SAC Communications
Rich Tortorelli
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Sooner Athletic Conference will offer a women’s wrestling championship in the upcoming year as part of the league’s continued growth.
Four full-time conference member institutions – Central Christian, Oklahoma City University, Texas Wesleyan and Wayland Baptist – field women’s wrestling teams. Lyon will compete with those schools as a per-sport SAC member in the inaugural SAC women’s wrestling championships Feb. 29, 2020 in Plainview, Texas.
The SAC could include more schools competing in women’s wrestling before the championship meet in February. Presidents of the SAC member institutions approved the league’s sponsorship of women’s wrestling in June. In more than 40 years of existence, the Sooner Athletic Conference has set itself apart by winning more NAIA championships than any other conference (109). The league will now award 14 team championships.
“Women’s wrestling is really gaining momentum in the collegiate ranks, and the SAC is eager to continue that upward swing,” SAC Commissioner Stan Wagnon said. “We are starting with a solid group of teams and hope to add more quality members in the not too distant future. It’s an exciting opportunity to come alongside these programs for the purpose of providing well deserved support and recognition.”
The SAC Championships figure to be a competitive meet. All five competing teams received votes in the most recent NAIA poll with Wayland Baptist garnering the No. 6 spot. Oklahoma City stood seventh, while Lyon held the 10th slot. Texas Wesleyan was 19th in the rankings. The SAC will award women’s wrestlers of the week.
Women’s wrestling is the fastest growing sport in the NAIA. The sport has grown tremendously from just a handful of institutions that sponsored it to 28 member schools in 2019-20. Continued growth at this rate could signal the sport’s movement from invitational to championship status in the future. The SAC will join the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference and the Mid-South Conference as NAIA leagues sponsoring women’s wrestling.
Invitational distinction indicates that sport has enough schools to support it, is developing administrative rules and is on the path to becoming a fully sponsored championship. Once 40 NAIA member schools sponsor the sport and the sport has completed two years in invitational status, the sport may be considered for full championship status.
The Stars finished runner-up with nine all-Americans in the NAIA Invitational held March 15-16, 2019 in Jamestown, N.D. Wayland Baptist took sixth, and Lyon finished 11th. Menlo (Calif.) captured the national title. That event was the first since NAIA granted invitational status to women’s wrestling. In 2018-19, the NAIA also awarded women’s wrestling scholar-athlete honors.
The next NAIA Invitational will be March 13-14, 2020 in Jamestown, N.D.