High school · California
California high school girls' wrestling
CIF has crowned girls' state champions in California since 2011. 10,204 girls wrestled here in 2025-26, at 861 schools.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
The association
Sanctioned
- Association
- CIF
- Girls' championship
- Yes, first held in 2011
- Format
- Girls' divisions inside the state wrestling championships
- Source
- themat.com, read 2026-09-03
What the record shows
The first CIF statewide girls event, in March 2011, was titled an Invitational; CIF now runs and publishes it as the CIF State Girls Wrestling Championships. Some third-party listings show the girls brackets as 102, 107, 112 and so on, which is the same set with the 2 pound growth allowance added; CIF's own page uses the scratch weights. Weight classes re-read 2026-09-22: no 2027 CIF State Championships Handbook found on https://www.cifstate.org/sports/wrestling/index as of 2026-09-22; the page links only 2027 hotel information. The handbook for the February 2026 championships, served at this row's URL through a viewer over a CloudFront PDF, lists under GIRLS: "100 pounds 105 pounds 110 pounds 115 pounds 120 pounds 125 pounds 130 pounds 135 pounds 140 pounds 145 pounds 155 pounds 170 pounds 190 pounds 235 pounds". The CIF Weight Management Handbook prints no class list. Weigh-in rules read 2026-09-22 from the CIF Wrestling Weight Management Handbook dated 7.1.26: it states no consecutive-day allowance. It does build a 1 percent variance into every certified minimum weight (Blue Pages III.A.2).
The 2026-27 California championship carries the dates, the venue, and the qualifying path.
How many girls wrestle in California
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 1,373 more girls than 2024-25, up 15.5 percent.
Weight classes
CIF 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 CIF 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 CIF decides whether and when it applies, so a bracket later in the season may read 2 pounds higher than this. Read off cifstate.org 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 CIF decides whether and when it applies.
The CIF sets when it applies; see its rules at cifstate.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 CIF decides whether and when it applies and can add conditions of its own; what its documents say is below.
The CIF documents we read on 2026-09-22 state no such rule. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
If she weighs in above her plan
Weighing in above the classes her plan lists for that day is allowed. The handbook states no forfeit and no recalculation for it: she wrestles under NFHS Rule 4-4-2, no more than one class above the class her actual weight qualifies her for.
“d. If a wrestler weighs in at a weight class higher than his/her allowable weight classes per his/her Pre-Match Weigh-In Form, he/she may wrestle in compliance with NFHS Rule 4-4-2; a wrestler shall not wrestle more than one (1) weight class above that class for which the actual weight, at the time of weigh in, qualifies the competitor.”
From cifstate.org, the 2026-27 document, read 2026-09-22.
What to do if your school has no girls' team
We found no published CIF rule covering a girl whose school has no girls' team. That is not the same as a ban: ask the school and the association.
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 CIF 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 California 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 California wrestler goes from here.
College in the state
8 colleges here sponsor women's wrestling, from the directory built off each school's own athletics staff page.
- MenloNCAA D2
- VanguardNCAA D2
- Hope International UniversityNAIA
- Simpson UniversityNAIA
- Westcliff UniversityNAIA
- Bakersfield CollegeCCCAA
- College of the RedwoodsCCCAA
- Mt. San Antonio CollegeCCCAA
Wrestlers from California
22 women 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 CIF'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, "California girls HS wrestling", https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ca, checked 2026-09-22.
Linking to it? The HTML:
<a href="https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ca">California girls HS wrestling</a>The newsletter
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