Waldorf College will introduce women's wrestling for the 2010-11 school year, and Warrior wrestlers will attend many of the nation's top international events - including the World Team Trials. The college, the first in Iowa to offer the sport for women, hopes to place 10 females on the roster this season, with a future goal of 30 to 40. "In the state of Iowa, where wrestling is so important, I think it's a step in the right direction," Terry Steiner, the U.S. women's national coach and a former wrestling standout at the University of Iowa, told The Des Moines Register.
"There are maybe 40, 50, 60 girls wrestling at the high school level [in Iowa]," Tyler Brandt, Waldorf's men's wrestling coach and interim women's coach, told the paper. "Now they don't have to go to North Dakota, Oklahoma or Michigan. They can stay right here."Waldorf - a private college of about 500 students, where men's wrestling has been among the most successful sports for the past 30 years - is only the 14th women's collegiate wrestling program in North America, according to The Register. All of the teams except Pacific compete in the NAIA. Two, Simon Fraser and Regina, are in Canada.
Nearly 14,300 girls participated in Women's freestyle wrestling made its debut as a new medal event at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
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