joining on and getting this extra competitive to go up against other Big Ten schools.”

Women’s wrestling has been operating under the “NCAA Emerging Sports for Women” program. Before the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics could recommend the sport be moved to championship status, it required sponsorship of 40 schools at the varsity level in addition to other competition and participation requirements. Those requirements were surpassed during the 2022-23 school year and the recommendation was made in February.

“The numbers show and speak for themselves,” Chun said. “The growth of women’s wrestling at the high school level and collegiate level and more programs keep adding women’s wrestling, so it was not a matter of if, but when.”

After becoming the first program from a power conference to sponsor the sport in 2021, Iowa began competing during the 2023-24 season, which ended with a national championship at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships. The NCAA announcement should spur even more power conference schools to sponsor the sport.

“That’s the hope,” Chun said. “That’s the dream of the efforts of all the people who fought so hard to get it to that championship status at the NCAA level.”

Iowa (15-0) honored its four seniors — Nanea Estrella, Jaycee Foeller, Macey Kilty and Emmily Patneaud — after the triangular, which began with a 44-1 whitewash of Augustana (Ill.) College (4-5) and was attended by honorary captain and women's wrestling pioneer Tricia Saunders.

Iowa’s tussle with Grand Valley State (2-2) featured four matches between opponents who were ranked by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Two of Iowa's third-ranked wrestlers — Sterling Dias (103 pounds) and Nanea Estrella (138) — lost hard-fought decisions. Dias fell to No. 4 Rayana Sahagun, 6-4, while Estrella lost to second-ranked Katie Lange, 4-3.

Iowa's seventh-ranked Cali Leng (124) posted a 2-2 win on criteria over No. 4 Aspen Blasko.

"I spent just a lot of time mentally preparing, journaling and trying to get everything in tune and dialed in and believe in myself," Leng said. "That has been the biggest thing. Just kind of letting go of the pressure of winning or losing. It was a little challenging at first knowing that I was in Carver, but then I let that go and I feel like I am able to wrestle a lot more freely."

Kilty — ranked No. 1 at 145 — celebrated Senior Night in style with a 10-0 technical fall victory over ninth-ranked Elleni Johnson.

"I expect that from myself," Kilty said. "I expect that from the training situation that I am in. It is just something that is part of the process. I go up there just like it is any other match. It doesn't matter what they are ranked."

Iowa will travel to Albany, N.Y. next week to compete in the 2025 College Duals, which will include No. 6 Presbyterian, No. 12 Lock Haven, No. 15 Sacred Heart and No. 19 Elmira.