WEST DES MOINES — At its May meeting, the Board of Directors of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union approved the move to two classes for the 2024-25 girls’ wrestling season.
The move will place the 64 largest wrestling schools into Class 2A, with the remaining schools competing in Class 1A.
Wrestlers will compete to qualify for the state tournament at regional meets across the state on Friday January 31, 2025. There will be eight regional state qualifying sites hosted by schools for both Class 1A and 2A.
The top 16 qualifiers from each weight class will qualify for the 2025 Girls State Wrestling Tournament, which will be held February 6-7 in Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Girls State Wrestling Tournament will remain a two-day tournament, with separate sessions for each class on February 6 and combined sessions for the championship sessions on Friday, February 7.
“The rapid rise of participants in girls wrestling has exceeded even our expectations,” said IGHSAU Executive Director Erin Gerlich. “Adding a second class is the next building block in our efforts to continue to help the sport grow. The hope is that the addition of a second class will encourage more schools to add girls’ wrestling programs.”
“Overall this is a good move for girls wrestling although we would have liked to see 24 girls qualify per class (matching that of the boys state wrestling tournament),” said Jake Munson, Solon girls wrestling head coach. “Solon will compete in the 1A class and the division between larger and smaller programs should improve our team finish in the State Tournament. Last season we finished 21st out of 190 schools at the single class state tournament so we are excited to compete against the schools of similar size and smaller this next post-season.” Coach Munson noted other changes as well. “The 3-point takedown was a change made in men’s college wrestling that has trickled down to both boys and girls high school wrestling in Iowa. I like that it promotes more action from the neutral position. The four point near-fall can make matches very exciting anytime a wrestler is in a pinning combination. Both of these rule changes will have an effect on how matches are wrestled, will encourage action in matches, and should result in more technical falls which will increase dual meet team scores.”
The IGHSAU sanctioned girls’ wrestling in 2022 and has been a one-class tournament since beginning competition in 2023. In 2024, 204 schools sponsored a girls’ wrestling program, while 61 other schools were listed in cooperative sharing agreements.