High school · Arkansas
Arkansas high school girls' wrestling
Arkansas Activities Association has crowned girls' state champions in Arkansas since 2020. 845 girls wrestled here in 2025-26, at 73 schools.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
The association
Sanctioned
- Association
- Arkansas Activities Association
- Girls' championship
- Yes, first held in 2020
- Format
- Girls' divisions inside the state wrestling championships
- Source
- thv11.com, read 2026-09-03
What the record shows
The Arkansas Activities Association uses ahsaa.org, which is easy to confuse with Alabama's ahsaa.com. The weight class and entry rule come from the AAA Wrestling Handbook linked off the association's wrestling page. Weight classes re-read 2026-09-22: no 2026-27 handbook found on https://www.ahsaa.org/page/wrestling as of 2026-09-22. The page still links the handbook this row cites, the 2025-2026 edition, and the AAA online coaches packet, addressed to the 2026-27 season, lists it as "2025-26 Wrestling Handbook (still being reviewed for updates)". The handbook reads: "For girls, the following NFHS weight classes will be used: 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 155, 170, 190, and 235." Rule 14 lets a girl wrestle in boys events.
The 2026-27 Arkansas championship carries the dates, the venue, and the qualifying path.
How many girls wrestle in Arkansas
The NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, girls' wrestling column. Every number here is the survey's own; nothing is estimated or carried forward.
That is 162 more girls than 2024-25, up 23.7 percent.
Weight classes
Arkansas Activities Association uses the NFHS 14 class girls' set. The NFHS offers three, and a state association picks one and cannot switch mid-season. That is the 2025-26 set. As of 2026-09-22 Arkansas Activities Association had not posted its 2026-27 classes; states re-pick among the three sets each year, so the season bulletin your coach has is the final word until it does.
- 100
- 105
- 110
- 115
- 120
- 125
- 130
- 135
- 140
- 145
- 155
- 170
- 190
- 235
Scratch weights, in pounds. The NFHS book lets 2 pounds be added to each class after certification as a growth allowance (4-4-4), and the Arkansas Activities Association decides whether and when it applies, so a bracket later in the season may read 2 pounds higher than this. Read off drive.google.com on 2026-09-22. The weight classes page puts this beside the NCAA, NAIA and international weights.
Growth allowance
The NFHS book says a growth allowance of 2 pounds "may be added to each weight class any time after the date of certification" (4-4-4). The Arkansas Activities Association decides whether and when it applies.
The Arkansas Activities Association sets when it applies; see its rules at ahsaa.org, or ask your coach for the season bulletin.
Consecutive-day allowance
On consecutive days of team competition, the NFHS book grants every wrestler 1 pound a day, up to 2 pounds, when the opponent has been given at least 48 hours' notice (4-5-5). The Arkansas Activities Association decides whether and when it applies and can add conditions of its own; what its documents say is below.
We have not yet read the Arkansas Activities Association weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
If she weighs in above her plan
We have not yet read the Arkansas Activities Association weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
What to do if your school has no girls' team
Arkansas Activities Association publishes a rule for this. A coach may enter a girl in a boys dual meet. She must be listed on the boys Alpha Master roster, weigh in with the boys, and compete under the boys weight classifications.
From ahsaa.org, read 2026-09-03. The rule is the association's to change; the link goes to the page that will carry the change.
The general path, in the order that works: ask the athletic director first, in writing, whether the school will enter you and under what rule. Most schools have never been asked, and the answer to a written question goes on the record in a way a hallway conversation does not. If the school will not enter you, ask Arkansas Activities Association directly what a student in your position may do; associations answer these, and the answer is the one that binds your school.
Train while you sort it out. A club room is where most girls in a state without a school team actually wrestle, and club season runs when the school season does not. The clubs in Arkansas are listed by city, with the girls' rooms and girls' practices flagged where the club says so.
Where it goes next
The state final is not the end of the line. These are the two places a Arkansas wrestler goes from here.
College in the state
One college here sponsors women's wrestling, from the directory built off each school's own athletics staff page.
- LyonNCAA D3
Wrestlers from Arkansas
One woman in the record we keep grew up here. Their careers started in a room like the one down the road.
Before the season starts
A girl's legal minimum wrestling weight is built on the 19 percent body fat floor the NFHS sets for girls, not the boys' 7 percent. That is roughly sixteen pounds of difference for a fifteen year old, and every app built on the boys' number gets it wrong. How making weight works covers certification and what your state enforces at the scale, and when wrestling season starts has the year month by month and the first practice dates we have read off the associations' own pages.
This page was read on 2026-09-03, off Arkansas Activities Association's own pages and the NFHS participation survey, and parts of it were re-read since, most recently on 2026-09-22. Associations change rules in the spring and post the new ones late; the links here go to the page that will carry the change first.
Cite this data
Checked
Women's Wrestling Club, "Arkansas girls HS wrestling", https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ar, checked 2026-09-22.
Linking to it? The HTML:
<a href="https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ar">Arkansas girls HS wrestling</a>The newsletter
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