IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun has been named a 2024 National Wrestling Coaches Association Trailblazer honoree, announced by the association on Wednesday.
This is the first year that this award is being presented by the NWCA. The other two honorees for 2024 include Gary Abbott, Director of Communications and Special Projects of USA Wrestling, and Life University head coach, Ashley Flavin.
The Trailblazer Award honors those who have worked tirelessly and have paved the way for women’s wrestling at the collegiate level. Honorees for this award have been instrumental and have provided extraordinary service to establishing and maintaining women’s wrestling as a collegiate sport. Honorees have supported the sport and its growth in the collegiate space over a significant period of years, and have made contributions to the start of programs, the official sanctioning of the sport, and the providing of national recognition and championships in women’s wrestling.
Iowa became the first NCAA Division I, power five conference institution to add women’s wrestling in 2021 and Chun was named the program’s first head coach on November 18, 2021.
In Iowa’s inaugural season, Chun led the Hawkeyes to a 16-0 record in dual competition and broke the world attendance record for women’s wrestling in their first dual inside of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Chun led Iowa to the NCWC National Duals title, the NCWWC national team title and had six individual national champions, and 12 all-Americans.