STORY BY BRIAN VERNELLIS / TOP PHOTO BY KENDRA STANLEY-MILLS

Nearly 1,600 miles from her home state of Utah, Sage Mortimer has found another home at Allendale. 

The announcement in November 2021 that Grand Valley was adding women’s wrestling to its ensemble of varsity programs, drew interest from student athletes around the state and the country. 

When Jake Short was named as the program’s first coach, Mortimer knew she wanted to come to Allendale, despite knowing little else about Grand Valley. “I had never seen campus,” Mortimer said. “I had just met coach Short and heard Grand Valley was really nice. When I got here, I was blown away. I had no idea what any of this looked like, but the selling point was having coach Short.”

Mortimer and the Lakers begin their first season of competition this fall with some publications already projecting great things and even a few predicting the Lakers have recruited the talent to contend for a national title this year.

“We could be there, competing for national titles, for sure,” said Hannah Palise, who transferred from Albion College. “We’re just building a good team bond, and we’re going to have to come together as a team. So, yeah, it’s possible.” 

She isn’t alone in her assessment of the team.

“We’re in a place to come out and be an extremely competitive program,” Short said.

For its first season, Short has compiled a roster of talent that could very well challenge more established programs around the country. 

Mortimer wrestled for King University in Bristol, Tennessee, making two appearances at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships where she reached the finals in her weight class in 2021 and finished third in 2022. 

In December, Mortimer won a national title at the 2023 USA Women’s Senior Nationals, and then finished third in her weight class at this summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials. And to cap it all off, she added a gold medal to her trophy case in October, winning the 50kg weight class at the 2024 Under-23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, as Short watched.

Katerina Lange transferred to Grand Valley after winning a 2023 National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championship at Augsburg University. Lange was the No. 1 ranked high school wrestler in the nation and was also Ms. Minnesota her senior year.  

Sabrina Nauss was the nation’s No. 1 high school wrestler in her weight class, going unbeaten in four seasons at Brighton High School and winning four state championships. 

The Lakers also boast several wrestlers who earned All-America honors at the prestigious and competitive USA Wrestling Junior and Cadet National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota: Elleni Johnson, Skylar Little Soldier, Aaliyah Grandberry and Nauss. 

Like Mortimer, Short knew Allendale and Grand Valley was the place for him, but at least he saw campus beforehand. 

He vividly remembered pulling into Lot C2 West and marveling at the adjacent construction as the Harris Family Athletic Complex, a 22,280-square-foot extension on the northwest corner of the Fieldhouse Arena, took shape. With a life spent in the sport either as an athlete or a coach, Short immediately saw the potential for a women’s wrestling program as he strolled around Allendale.

“I had not even planned on taking the job or anything,” Short said. “My family had just moved to Allendale, and I knew the position was open. I walked on campus and just looked around.

“I don’t know what it was, but a feeling came over me. I go off of vibes and things like that, and I just knew. I just knew from the environment.” 

Months later, Short would be back on campus as the program’s head coach. Short and men’s wrestling coach Joey Simcoe joined President Philomena V. Mantella, Director of Athletics Keri Becker and supporters for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the Harris Family Athletic Complex in September 2023.  

“The sport has taken off in the Olympics,“ Short said. “And, you're seeing these big Division I colleges opening programs, like Iowa, and when that starts happening, it's a matter of time before people start jumping on board. The sport is amazing.“

Women’s wrestling has gained tremendous support over the last 20 years sparked by its visibility during the Olympics, said John Harris ’77, a member of the Grand Valley Athletics Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

John Harris, his wife, Diane ’76, brother, Tom Harris ’80 and his wife, Tammi, and others in the Harris family helped seed the Lakers’ wrestling programs with a generous $3 million donation in 2021.

“I've been tracking it, really all the way back and watching it,” Harris said. “It’s very exciting to see the development that has occurred.  

“Women’s wrestling has played a very important and historic role in the advancement of all wrestling. In my view, in this day and age, you can’t start a program without doing both.”

At this summer’s Paris Games, the U.S. wrestling team had the largest contingent among competing nations, with 16 wrestlers, including six women. American women earned two gold medals, a silver and a bronze, matching their total from the 2020 Tokyo Games.

“Once the sport got exposure on the Olympic and World Championship level, a lot more young women said, ‘Hey, I could do that. I think I could be good at that,’” Harris said. “It just gave them a lot of role models to watch and begin to develop, and like anything else, there is a tipping point.”

This success is mirrored at the local level. According to the National Federation of High Schools, participation in girls wrestling has quintupled since 2013. More than 50,000 girls wrestle at the high school level. Most recently, Indiana became the 46th state to officially recognize the sport.  

While there remains some work, it appears that women’s wrestling will soon obtain championship status with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In February, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Sports voted to recommend that the association’s three divisions add a national championship for the sport. Currently, student athletes compete at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships, organized by the national coalition of wrestling organizations.

If approved by the NCAA at its national convention in January, women’s wrestling would become the sixth sport granted championship status since the formation of the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program. Rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling and beach volleyball have attained championship status as a result of the NCAA’s initiative.

“When you open the door to women to do something that has traditionally been sacred to men, that‘s all you need to light a fire under women,” said Becker. “When you crack the door open for women, they are going to barge through it.”

According to the NCAA’s data, the sport has seen tremendous growth within the last 20 years. Nearly 800 student athletes on 51 teams competed during the 2022-2023 academic year. For the 2023-2024 year, more than 70 schools reported intentions to sponsor the sport. 

“People who talk with me will talk in terms of men’s and women’s wrestling, and I’ll say, ‘No, now it’s just all wrestling,’” Harris said.

LAKER CLUB TEAM WILL REMAIN

When the intercollegiate program was disbanded in 1993, it was GVSU’s club team that took over the string of success. For the previous 23 seasons, wrestling at Grand Valley has been a club-level sport, and a highly successful one.

GVSU’s club team has won eight National Collegiate Wrestling Association championships with 91 wrestlers earning 141 All-America honors and 17 winning 23 individual national championships.

John Harris and his wife also have a history of establishing women’s wrestling programs at other universities. They also helped establish a women’s wrestling program at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio. 

“One of the things I found very fun to watch is the development as I watch women's wrestling,” John Harris said. “I just enjoy watching that now. I view wrestling as a sport for both men and women, and so any women’s sport that we gain is a gain for wrestling in general. We’re just moving the sport along inso many positive directions.”