Ottawa University Arizona Women's Wrestling Season Preview
Lead by two returning National Champions (Liliana Voakes and Anja Hansen) and 4 All-Americans (Angelina Walker, Iyanla Thomas, Ebony Cortez, and Evelynn Coronado), National Qualifier Mia Iguado, and Lourdes Duran who was injured. Ottawa University Arizona is ready for another successful season.

Adding to those returners is a very strong recruiting class of fourteen wrestlers. Those fourteen include a State Champion (Sharnesia Tate), seven State Placers

Head coach Grant Leeth, a former NCAA All-American at Missouri, has his new recruiting class ready to hit the mats this season. Leeth, along with Assistant Coach Dalton Brady, a 4x Arizona State Champion and Arizona State University standout, has solid aspirations of winning their first NCWA National Title next March in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Leeth has had an outstanding recruiting class, bringing in 46 men and 16 women to Tarleton State University. "We were selective in not just recruiting great athletes but also looked for solid students with a focus on academics,” noted Leeth. With one returning All-American and one National Qualifier from the Texans' 2024 squad, Leeth has added numerous high school state champions and a handful of portal transfers from NCAA schools. The women’s program also looks strong enough in their first year to chase after Washington State, Ottawa, and Liberty, pushing those perennial leaders for the 2025 Title.

Beginning in 1997, the National Collegiate Wrestling Association now has over 160 schools represented within the league. With nearly three decades now of competition there have been some impressive NCWA alumni that continue on with their mat career. Here are just two of the many notable alumni that help showcase the prowess of many NCWA athletes.

Tom Lawlor is one of the many recognizable names who competed in the NCWA. He won three NCWA national championships in the 235 pound weight class. Shortly after graduating from University of Central Florida Tom began working on his career in professional MMA.

Two years later competing in season 8 of the Ultimate Fighter he defeated >>>>

NCWA will need, more than ever, to be prepared as a safety net for NCAA Wrestling Programs that could suffer the chopping block as a result of the recent supreme court ruling and the NCAA opening of a new era in college athletics. leaders do not have much time to prepare for the transformative age. College sports is on the precipice of changing forever after the NCAA Board of Governors and every Power Five conference agreed to destroy the amateurism model and share revenue with players by coming to terms on settling a multi-billion dollar lawsuit that threatened to bankrupt the collegiate athletics enterprise.

The NCWA Conference leadership, Coaches & Officials from across the country will gather in The Colony, TX this June at TRU by Hilton at GrandScape to promote their visions for improving & growing wrestling at the college level. The Vision Forum dates back to 1999 just 2 years after founding the NCWA and has been the catalyst for the unprecedented success of the organization This year we will again partner with coaches across the nation to promote our sport and give our leaders the opportunity to network, collaborate and build lasting relationships around the sport they all love.

All NCWA Coaches, Officials & Leaders are encouraged to attend and to make their voices heard. The NCWA is the most coach centered governing body within the wrestling community and this annual Vision Forum is one of the best ways the NCWA can take coaches input and develop comprehensive, wrestling friendly rules, best practices, scheduling and a long term direction for our sport. We look forward to including all coaches and administrators in the future plans of the NCWA.
​ Don't miss this chance to make a lasting impact. EVENT & HOTEL REGISTRATION HERE

For the last time, she walked to the wrestling mat’s center ring, only to turn around and find him on bended knee – holding a ring.

Samantha Tuttle isn’t the type to wish for a “ring by spring,” as the Grand Canyon University student adage goes, but even this gutsy grappler started to cry.

The former New Mexico high school wrestler had transferred from a nearby college to GCU in 2022 after the coach told her she’d never be an all-American. She promptly joined a GCU women’s team in Club Sports that just launched the year before and never forgot his words, becoming an all-American for the second time in mid-March.

“A couple years ago, we were talking about not bringing wrestling back

Sixteen Washington State Wrestling Men qualifiers and twelve WSU Wrestling Women qualifiers competed at NCWA National Championships in Shreveport, Louisiana. WSU Women’s team placed 3rd out of 35 Teams edging out Utah Tech 82.5 points to 81 and WSU Men’s Team placed 6th out of 86 Teams.

The coveted “College Cup Award” was won by combined points of 117 by WSU Men & Women’s Wrestling Teams. This award was determined from the Men’s 4th Place National Duals finish and 6th Place National Championships finish and Women’s 3rd Place Western Duals finish and 3rd Place National Championships finish.