Grand View University athletic director Troy Plummer has announced that the school will launch a womenās wrestling program for the fall 2019 season, according to the Des Moines Register.
"Due to the increased interest and participation in the sport of women's wrestling locally and in the (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), along with the success of our men's program, we believe this is the best fit for Grand View as the 26th varsity program," said Plummer. āWe are excited to offer the opportunity for females to compete collegiately in the sport of wrestling.ā
The program will be the 10th varsity sport added at the private college in Des Moines, Iowa, since Plummerās tenure began in 2007. Menās wrestling was added in 2008.
Current menās wrestling head coach Nick Mitchell told the press, āIām really excited Grand View has decided to bring womenās wrestling to campus. Itās cool to be one of the pioneers of an emerging womenās sport in Iowa. Iām looking forward to working alongside the new coach and doing whatever I can to help them build one of the top womenās wrestling programs in the nation.ā
With the launch of the new program, Grand View will become the second Iowa college to offer womenās wrestling, which gained invitational status from the NAIA just last year.
After two years at invitational status, and once 40 womenās teams are available to compete (there are 25 so far), the sport will be eligible to apply for championship status.
"We are proud to add womenās wrestling to Grand Viewās strong athletic offerings," said Grand View president Kent Henning. "There is a lot of excitement about the sport and we are committed to offering young women the same level of access to college-level athletics as is available to young men.
Grand View is in the process of searching for a head coach to lead the program.
