August 5, 2021,
Powerhouses earn their reputation by finishing at or near the top of women’s collegiate freestyle wrestling, year after year.
They are the WCWA (Women’s College Wrestling Association) elite.
For over a decade, King University of Tennessee, Simon Fraser of Canada and recently Menlo from the San Francisco Bay Area and Campbellsville of Kentucky have consistently made their mark and have produced an abundance of champions.
We are happy to add Wayland Baptist of Plainview, Texas to the list.
fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com Larry-D.-Moore-Wikipedia-photo-credit
Wayland Baptist University (WBU) is private Baptist university based in Plainview, Texas. Wayland Baptist has a total of 11 campuses in five Texas cities, six states, American Samoa, and Kenya. It was originally chartered in 1908 and currently has a total enrollment of approximately 900 students on its main campus and approximately 4,000 students across all sites.
Wayland Baptist teams, nicknamed athletically as the Pioneers are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
Their women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, soccer, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.
Here is a very important statistic for you. Until 2018, Wayland Baptist was the only college in Texas to offer a women’s wrestling program.
In Female Competition International’s (FCI) early years, right around 2012-2014, we actually communicated with the Athletic Director at Wayland Baptist and found them to be extremely cooperative, even offering us photos to use for their article.
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/wayland-baptist-improves/
Here is what our associates at FCI Women’s Wrestling (fciwomenswrestling.com) had to say about them, “Choosing the university you will attend is one of the most important decisions a young college bound female wrestler will ever make. Many have considered Wayland Baptist University, located in Plainview Texas for some of the following reasons. When you enter their campus community, you will be guided by an outstanding faculty who know you by name and will try and understand where you’ve come from and where you want to go. You will encounter an administration that makes an effort to value your voice and will listen to your thoughts about providing the best possible college experience for students.”
We love the professionalism and high standards found at Wayland.
One of their greatest alumni made big news recently.
As reported at National Public Radio (npr.org), “U.S. wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock closed out her first Olympics in dominating style Tuesday, winning gold in the women's 68-kilogram freestyle final. She is only the second woman — and the first Black woman — to win an Olympic wrestling gold for the United States.”
Extremely impressive.
For those of you who are new to our great sport, let’s take a closer look at Tamyra.
Tamyra Mariama Mensah-Stock (born October 11, 1992) is an American sport wrestler who competes in the women's freestyle category.
Drum roll please.
She is the reigning Olympic and World champion in wrestling freestyle. She is also currently the number one woman wrestler in the world.
Tamyra was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in the Houston, Texas suburbs. Her father was a Ghanaian who lived in Ghana until the age of 30, and her mother is from Illinois.
She began competing in track and field events but later pursued wrestling as a teenager at Morton Ranch High School in Texas at the age of 15 at the suggestion of her twin sister Tarkyia, who was on the school wrestling team and convinced her to join with her in a wrestling practice session.
Tamyra appeared to love it instantly. Then tragedy struck.
She nearly quit the sport of wrestling after her father died in a tragic car accident on his way home after watching a high school wrestling match where Tamyra took part.
Sadly, she blamed wrestling for her father's untimely demise and her father was regarded as her biggest fan.
We and fans all over the world are extremely happy she didn’t quit.
Then the records and achievements began to accumulate.
In 2010 and 2011, she became the Texas High School Girls Champion after having finished second in 2009. In 2010 she became the U.S. junior runner-up.
After high school, she attended our favorite Wayland Baptist University (WBU).
As a student wrestler, she became the WCWA (Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association) Nationals Champion in 2014 and 2017; the American champion of the association.
She also took third place in the 2013 U.S. Universities Championship and first place in 2015.
It was time to take it to the next level.
She won the 68kg event at the 2016 US Olympic Trials but failed to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics as none of the athletes from the United States secured a spot to compete in relevant 68kg weight category at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Not believing in wasting time, she spent her time in Brazil as a practice partner for her teammates who were eligible to compete in other weight categories of the wrestling competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
She claimed gold medal in the women's 68 kg event during the 2019 World Wrestling Championships and also qualified to represent United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
She was one of the three gold medalists for the United States in women's freestyle category at the 2019 World Championships, which also marked the first instance where U.S. delegation claimed three gold medals in women's wrestling event at a single World Championships.
Tamyra also claimed a bronze medal in the women's 68 kg event at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships. In 2021, she won the gold medal in the 68 kg event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2021 held in Rome, Italy.
What sometimes surprises even FCI is how a tremendous female wrestler can achieve so much and in many ways continue to fly under the radar. Even our team really had not heard much about her.
Well, we and the world have heard a lot about her now.
fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com Arne-Museler-www.arne-mueseler.com-Wikipedia-photo-credit
On August 3, 2021, she won the gold medal in the women's freestyle 68 kg after defeating Nigeria's Blessing Oborududu 4-1 at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Women’s wrestling world? Meet Tamyra Mensah-Stock.
You are going to hear much more golden news about her in the future.
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OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com Editorial-credit-LiveMedia-Shutterstock.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamyra_Mensah-Stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_Baptist_University
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
