Lehigh women’s wrestling defeats Delaware State in first D-I home meet

In high school, Jimenez was a three-time Arizona state champion in the girls division. When she appealed to compete against boys in her senior year, she won a state title in that division too.

Last summer, Jimenez added a silver medal at the U23 World Championships to her list of accolades.

Now ranked the No. 3 pound-for-pound wrestler in the nation, Jimenez was one half of Lehigh’s first varsity women’s wrestling match. She lined up against Delaware State’s Milena Chavarria.

The 110-pound Jimenez got to work early, jumping out to an 8-0 lead quickly into the match.

With a commanding lead just a minute in, Jimenez dropped to her knees to shoot a double-leg takedown. She rose to her feet, draped her opponent over her right shoulder, walked her to the Mountain Hawks logo in the center of the mat and flipped forward to land her opponent on her back, claiming a technical fall victory.

“I’ve never been able to hit it in a match,” Jimenez said. “I heard Coach Brazel Marquez in the corner, like, ‘Work your doubles.’ So I just got in there, and I was able to bring her up over my shoulder. I was like, ‘This is a good time to try it out.’ That was pretty fun being able to finally do it after all these years.”

Lehigh’s women’s wrestling team would go on to win the first varsity dual meet in program history, 32-14.

“Really important for the program, for women’s wrestling, but really, I mean, my emotions are just, ‘Let’s just handle business and do what we got to do,’” Marquez said. “(We’re) just kind of taking each dual meet as we go.”

The Mountain Hawks won seven of the 10 matches, with all coming by fall or technical fall.

First-years Angela Jiang and Genevieve An, ranked No. 14 at 160 pounds and No. 11 at 180 pounds by The Open Mat, respectively, both earned falls in Lehigh’s victory.

Later that night, Lehigh prevailed against Division II East Stroudsburg University, 27-17. Lehigh took six of the 10 matches, with Jimenez winning by technical fall and FloWrestling’s no. 4-ranked 117-pounder, Abbi Cooper, winning, 12-2, in her match.

“I thought that we’re gonna do fairly well,” Marquez said. “I knew that they had a couple good wrestlers that were going to give us a little bit of a run for our money. But even in those ones, I thought that we wrestled a little smart. I think our girls were a little nervous just being their first time wrestling in the home gym, but we did expect it. I’m always gonna expect to win no matter what.”

With the win, Lehigh improved its undefeated dual meet record to 8-0 as the team makes a run at a national championship in the program’s first D-I season.

The 2025-26 season will be the first time an NCAA national champion will be crowned in women’s wrestling.

The sport has been officially marked by the NCAA as an NCAA championship sport, meaning that teams from D-I to D-III will be competing for a national title at season’s end.

Six universities — Lehigh University, The University of Iowa, Sacred Heart University, Presbyterian College, Delaware State University and Lindenwood University — sponsor D-I women’s wrestling.

“I mean, it’s taken us a long time just to get to six,” Marquez said. “But also these last few years, they’ve been kind of popping off pretty quick. I do think that in the next five years that more and more schools are gonna buy into what we’re doing here.”

Lehigh and Delaware State are the newest additions to this group, both starting competition in the 2025-26 season.

“We want to build a really great legacy here,” Jimenez said. “I think when people hear Lehigh, they think wrestling, right? So it’s just such a deeply rooted culture here, not only with good wrestling, but also good people.”