High school · Kentucky
Kentucky high school girls' wrestling
KHSAA has crowned girls' state champions in Kentucky since 2024. 1,327 girls wrestled here in 2025-26, at 128 schools.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
The association
Sanctioned
- Association
- KHSAA
- Girls' championship
- Yes, first held in 2024
- Format
- Girls' divisions inside the state wrestling championships
- Source
- khsaa.org, read 2026-09-03
What the record shows
The 2023 sanction decision and the first championship are a year apart: the first KHSAA girls championship was wrestled February 17, 2024. For 2023-24 only the KHSAA ran an NFHS approved experimental set of 13 classes that matched none of the three standard sets; the 2026 results name champions at the 12 class set, so that experiment did not carry forward. Weight classes re-read 2026-09-22: no 2026-27 weight class notice found on https://khsaa.org/wrestling/ as of 2026-09-22; the page links 2026-27 clinic dates and the NFHS 2026-27 rule changes but no class list. The KHSAA competition rules say only that weight classes are as defined in the NFHS rules, and the February 2026 championship release this row cites names champions at the 12 class set.
The 2026-27 Kentucky championship carries the dates, the venue, and the qualifying path.
How many girls wrestle in Kentucky
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 707 more girls than 2024-25, up 114 percent.
Weight classes
KHSAA uses the NFHS 12 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 KHSAA 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
- 107
- 114
- 120
- 126
- 132
- 138
- 145
- 152
- 165
- 185
- 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 KHSAA decides whether and when it applies, so a bracket later in the season may read 2 pounds higher than this. Read off khsaa.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 KHSAA decides whether and when it applies.
The KHSAA sets when it applies; see its rules at khsaa.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 KHSAA 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 KHSAA weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
If she weighs in above her plan
We have not yet read the KHSAA weigh-in rules. Ask your coach for the season bulletin.
What to do if your school has no girls' team
KHSAA publishes a rule for this. The KHSAA runs two wrestling seasons, a boys and coed season and a girls only season, and a female student-athlete may compete in the boys and coed season. In the postseason she must choose one bracket, boys and coed or girls, and may not enter both.
From khsaa.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 KHSAA 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky wrestler goes from here.
College in the state
5 colleges here sponsor women's wrestling, from the directory built off each school's own athletics staff page.
- Campbellsville UniversityNAIA
- Georgetown CollegeNAIA
- Lindsey Wilson CollegeNAIA
- Midway UniversityNAIA
- University of the CumberlandsNAIA
Wrestlers from Kentucky
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 KHSAA'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, "Kentucky girls HS wrestling", https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ky, checked 2026-09-22.
Linking to it? The HTML:
<a href="https://womenswrestlingclub.com/high-school/ky">Kentucky girls HS wrestling</a>The newsletter
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