The California Community College Wrestling Coaches Association recently announced their state ranking of the top 10 community college women wrestling, with the Sacramento City Panthers landing in second place behind Southern California powerhouse Cerritos College.
The early season rankings as the schools head into their conference play reflected the strength of schedule the Panthers women have faced outside of their conference and matchups with four-year College programs. City college’s second-place statewide ranking came with special recognition by the coaches for standout Paula Aguilar-Cuavas, as the top state wrestler in her weight category in large part due to her outstanding performance at the Sac City Open Tournament in February, that hosted 3C2A, NCAA, NAIA, and NCWA programs.
City College Assistant Coach Darius Levan commented on the announcement and the leadership of the current team, “The ranking reflects the potential our women’s line-up has this season, which is to be championship caliber. Our overall performances at the Sierra Wolverine Open and Sac City Open, respectively, show depth across the line-up. We return 3C2A state medalists in Karissa McDaniel, Shelby Banovitz, Paula Aguilar and Grace Mercado, as complement to the new class of immediately competitive athletes such as Brenaye Stubbs, Evelyn Lopez, Kelly Meehan, and Veronika Shayhen.”
The City College women wrestling team battled Menlo and Simpson college teams in an early season test. The results were encouraging for the Panthers with a 39 to 10 victory over Reddings Simpson College and a tough 9 to 42 loss to the top ranked Menlo College. The Panthers dual meet with four-year colleges was an early non-conference test.
Women’s wrestling grows
Women’s Wrestling in high school and college is one of the most rapidly growing sports. According to USA Wrestling, the national governing body for wrestling in the United States, roughly 120 collegiate programs exist. The 40 new programs would suggest a growth rate of 50% in the past five years. In 2025, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) approved the first National NCAA championship for Women’s Wrestling to be held on March 6, 2026, in Iowa.
City College added women’s wrestling in April 2024 when it became the 19th intercollegiate sport at City College. Community college women’s wrestling has grown to 20 intercollegiate programs throughout the state.
City College head women’s wrestling coach Marques Gales sees the growth of the sport reflected on campus. He said the annual Sacramento City Open has grown every year; the first year had 55 players and this here there were about 168 total.
