
When the in January, Âé¶čÓ°ÊÓâs first womenâs wrestler was overcome with emotion.
âI cried when I heard the news, because that was a dream I had for myself that never happened,â said Jill (Remiticado) Uyeda â03, who first set foot in Pacificâs wrestling room in 1999 and was the impetus for creating the . âNow, college women wrestlers have a championship for themselves. They can realize the dreams of being an NCAA champion and beyond because the infrastructure is there.
âThis is 30 years in the making. Itâs just amazing to me.â
Twenty-six years after Uyeda first laced up her shoes at Pacific, and 24 years after the Boxers fielded their first team, womenâs wrestling has blossomed into one of the fastest-growing collegiate sports in the United States. That growth led the NCAA to approve the sport for championship status for the 2025-26 academic year at its convention in January.
In its six years as part of the , designed to create more athletics opportunities for women, womenâs wrestling has grown from four sponsored programs in 2018-19 to 76 programs in 2024-25, including 46 teams at the Division III level. The NCAA numbers are in addition to the 37 collegiate teams that competed at the 2024 NAIA Championships.
While the sport has exploded in recent years at the collegiate level, Pacific recognized its potential early. When the university created its womenâs wrestling program in 2001, just five other colleges fielded varsity teams. The Boxers immediately became a power with its roster of eight wrestlers yielding three U.S. Girlsâ Wrestling Association college national champions and seven All-Americans.

Sally Roberts â05, founder and chief executive officer of , and one of the three national champions on that inaugural squad, is grateful that Pacific embraced the sport when many colleges would not.
âPacific took a leap with adding womenâs wrestling in a time of uncertainty, not really understanding the landscape of where the sport was going,â Roberts said from Wrestle Like A Girlâs headquarters in Washington, D.C. âTheir belief and faith in the sport, in Title IX, and being able to provide equal access and opportunities was key.â
The development of womenâs wrestling came at a time of transition for the menâs team, which, like the rest of Pacificâs athletic program, had just transitioned from NAIA to NCAA Division III membership. While the Pacific men won three regional titles in its first four years in the NCAA, the Boxers were still looking to prove themselves alongside long-established Division III powers.
When it came to adding women to the room, though, gender didnât seem to matter. That is what Uyeda encountered when she first peeked her head through the wrestling room door in 1999.
âThe wrestlers on the menâs team at the time didnât care about anything else,â said Uyeda, who wrestled in high school in Hawaiâi before coming to Pacific. âThey simply said, âWhere are your shoes? Go get them.â I ran all of the way back to Walter Hall, to my room on the second floor, got my shoes and sprinted back to the wrestling room. I barely remember what I did that day, but I remember that âYeah, come on inâ kind of feeling.
âThe contrast I experienced â of reluctant permission in high school to unprecedented acceptance at Pacific â made all of the difference. My teammates made all of the difference.â
Uyeda hadnât necessarily planned on continuing her wrestling career at Pacific, but the experience changed the trajectory of her life. One of only two four-time All-Americans in Pacific athletics history, Uyeda won three national titles at 121 pounds and was.
A native of Federal Way, Washington, Roberts came to Pacific after one season at the University of Minnesota-Morris. While she wrestled only one year for the Boxers before being selected for USA Wrestlingâs residential training program (one of four members of that inaugural Pacific team invited), Roberts said Pacific helped her discover her purpose in both academics and athletics, potentially changing the direction of the sport in the process.