No division of talent in Iowa women's college wrestling
After the University of Iowa's national title, Grand View and William Penn take aim at NAIA success
If anyone needs further proof that the heart of women’s wrestling is in Iowa, all they have to do is look ahead to this weekend.
No, not back to last weekend when the Iowa Hawkeyes built on their budding dynasty with a second consecutive National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships title. Because it doesn’t end there.
The state gets to show its stuff one more weekend when the NAIA championships begin Friday in Wichita, Kan. In the mix for a team title are No. 2-ranked Grand View, which had been No. 1 earlier this season, and No. 3-ranked William Penn. Both rosters also include top-ranked and other highly ranked wrestlers in search of individual national titles.
As far as the Grand View and William Penn coaches are concerned, though, a national title would just be a nice perk. The key, both say, is individual performance and helping their wrestlers reach their goals.
“We don't talk about the national title, the banner, we don't talk about that,” said Grand View assistant coach Arelys Valles. “All we talk about is the fight, their 6 minutes on the mat.”
William Penn Coach Jake Kadel, a former Iowa wrestler, agreed.
“Anything can happen,” he said “It’s more about them just going out and competing to the best of their ability and just whatever happens, happens kind of deal. So that's been our message so far, and if we win, we win. If we get second, we get second. Whatever happens, happens.”
A lot of good things have happened for both programs lately. For starters, they were part of history in February when their dual meet was the first women’s wrestling match Iowa PBS showed in its 37 years of broadcasting live wrestling. William Penn won, 25-19.
“For us to be a part of that was awesome because I’m sure they could have put the University of Iowa on there,” Kadel said. “I remember when I was young, growing up watching the Iowa Hawks wrestle on that.”
Waldorf was the first Iowa college to offer women’s wrestling, launching the sport in 2010. Grand View was the second in 2019 and is now in its sixth season. Valles has been there since the beginning as part of Angelo Crinzi’s staff.
It was a good fit for the school, which has emerged as an NAIA power in a variety of sports. The men’s wrestling team just won its 13th national title; the football team won its second national championship in December.
Women’s wrestling success came quickly for the Vikings, who qualified for the NAIA tournament in their first season, but it didn’t happen because of COVID. They were ranked No. 1 in their second season.
“Looking back, it was a struggle,” Valles said. “We had 20 girls, and we were bumping people up just to fill the weight class. We had one girl bump up two weight classes for a dual.”
That roster has now grown to 64.
“Before, we had a small number of girls to train with,” Valles said. “Now girls have three to four different training partners a week. But it's nice to see, to sit back back and really see how much it has grown.”
In addition, the Vikings are one of the few women’s wrestling programs in the country that has its own practice facility.
The Vikings are sending 12 wrestlers to the national tournament, including top-ranked Olivia Brown, who was named the Heart of America Conference’s wrestler of the year.
William Penn also has 12 wrestlers heading to nationals. Kadel is in his second year with the program, coming from Iowa Wesleyan after that school closed in 2023 for financial reasons. It was a strong program and many of the Iowa Wesleyan wrestlers followed Kadel to Oskaloosa.
Last season, Adaugo Nwachukwu won a national title for William Penn after having won two for Iowa Wesleyan. She has had success on the international stage, including a bronze medal in the under-20 division at the world championships in 2022.
Though she’s no longer in school and wrestling on a U.S. Army team, Nwachukwu’s legacy remains at William Penn. At an international competition, she and the William Penn coaches met the Nigerian national coach, who later got in touch to say he had athletes interested in pursuing their education and wrestling in the U.S.
That brought a couple Olympians to campus for William Penn this season: Nigeria’s Christianah Ogunsaya and Esther Kolawole, who both competed in Paris last summer. Both won conference championships for William Penn and are headed to the national meet.
“The big thing is for the other girls to see them and elevate their training and fight to mimic what those two bring every day to practice,” Kadel said. “They train extremely hard in the room, and honestly, I've never seen anything like it. It kind of reminded me of our time at the University of Iowa, just how hard they compete in the room. It’s fun to watch.”
The official NAIA tournament is in its third year and was an invitational tournament for four years before that. With the growth of women’s wrestling, the sport’s championships continue to evolve. Where once there was one tournament that included teams from the NCAA, NAIA and junior colleges, they’ve now all gone their separate ways. The tournament that Iowa just won was an unsanctioned national tournament, but in January the NCAA added women’s wrestling as an official championship sport. Next season will be the first NCAA wrestling championships.
The NCAA and NAIA are two separate governing bodies for college athletics, with separate rules for recruiting, eligibility and various other things. With some sports, it’s a vast difference of talent but not so much for women’s wrestling at this point.
“Sometimes I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, the NAIA, that’s like the Wild West,’” Kadel said. “Recruits will say, ‘I want to go DI,’ but it doesn't really mean anything at this level right now. Maybe if all the Division I schools had wrestling, but that's not the case.”
For now, Iowa is the only Power 5, large school with women’s wrestling. That means at the NCAA level, their budding dynasty is likely to turn into an actual dynasty because the Hawkeyes have deep resources and will get their pick of the talent.
Kadel points out that the talent in the NAIA is strong, too. Doane’s Cristelle Rodriguez is a reigning under-20 world champion and a William Penn recruit, Piper Fowler, won an under-17 world title. At Grand View, sophomore Mayangelie Colon earned a spot on Puerto Rican senior national team in December.
“It just kind of goes to show that a lot of the top talent is going to the NAIA as well,” Kadel said. “It’s exciting. It’s good.”
Valles agreed.
“I've seen many NAIA wrestlers beat people from the NCAA,” she said. “They just kind of divide us up, which is fine. That's the growth of women's wrestling.
“Everybody's tough. No matter what division you're in or what weight class you’re in, everyone here is tough.”
Update, March 16: Grand View finished second in the tournament, William Penn finished third. Life, a college in Marietta, Ga., won the title. William Penn crowned two champions: Christianah Ogunsanya and Esther Kolawole. Both are freshmen from Nigeria who were members of Nigeria’s Olympic team in Paris last summer. Complete results here.
From 2024: A women’s wrestling primer.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
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