November 8, 2024/ Midnight
Erie, Pa.-– Women’s wrestling, a sport growing rapidly at the high school and collegiate level, giving young female athletes the opportunity and outlet for scholarship opportunities as well as continuing their athletic careers. Acrobatics and tumbling, a sport born at the collegiate level, merge backgrounds of artistic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, and cheerleading, benefitting female athletes from the opportunity of a collegiate career. Both of these sports are offered at Gannon, and both are a part of the NCAA’s emerging sport status. The NCAA deems emerging sport status as a sport recognized and intended as a way of expanding sponsored sports options at institutions while attempting to reach the NCAA championship level.
This season, the Gannon Women’s wrestling team and the Acrobatics and Tumbling team came together for their “assigned” sister–sport activity. The goal was to have each team experience a hands–on sneak peek at each other’s practices for the day. The teams started in the wrestling room. As a senior on the acro team, I and a few other team members were excited to try something new (also learn how to wrestle/throw our teammates around) however many were nervous about stepping out of their comfort zone.
After warming up, we started to learn the basic holds and movements for basic wrestling. The Women’s wrestling team members were extremely patient with us, especially those who were eager to get to “slamming” and “throwing” one another. The atmosphere shifted quickly, as the teams began to merge and understand one another. We were fortunate enough to see some of the girls wrestle with each other to show us the moves they had just taught us in a full–out fashion.
We then moved to teaching the wrestlers basic tumbling and small acro tricks. As a team we go through a warmup called “general tumbling”, a list of tumbling basics in order to properly warm up and get our brains and bodies connected for our more elite running and standing tumbling passes.
My teammates and I had a lot of fun connecting with the wrestlers who had many of the “general tumbling” skills and spotting them on potentially bigger, more advanced, basic connections. We then ended our time together by teaching them basic pyramid builds as well as creating simple toss groups in order to do straight ride tosses.
The experience taught me a lot about my own appreciation of my sport, my teammates, and for the other female athletes we have on campus. My teammates and I bonded over trying something new, needing to trust each other in a completely new environment. We throw humans and hold them above our heads, as well as catch them in various ways in acrobatics in tumbling, but it is different in a one–on–one format, to trust one another that the next wrestling move will be performed safely and trusting each other’s strengths.
The experience of swapping practices made it abundantly clear that neither sport is easy, and those involved in their respective sports are clearly passionate about them. All in all, we are all strong women, utilizing the opportunity to be a collegiate athlete in the best way we all can. All of us are a part of a historic movement for women’s collegiate athletics and paving new ways for little girls that have the same, and even bigger dreams that we all had growing up.
The Gannon women’s wrestling team is currently tied for 25th in the nation via the NWCA Women’s Wrestling preseason poll, and the Gannon acrobatics and tumbling team finished the 2024 season at 2nd in the nation. Women’s wrestling hosts their home opener on December 6, and the acrobatics and tumbling team hosts their home opener on February 7.
