A historic addition

February 12, 2023

Iowa head coach of women’s wrestling Clarissa Chun gets introduced during a season opening dual wrestling meet between No. 1 Iowa and No. 21 Princeton at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021.

Athletic director Gary Barta announced the addition of the Iowa women’s wrestling program in an early morning release on Sept. 23, 2021.

Multiple factors went into the decision for the UI to become the first Power Five program in the nation to sponsor a women’s wrestling team, Barta said at a press conference later that day, including Iowa men’s wrestling head coach Tom Brands’ urging the addition, the dramatic participation increase of girls and women’s wrestling across the state, and a recently settled Title IX lawsuit.

The team huddles up at the end of practice at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. The team’s official schedule and dual meets start in fall 2023, but wrestlers are currently competing in tournaments and earning titles. (Grace Smith)

“Before COVID, we had been watching the explosive growth of girls’ and women’s wrestling,” Barta said. “We had been keeping an eye on it. Frankly, Tom was in my ear three, four, five years ago saying, ‘C’mon, boss, let’s go. Let’s get women’s wrestling added.’ We were not ready to do that yet, but we were watching it.”

About 700 girls wrestlers participated in an unsanctioned state meet in 2022, showing the explosion of girls wrestling across the state.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union sanctioned girls wrestling for 2022-23 in January 2022 — just four months after Iowa announced a women’s wrestling team. According to The Des Moines Register, over 1,800 girls registered for the first-ever sanctioned girls’ wrestling season in 2022-23.

Barta did say, however, that Hawkeye Athletics wouldn’t have added a new women’s sport if it wasn’t for a Title IX lawsuit. Four women’s swimmers — Sage Ohlensehlen, Kelsey Drake, Christina Kaufman, and Alexa Puccini – brought a Title IX lawsuit against the university in September 2020 after Barta announced the athletics department was going to cut women’s swimming along with men’s swimming, tennis, and gymnastics at the end of the 2020-21 academic year in August 2020.

Nyla Valencia fills a cup with water during a break in practice at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. Valencia ranked third at 106 pounds in the nation for high school girls and won the 106-pound title in the Inaugural USA Wrestling High School National Showcase. (Grace Smith)

The four swimmers claimed the university didn’t comply with Title IX — a federal law that mandates equal educational and athletic opportunity for women in schools that receive federal funding. In the lawsuit, the swimmers claimed women made up 53.56 percent of the UI student body but only received 50.77 percent of the athletic opportunities.

The university settled the lawsuit in September 2021. The settlement mandated Iowa athletics both reinstate women’s swimming for a minimum of seven years and add a new women’s sport. Iowa chose women’s wrestling.

“If not women’s wrestling at Iowa, where else, right?” Barbara Burke, senior women’s administrator and deputy director of athletics, said. “… It really made a lot of sense that this would be a great sport, and maybe we can be the driver in getting other Power Five Division I institutions to add the sport for women. I think it’s a sport that’s going to continue to grow.”