In the film The Martian Matt Damon is an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars because the rest of the crew thinks he’s dead.  As he traverses the surface in the rover he says “everywhere I go, I’m the first.  Step outside the rover – first guy ever to be there.  Climb that hill?  First person ever to do that.”

And that’s how it was at the inaugural NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championship in Coralville, Iowa on March 6 and 7. Pin your opponent in the first set of matches?  First woman to do that.  Be the first wrestler to win a blood round match?  First ever All-American.  And win the opening bout of the finals at 138 pounds as Katie Lange of Grand Valley State did on Saturday night?  First ever women’s NCAA champion.

Everything that was done was done for the very first time.  And you could really feel in the arena that everyone there understood the significance of it.  The energy and anticipation were palpable.  We were all, in one way or another, making history, and it was something special.

Here are a few other observations about the tournament:

1. The team race was a feature from the opening whistle.  Iowa, McKendree, and North  Central all had loaded line-ups and high seeded wrestlers almost across the board.  Every match had significance and bonus points, which come easier in freestyle, were key.  According to the seedings, McKendree seemed like a slight favorite.  And the tournament ended up playing out almost like you would have projected.

Going into the finals McKendree had a slight lead and five finalists to Iowa’s four. 

When Iowa’s Resse Larramendy lost in the finals Iowa’s situation was precarious.  They needed both Yu Sakamoto and Cameron Guerin to lose, and both were favored on paper.  But as former Penn Coach Roger Reina famously said, “paper doesn’t wrestle.” Sagamoto ended up winning 4-3 on a very close call on a challenge at the buzzer, clinching it for McKendree and Guerin won her fifth title in a 5-5 tiebreaker.

Of the four top teams, only Iowa is Division I, with McKendree, North Central and Grand Valley State all Division II.

2. In terms of geographic dispersion of the top competitors the top four schools generated 16 of the top 20 finalists.  But when we dug a little deeper and looked into the origins of these athletes it was a different story.  The finalists came from 13 states and one foreign country.  Only Washington had as many as three, with IL, MI, TX and NV having two each and the rest from every corner of the country including AZ, UT, FL, MN, PA, WI, OR, and CO.  Talent is everywhere and it is a great example why it is so important to have robust programs in every state.

3. There was some wrestling royalty in the tournament, with Olympic Silver Medalist Kennedy Blades of Iowa, two-time World Senior Medalist Kylie Welker, also of Iowa, and Lehigh’s Audrey Jimenez, senior World Team member and multiple time age group medalist all winning titles. Jimenez was vote the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.

4. Finally the tournament was held at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville, IA which has held the prior national tournament before. It is a good size venue holding about 3,500.  Hopefully over time we will outgrow that arena and move on to a full size college or big city arena.  Scheduling the same week as the college conference tournaments might have had some impact on attendance.  We need to grow our fan base over time.  The product on the mat certainly warrants the support.

I would count this historic NCAA Women’s Wrestling Tournament as a resounding success.  Elite athletes from all three NCAA divisions showed they had earned their place in an official NCAA competition.  As new programs are added and girls’ youth wrestling participation continues to grow, the future looks bright.