NJCAA Featured - Indian Hills Women's Wrestling
The NJCAA is running a 2024-25 school year featured series on some of the organization's biggest sports storylines.
Centerville, IA—Women's Wrestling was announced as an emerging sport within the NJCAA in 2020. The sport has seen over 26 new programs across 11 states. Over 200 student-athletes are set to compete in the National Invitational next week in Council Bluffs, IA, which is a record-setting field.
One of the most recognized junior college women's wrestling programs has quickly become Indian Hills Community College (IA). Each of the last two years, Indian Hills has walked away as Invitational Champions and is looking to three-peat this season. In the previous four years, the program has had over 50 all-Americans and 13 total National Championships in their weight class.
Cole Spree, the former women's and current men's wrestling coach at Indian Hills, started the program in 2019.
"They never had wrestling at Indian Hills and announced they were starting the men's and women's programs in 2019. I knew it would be a process to have success, so I knew that with the right pieces in place, eventually it would happen," Indian Hills head men's wrestling coach Cole Spree said.
Spree was an all-American wrestler at Ellsworth Community College (IA) and quickly returned to coach his alma mater as an assistant coach. After a stop at Minot State University, he returned to Ellsworth as the head coach. Spree helped develop 29 All-Americans and 11 national tournament finalists at Ellsworth.
Spree was recently honored as a NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame, class of 2025 inductee.
Over the last four years, the team has won two NJCAA Women's Wrestling Invitational Titles and two Junior College National Championship (JCNC) titles. This season marks the first season with Darren Wynn taking over Indian Hills, which was ranked the top women's wrestling team in the last poll.
Wynn was an assistant coach at Indian Hills from 2021 to 2023 before serving as an assistant coach at Lindenwood University last season.
"It meant a lot to return to Indian Hills. Some of my proudest accomplishments as a coach have been watching them grow and develop into incredible individuals," said head women's wrestling coach Darren Wynn.
One of the most recognizable women's wrestlers from Indian Hills is Eliana Bommarito. Bommarito is a two-time 235lb women's wrestling NJCAA National Invitational Champion. In the first Invitational in 2023, the then-freshman left their mark by winning all three matches and only spending 5:20 seconds on the mat. Bommarito was awarded the NJCAA's Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the performance. Returning in 2024, Bommarito was again the top-ranked wrestler in their weight class and secured her second consecutive national title. She finished with an undefeated record at Indian Hills. Since then, she has become the first U.S. Beach Wrestling World Champion in 2023. Bommarito has since repeated that championship title in 2024, becoming one of the most well-known women's wrestlers.
Spree called Bommarito "one of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers" he has seen.
"The sport has exploded. We were the first junior college school in Iowa to have a program, and this year we have seven. At our first national tournament, there may have been five teams. This year, I could see close to 30 programs," Spree said.
"To see the growth has been amazing to watch. To have the National Finals up on a big stage compared to a few years ago is amazing. It's special to see how much women's wrestling has grown at the junior college level," Wynn said.
Check out the 2025 NJCAA Women's Wrestling Invitational Championship in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 7-8. All matches will be streamed live on the NJCAA Network.
Cole Spree's NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame announcement - HERE Two inducted into NJCAA Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame - NJCAA
