The U.S. Open: the senior national championship

The 2027 dates

Which women's divisions actually run here

Senior women

Senior Nationals, women's freestyle. Open to athletes born in 2008 or before for the 2026 edition. Ten weight classes in 2026: 50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62, 65, 68, 72 and 76 kilograms. Every weight class by level.

High school girls

Girls National High School Recruiting Showcase. Freestyle, in its fifth year in 2026, and watched by college recruiters. Entry is not open: a wrestler must be a high school state champion in any year, a state placer that season, a National Prep champion, a USA Wrestling All-American (top eight) at a named national event, a U15 or U17 Nationals placer still in high school, or an NHSCA Virginia Beach placer. Girls who enter without qualifying are removed with no refund.

Not here

U17, U20 and U23 women. Those national championships, and the women's age group World Team Trials that go with them, are held at USA Wrestling's Women's Nationals in April, a separate event. The 2026 edition ran 9 to 12 April at The Podium in Spokane, Washington, with brackets from 8U through U23.

This split has moved before. Check the division list on the event page for the year you are entering rather than trusting last season's.

How a U.S. Open title becomes a World team spot

1. 1

   Win the U.S. Open

   The champion in each weight class earns a berth in Final X and does not wrestle again until June. Place in the top seven and you qualify for the Challenge Tournament instead.

2. 2

   The World Team Trials Challenge Tournament

   Everyone else who qualified wrestles it off. The 2026 routes in included a top seven finish at the U.S. Open, national team membership, an age group World medal, and being the highest placing American in the top eight at the NCAA or NAIA championships who had not already qualified. In 2026 that was 91 women across seven weight classes, on 14 and 15 May in Louisville, Kentucky. The winner at each weight advances.

3. 3

   Final X

   The Challenge winner meets the U.S. Open champion in a best-of-three series. In 2026 it was 19 June in Newark, New Jersey. Win the series and you are the World team member at that weight.

4. 4

   The shortcut, for some weights

   A weight class with a returning senior World medallist skips the Challenge Tournament entirely and goes straight to a Final X series between that medallist and the U.S. Open champion. In 2026 that applied at 57, 68 and 76 kilograms, so three of the ten weights were settled by two women rather than a bracket.

The dates and the qualifying rules are re-issued every season on USA Wrestling's team selection criteria page, and they change. Read the procedures for the year you are in.

U.S. Open champions in our record

27 of the wrestlers whose careers we have written down won a senior national title. The event column prints the name the source used, which is why the older rows say U.S. Nationals: USA Wrestling has published the same championship under both names.

Fifty careers are written down so far, so this is what we have checked, not every U.S. Open champion in the sport's history. The record grows every week.