Ivy League announces postseason wrestling tournament starting in 2025

The Ivy League will have its own postseason wrestling tournament, breaking away from the EIWA conference tournament, according to a release.

This postseason tournament will begin in the 2024-25 season, replacing the Ivy League team’s participation in the EIWA Tournament. Those conference tournaments are qualifications for NCAAs.

The first Ivy League Tournament will take place at Jadwin Gym at Princeton University in March of 2025.

“This is an exciting day for the Ivy League and, most importantly, for our league’s wrestling student-athletes and coaches,”  Executive Director Robin Harris said. “This new postseason event will provide an unforgettable experience for our student-athletes and is a terrific way to further showcase the sustained national strength of Ivy League athletics.”

As far as future sites, it’ll be a rotation, but the 2026 tournament is to-be-determined.

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn and Princeton all sponsor wrestling within the conference and the teams will compete at an individual tournament for the first time, away from the other EIWA teams.

“We want to acknowledge the EIWA membership and the long history of success that our programs have benefited from over the many decades of their affiliation,” Harris said.

These schools regularly dominated the EIWA Tournament. Now, this postseason conference tournament could be one of the most exciting.

The six Ivy League schools that sponsor wrestling currently compete in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA),” the release read. “Beginning in 2024-2025, the Ivy League institutions will compete in the Ivy League Wrestling Tournament to determine automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament … 

“Last year, three Ivies (Cornell’s Vito Arujau and Yianni Diakomihalis and Princeton’s Patrick Glory) were crowned NCAA national champions, and five Ivies made it to the semifinal round. In the last 10 years, Ivies have been crowned wrestling national champions 10 times and have earned 50 wrestling All-American honors.”

Arujau is back this season and looks to defend his crown at 133 pounds, representing Cornell and the Ivy League. Diakomihalis and Glory have since graduated and moved onto the freestyle scene and post-collegiate wrestling life.

The latest NWCA Coaches Poll, last updated on December 10th, features one team within the top 25: No. 5 Cornell. But Penn recently received votes in the latest poll.