Pritzker first-year Marisol Nugent competed at the Division I level as the first female recruit on the UNC men’s wrestling team.

When Nugent came to Northwestern, she started a women’s wrestling team with the encouragement of USA Wrestling but faced delays with club approval. Team members had to compete as individuals rather than represent the school.

After months of delays, she and her teammates received approval in January, expanding access to resources and opportunities to recruit new members. 

“We just became really inspired by the idea that we could do something that’s never been done before and honestly, change some girls’ lives,” Nugent said.

Nugent, who will represent NU at the 2026 U.S. Open Championships in Las Vegas from Wednesday to Sunday, is just one person who has helped pioneer women’s club sports teams at NU.

After playing hockey since age three, Medill junior Mia Rooney said she arrived at NU without an outlet to continue the sport that had been part of her life for so long. She said she considered joining the men’s team but ended up taking a two-year break instead.

But in March 2025, second-year graduate student in Marriage and Family Therapy Emily Kline and Communication sophomore Patricia Liu approached Rooney with the prospect of a women’s club. Kline and Liu both played for the men’s team at the time. 

With the help of men’s coach Ari Lifschutz, and former college hockey player Michelle Greeneway, now the women’s coach, NU’s women’s ice hockey team started its first competitive season in the 2025-26 school year.  

“Hockey is such a niche, specific sport where people have been playing their whole lives … I can finally connect with other students about my hockey experiences,” Rooney said. “It’s been really nice finding girls who share similar experiences as me growing up.”

Having spent her first two years at NU searching for community through Greek life and other student organizations, she said she would have felt more comfortable transitioning to college life if she had the chance to join the women’s hockey team as a first-year.

Now, as president and co-captain of the newly formed team, Rooney said she hopes to create a close-knit community for others, especially younger students.

For McCormick first-year Amelia Strebel, mentorship from upperclassmen made her transition to college smoother. 

After arriving at NU unsure of which team sport to join, she decided to try out rugby, a sport she had never played before.

Strebel said NU’s women’s rugby team includes many first-time players, facilitating a culture where willingness to try matters more than experience. That openness, Strebel said, made her transition into college easier.

“Having people that you know that you’re going to continue to play with was really, really cool and made it so I enjoyed my first couple months of school a lot more than I probably would have,” Strebel said.

For Nugent, forming a women’s wrestling team meant uplifting younger wrestlers as well as forming friendships. 

She said she started the team after recognizing how limited opportunities were for female wrestlers pursuing a high-level education. 

“That’s kind of the goal of the club, is that these girls just believe in themselves, and they believe that they have the work ethic to do this and get this done,” Nugent said. “They want to do the sport, they want to compete and (have) that internal drive to just be the best that they can be.”

Still, forming new club sports teams comes with challenges. Nugent said the women’s wrestling team application had been ready since the end of August for the beginning of the competitive season, along with schedules, practice locations and donors.

But she said administrative challenges and communication gaps pushed approval dates from November to December, until the organization was ultimately approved in January.

“I think they were overwhelmed by how much we wanted to do so fast,” Nugent said.

Women’s wrestling is now officially established as a NU club sport with nine members. In the future, Nugent said the team could perhaps earn varsity status.

But for now, she said her goal is to not just train team members for a college circuit but also to create an inclusive club environment for any students looking to try wrestling, regardless of skillset.

“When you have those days that are really hard, when you have those days that are really long, and you don’t want to do something, you got to do it for her,” Nugent said. “You got to do it for the next girl. You got to do it for the next generation.”

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