High school · Connecticut
Connecticut high school girls' wrestling
CIAC has crowned girls' state champions in Connecticut since 2020. 449 girls wrestled here in 2025-26.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
The association
Sanctioned
- Association
- CIAC
- Girls' championship
- Yes, first held in 2020
- Format
- Girls' divisions inside the state wrestling championships
- Source
- nfhs.org, read 2026-09-03
What the record shows
Connecticut matches none of the three NFHS girls sets: the CIAC uses the 12 class girls set plus an added 285 pound class, 13 in all. The event began in 2020 as the CIAC Girls Wrestling Invitational and is now published as the CIAC Girls Wrestling State Championship. Weight classes re-read 2026-09-22: no 2026-2027 information packet found on https://ciac.fpsports.org/SportPages/SportPageInfo.aspx?TournamentID=106 as of 2026-09-22; the page still links the 2025-2026 packet and shows the 2025-2026 season. That packet reads: "Connecticut (along with the other New England states) has adopted the suggested 13 girls NFHS weights for 2025-26: 100 lbs., 107 lbs., 114 lbs., 120 lbs., 126 lbs., 132 lbs., 138 lbs., 145 lbs., 152 lbs., 165 lbs., 185 lbs., 235 lbs, 285 lbs." That is the 12 class set plus 285, which matches none of the three NFHS sets, so the set stays null. New England sets re-read 2026-09-29: the packet's "along with the other New England states" is not what those states' own documents print. Maine's MPA 2025-26 bulletin lists 12 girls' classes with no 285 ("Girls vs. Girls - 100, 107, 114, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 165, 185, 235 lbs.") and calls them "the weight classes chosen by CNESSPA for the New England Championships". New Hampshire's NHIAA 2026-27 by-law and the MIAA's 2026-27 format for Massachusetts (its June 2026 final, re-read 2026-10-11) print the same 12, Rhode Island's RIIL announced 12 girls' classes for 2023-24 without listing them, and Vermont's VPA 2026-27 rules print no girls' classes. The CIAC packet and those documents disagree; each state's page says what its own document prints.
The 2026-27 Connecticut championship carries the dates, the venue, and the qualifying path.
How many girls wrestle in Connecticut
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 92 more girls than 2024-25, up 25.8 percent.
Weight classes
CIAC publishes a girls' list of its own, 13 classes, and it matches none of the three NFHS sets: it is the 12-class set plus 285. Here it is as the CIAC's 2025-26 document prints it.
- 100
- 107
- 114
- 120
- 126
- 132
- 138
- 145
- 152
- 165
- 185
- 235
- 285
Scratch weights, in pounds. Read off CIAC wrestling information packet, 2025-2026 on 2026-09-29. That is the 2025-26 list, and the season bulletin your coach has is the final word until the CIAC posts its 2026-27 list. The weight classes page puts it beside the three NFHS sets.
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 CIAC decides whether and when it applies.
The CIAC sets when it applies; see its rules at ciac.fpsports.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 CIAC 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 CIAC weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
If she weighs in above her plan
We have not yet read the CIAC weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
What to do if your school has no girls' team
CIAC publishes a rule for this. Girls wrestle for their own school in the regular season and in the divisional class state tournaments. A girl who qualifies for the State Open chooses either the Open or the Girls Championship, not both. Girls from schools with few wrestlers may join a host school as a collaborative team, capped at six athletes from any one school.
From ciac.fpsports.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 CIAC 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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut wrestler goes from here.
College in the state
2 colleges here sponsor women's wrestling, from the directory built off each school's own athletics staff page.
- Sacred HeartNCAA D1
- BridgeportNCAA D2
Wrestlers from Connecticut
No wrestler in the record names Connecticut as home yet. The roster grows every week, and it is the same sport in every room.
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 CIAC'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, "Connecticut girls HS wrestling", https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ct, checked 2026-09-22.
Linking to it? The HTML:
<a href="https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ct">Connecticut girls HS wrestling</a>The newsletter
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