Photo by Sam Hauff

The Presbyterian College Women’s Wrestling team competed this month in the first annual Trailblazer Duals at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at the University of Iowa

by Sam Hauff

IOWA CITY, IOWA – You don’t know what history sounds like until you hear it with your own two ears – but this wasn’t just history, it was HERstory.

The Presbyterian College Blue Hose Women’s Wrestling team traveled to the University of Iowa in Iowa City to compete in the first ever NCAA Division I Women’s Wrestling Quad. The event, rightly dubbed the “Trailblazer Duals,” featured the only NCAA DI schools in the country to offer women’s wrestling as a collegiate sport: the Presbyterian College Blue Hose, the Sacred Heart University Pioneers, the Lindenwood University Lions and the host, the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

Brian Vutianitis
Head Coach, Women’s Wrestling

“The atmosphere in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena was electric. Every movement warranted some sort of reaction from a crowd filled with excited and enthusiastic wrestling fans,” said PC head coach Brian Vutianitis.

History was the sound of a roaring crowd and fans shouting “TWOOO!” History was the sound of fire cannons blasting on the matsides as competitors went to cordially shake hands before they battled for six long, grueling minutes. History was the sound of athletes cheering and high-fiving, harmonizing with the sounds of other athletes weeping and consoling. History was all the sounds that could be heard inside the infamous Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“The arena was bleeding black and gold and gigantic in size,” said freshman wrestler Lilly Luttrell. “The moment you walked out there were cameras, spotlights, fog and even pyrotechnics in the works. It was the kind of stuff you see on T.V. for men’s wrestling, but only this time it was for the women of this sport.”

The Trailblazer Duals also marked another glass-ceiling-breaking moment for women in sport with the largest crowd in history at a women’s wrestling event, the attendance totaling at 8,207 spectators.

“Competing in front of 8,207 people is insane to even believe,” said freshman wrestler Maddie Kubicki. “It just shows how much this sport has grown and how women’s wrestling is constantly making history in its own way. I have no words for what it was like to be surrounded by thousands of fans watching us make history. All I could do was just take it all in and enjoy this rare experience.”

After falling to the No. 8-ranked Hawkeyes (44-1) and the fifth-ranked Sacred Pioneers (26-18), the 13th-ranked Blue Hose picked up their first dual win of the season against 11th-ranked Lindenwood with a closely fought 25-20 victory. This upset in the rankings was highlighted by two back-to-back pins by Kubicki at 155 lbs. and Henlee Haynes at 170 lbs.

According to PC sophomore Paige Wehrmeister, who picked up a pair of wins on Sunday, the event was vaster than square footage and spectator numbers compared to the gymnasiums with “around 8 people in the stands” of some of the dual events from the past season.

Kubicki agreed.

“All eyes were on us,” she said.  I’m used to coaches and parents yelling in a gymnasium.”

Numbers and hype did not deter the Blue Hose, though. They said the noise is just background static when it comes to what happens between whistles.

“It just felt like wrestling because that’s what I did,” said freshman Alyssa Mahan, who went 2-1 on the day, picking up a pin and a 13-4 decision win. “The only thing on my mind was just to go out there, do my thing, score points and wrestle hard through every position.”

“When wrestling, I usually don’t focus on who’s watching me, I just go out there and fight each match with everything I have,” said Kubicki.

Vutianitis holds a similar attitude toward coaching as Mahan and Kubicki hold toward competing.

 “I wouldn’t say coaching in front of a crowd this size is much different than coaching in our home gym, only because I make it my job to separate any emotion of our surroundings from the goals of the event,” he said. “I am grateful to have been a part of such a largely attended event but coaching, to me, is very much the same no matter where or what event we are attending.”

Any other athlete or coach could easily let the pressure of the overwhelming percentage of attendance wearing an opposing team’s colors or cheering in the moments where your face is in the mat get to them, but not PC Women’s Wrestling.

“You know going into Carver-Hawkeye that the crowd isn’t going to be on your side,” said Wehrmeister.

Iowa’s team brought the numbers in – of course. A Big 10 school with a men’s wrestling team holding 24 national championships and one of the most dedicated fan bases in college wrestling, people are going to want to see how the women’s team measures up.

What Iowa brought was big, but what the Blue Hose brought was equally important.

In the locker room before the team walked out to be greeted by their opponents, there was more media and a crowd much larger than any college women’s wrestling team has ever been used to. PC’s team quietly lined the chairs of a meeting room in the visitor’s locker room, about 50 paces away from the sounds, cameras and lights that would soon strike the athlete’s faces.

This was the calm before the storm.

“Don’t get it mixed up,” Coach Vutianitis said, scanning the room to make eye contact with each of the athletes. “The crowd may be cheering for them, but this moment is for you. Division I Women’s Wrestling doesn’t exist without you. This moment doesn’t exist without you.”

He said all of this in reference to the fact Presbyterian College was the first NCAA DI school in the nation to offer a sanctioned varsity women’s wrestling team in 2019. Since then, two other schools, Sacred Heart and Iowa, added women’s wrestling with Lindenwood moving up from Division II this season.

Those thousands of Hawkeye fans would not exist without a small liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina, with one-eighth of the student body of that crowd, adding the sport to its roster five years ago. The investment was history which continues to breed history, each year by tenfold.

The history made this Sunday only exists with PC Women’s Wrestling. PC is the past, present and future of Division I women’s wrestling, inside and outside of the Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Blue Hose have a lone message: This is only the beginning.

Photo by Sam Hauff