Wheeling, W. Va. - In January of 2025, Wheeling University announced that Women's Wrestling would become the school's 23rd intercollegiate varsity sport, beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year. With the announcement, they became the sixth school in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) to sponsor the sport, leading to a historic announcement by the conference on Thursday. The MEC announced Women's Wrestling as the 24th conference championship sport, with the inaugural MEC Women's Wrestling Championships being held on January 30th, 2027. 

The MEC Board of Directors voted to approve women's wrestling as the league's newest championship sport at its September meeting, following the NCAA's addition of women's wrestling back on January 17th, 2025. Wheeling is one of six MEC institutions to currently field women's wrestling programs, joining Concord, Fairmont State, Frostburg State, Point Park, and West Liberty. 

"We are very pleased to add women's wrestling as the Mountain East Conference's 24th sport," quoted MEC Commissioner Reid Amos in the official release on mountaineast.org. "Since 2013, we have grown from 16 sports to now 24, providing a tremendous increase in opportunities for student-athletes across our campuses. Women's Wrestling is growing very quickly, and we are proud to support that growth of opportunities for women, beginning with an inaugural MEC Championship this academic year." 

Wheeling University announced Women's Wrestling as it's 23rd intercollegiate varsity sport on January 15, 2026, and Lily Sherer was named as the program's first Head Coach on March 12. Over the last seven month's Sherer has built the program from the ground up and heads into the 2026-2027 season with nine wrestlers set to take on a schedule that features 11 competition dates. The Women's Wrestling program will compete in their first-ever event on November 1 when they travel to the Tiffin open, and they follow that with their first-ever dual meet against Fairmont State on November 18. In total, the Cardinals will be home three times during the 2026-2027 season, with two of those three home duals coming against MEC opponents. 

The inaugural MEC Women's Wrestling Championship will be held on January 30, 2027, at the Waco Center in Glenville, West Virginia. It will run in conjunction with the 2027 MEC Men's Wrestling Championships running that same day. Just like the men's tournament, the women's tournament will feature a bracket style play, with championship matches in each weight class. The top three finishers in each weight class will earn All-MEC honors. 

"The MEC adopting Women's Wrestling as a conference championship is huge news for our sport," said Sherer. "Different conferences around the country are finally in a place to host conference championships, which only validates the sport more. When I was in college there were no opportunities to compete for a title like this, so to be able to coach my girls in an event like this is incredible. Women's Wrestling is growing so much everyday and I'm  so blessed and honored to be a member of a conference and university supporting the one thing that put me in the position I'm in today."

The Wheeling University Women's Wrestling team begins their inaugural 2026-2027 season on Sunday, November 1, when they compete at the Tiffin Open.