High school · Montana
Montana high school girls' wrestling
MHSA has crowned girls' state champions in Montana since 2021. 792 girls wrestled here in 2025-26, at 110 schools.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
The association
Sanctioned
- Association
- MHSA
- Girls' championship
- Yes, first held in 2021
- Format
- Girls' divisions inside the state wrestling championships
- Source
- mhsa.org, read 2026-09-03
What the record shows
The MHSA wrestling page says girls wrestling was officially sanctioned in the 2021-22 school year, but the MHSA itself branded the February 19 and 20, 2021 event at Lockwood High School the inaugural state all-class girls tournament, so the first championship came before the sanctioning year. A still-posted 2023 MHSA implementation plan recommends the 12 class set and is superseded by the 2025-26 handbook's 14.
The 2026-27 Montana championship carries the dates, the venue, and the qualifying path.
How many girls wrestle in Montana
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 122 more girls than 2024-25, up 18.2 percent.
Weight classes
MHSA uses the NFHS 14 class girls' set. The NFHS offers three, and a state association picks one and cannot switch mid-season.
- 100
- 105
- 110
- 115
- 120
- 125
- 130
- 135
- 140
- 145
- 155
- 170
- 190
- 235
Scratch weights, in pounds. Most associations add a growth allowance partway through the season, so a bracket in February may read two pounds higher than this. Read off cdn3.sportngin.com on 2026-09-03. Every set at every level puts this beside the NCAA, NAIA and international weights.
What to do if your school has no girls' team
MHSA publishes a rule for this. The MHSA sanctions girls wrestling as its own activity and girls compete only against girls, so a girl at a school with no girls program is served through a cooperative sponsorship contract between member schools. The contract is initiated by a host district and approved by the MHSA executive director, with a February 1 application deadline for the following school year.
From cdn2.sportngin.com, 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 MHSA 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 Montana 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 Montana 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.
- University of ProvidenceNAIA
Wrestlers from Montana
No wrestler in the record names Montana 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.
This page was read on 2026-09-03, off MHSA's own pages and the NFHS participation survey. 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.
The newsletter
One email. The rules, the gear, the college path.
For wrestlers, parents, and coaches. Same standard as the site: every number sourced, no filler, unsubscribe any time.