The Iowa Girls’ State Wrestling meet is expanding to two classes. Radio Iowa’s Dar Danielson reports.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union added girls wrestling as a sanctioned sport two years ago and the first two state tournaments were held with no classes. The largest 64 wrestling schools will now be in Class 2-A and the remaining schools in Class 1-A for this year’s meet. Wrestlers will compete in regional meets with the top 16 qualifiers by weight in each class advancing to the state tournament February 6th-7th in Coralville. Girls Union executive director Erin Gerlich said in a statement that the rapid rise in number of girls participating in wrestling has exceeded thier expectations and they hope the addition of classes will encourage more schools to add programs. There are 204 schools sponsoring a girls’ wrestling program in 2024, with 61 other schools in cooperative sharing agreements for teams.