#WomensWednesday: WCWA Nationals to continue in 2021, with details of its multi-divisional event to come

The Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association, which oversees the annual WCWA National Championships for women’s college wrestling, has announced plans to continue the tournament in 2021.

The WCWA Board sent a letter to women’s college wrestling programs across the nation, outlining its plan for the year ahead. The organization will continue to host the WCWA Nationals in 2021, although the specific date and location has not yet finalized.

At this point, the WCWA Board is considering a spring event, rather than its traditional February time frame. The organization will work with USA Wrestling, the women’s college wrestling programs and other stakeholders to determine the ideal timing for the competition.

The timeline to decide when the tournament will be held will be in September. A bid packet will be provided for interested hosts, with a target date for the location to be announced in October.

“There has been a lot of discussion about, with NAIA having its event and the NCAA schools having their event, do we still need this? The consensus opinion is ‘Yes, we do.’ Having a championship which crosses associations gives more opportunity for collegiate women’s wrestling at a high level. A majority of teams agree with that. We are going to keep this going. It is not a competitor to the other two national events, it is just something different,” said WCWA President Cliff Cushard, the head coach of NCAA Div. III Adrian College.

One of the decisions reached by the WCWA Board was to offer all of its 2019-20 members with free renewal for the 2020-21 season. The membership rate for new members will be frozen at last year’s level.

Rather than use its eligibility rules, in a desire to simplify the process, any women’s college athlete who is eligible within their own athletic association is eligible to enter the WCWA Nationals.

In 2020, the WCWA Nationals was a qualifying event for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. With the postponement of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials until April 2021, an updated Women’s Freestyle Procedures has been developed.

The 2021 WCWA Nationals will not be an Olympic Trials qualifier, because it was held in 2020. The NAIA Women’s National Invitational, which was cancelled in 2020 and was slated to be an Olympic Trials qualifier, has been included in the revised procedures. The National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships, which includes only NCAA-affiliated teams, has been added as an Olympic Trials qualifier in the revised document.

There have been women’s college national championships in the USA since 2004. In 2008, the WCWA was formed to oversee the annual women’s college national tournament and give structure to sport on the college level. The continuation of the WCWA makes 2021 the 18^th straight year with an all-division women’s college national tournament.

There are just four four-time WCWA champions, Victoria Anthony and Helen Maroulis of Simon Fraser, Emily Webster of Oklahoma City and Kayla Miracle of Campbellsville. The 2020 WCWA national champion team was Campbellsville.

The WCWA Board has diverse representation from various college divisions. Joining Cushard on the Board is vice president Ashley Sword, head coach of NAIA Life University. The Secretary is Paul Rademacher, head coach of NAIA Indiana Institute of Technology. Serving as treasurer is David Dierken, assistant coach at NCAA Div. II Gannon University. The WCWA Compliance officer is Kelly Perry, the Associate Athletic Director, Compliance & Academics for NAIA Oklahoma City University.

“We are trying to make the WCWA better, more streamlined and more professional. We are trying to let USA Wrestling know our plans, and work with as many outside groups as possible, to grow this and keep it going strong,” said Cushard.

The organization is also working to revise its By-Laws. In the letter to the programs, the WCWA Board said it seeks to convert its “mission to more of a cross-association championship to more accurately reflect the current state of women's collegiate wrestling.”