Delaware State’s Women’s Wrestling Team Sends 2 Student-Athletes To Championship In Inaugural Year

Icart Galumette and Louise Juitt will be competing March 6 in Iowa.

Less than two years after announcing it would launch the first-ever Division I women’s wrestling program at an HBCU, Delaware State University (DSU) has made it to nationals.

According to Andscape, in November, at the team’s first competition, the Hornets finished eighth out of 32 teams at the East Stroudsburg University Open in Pennsylvania.

The next month, the team won its first match, beating Greensboro College. Then, at the top of the year, in January, at the Tornado Open in Tennessee, the Hornets finished in second place out of 23 teams—quite an accomplishment for a new program.

“It’s incredible because when you look around, we’re the only team where it’s like every single person on our team is a person of color and is very, very deep into their culture,” freshman Christina Lisboa said. “When we go into tournaments, we’re chanting, we’re being loud, we’re not fitting into that box.

“It’s great to set the tone at these tournaments and to just see people watch us. People come up to us all the time, and it’s like, ‘Wow, you guys are Delaware State women’s wrestling.’ It’s honestly really exciting to hear and really inspiring.”

The school announced in February that DSU had two of its wrestlers competing at the NCAA National Championship. Icart Galumette finished the season in third place in her division at 117 pounds, while Louise Juitt finished as the regional runner-up at 145 pounds.

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Both women will compete in the NC Women’s Wrestling Tournament at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, on March 6. Delaware State finished in seventh place out of 18 teams at the NCAA Regional Championship in Franklin Springs, Georgia.