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SPEAKER 1: Augsburg University's women's wrestling team heads to Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa tomorrow to compete for the first time ever. The program is brand new this year. And right now, it's the only varsity college wrestling team for women in Minnesota. Morning Edition producer Julia Franz visited the team while they were preparing for the meet. And she has this story.

JULIA FRANZ: Practice starts at 7 o'clock in the morning. The wrestlers pull their shoes on at the edge of the thick mat, do some stretches, then they line up as head coach Max Mejia runs down the plan for the week.

MAX MEIJA: So let's just communicate. Let's be open. Let's figure out what we need. Team lunch, 1:15.

All right. Let's get a jog. Right, let's go.

JULIA FRANZ: There are 10 women wrestling on the team this year. Most are first years, including Vayle-rae Baker from Pennsylvania.

VAYLE-RAE BAKER: I feel like it's my art. It's what I love to do. I get to have my own style.

I get to have my own performances when I go out and wrestle. And it's the bonds that you make, and the connections. It's like a family.

JULIA FRANZ: Bel Snyder grew up in a wrestling family, but started out playing basketball in high school.

BEL SNYDER: And then my brother wrestled. And I remember taking him to practice. And I knew all the kids in wrestling.

I knew all of them. I was related to half of them. But I remember sitting in the weight room and being like, what am I doing? I should be in there right now.

JULIA FRANZ: Like her teammates, Snyder wrestled against boys in high school. She was the first girl to wrestle varsity at Wadena-Deer Creek. For college, she first picked a university in North Dakota that had a women's team.

But the school wasn't a good fit. When she decided to transfer last year, she says leaving wrestling was the hardest part. Then she heard Augsburg was starting a program back in Minnesota.

BEL SNYDER: So it's just really cool because now I get to be in my home state. Minneapolis is a really great area to be in. And my teammates are my sisters. And Max and the other coaches, they support me like no other.

JULIA FRANZ: Augsburg isn't the first Minnesota school to start a women's wrestling program. The University of Minnesota Morris had one, but dropped it 15 years ago along with its men's team. Since then the number of high school girls in the sport has risen nearly five-fold nationwide to more than 20,000 wrestlers last year.

But most states, including Minnesota, don't have a separate championship for girls high school wrestling. And at the college level, women's wrestling isn't an NCAA championship sport either. Although in a first step, the NCAA could soon name it an emerging sport like rugby or triathlon. This year, more than 50 schools are fielding women's collegiate teams.

JEFF SWENSON: So with the rise in women's wrestling, it just seemed logical--

JULIA FRANZ: That's Augsburg athletic director Jeff Swenson. He says the school was outfront in launching other women's programs like hockey and lacrosse. Plus, the Augsburg men's wrestling team is a Division III powerhouse with 13 national titles.

JEFF SWENSON: And Jamestown, Waldorf, and Stevens Point added just before us. So there was a wide range around Minnesota of programs that had women's wrestling. And so it seemed like there was the right timing for a women's wrestling program.

JULIA FRANZ: Augsburg announced the program in April as college decision deadlines loomed. And this season, the team is small. Coach Mejia says the teams they'll compete against might have three times as many wrestlers.

MAX MEIJA: Are we small? Yeah. For a first-year program, I think we did great in two months to get that many girls here that fit what we were looking for.

JULIA FRANZ: One of the 10 women on the team is Maple Grove native Emily Shilson, who was named the top female recruit in the country this year by the wrestling site The Open Mat.

EMILY SHILSON: I feel like people are sleeping on us a little bit just because we're a first-year program. But we have a ton of hammers in here. And honestly, I expect to win a national title this year as a team.

JULIA FRANZ: When practice ends at 8:30, the Augsburg team huddles for a pep talk in the wrestling room. The walls are hung with reminders that the men's team has had a 70-year head start. But a new era begins on Saturday. Julia Franz. MPR News, Minneapolis.

SPEAKER 2: Auggies on three. One, two, three. Auggies.

SPEAKER 1: Nice work there, Julia. That was-- I'm going to say this right out for everyone to hear. That was Julia's very first story she's done in her career. There you go. Congratulations.