When No. 3 U.S. women’s wrestling recruit Calli Gilchrist ’29 was looking to commit to a college, she had plenty of varsity options to choose from.
But after talking to Head Coach Nick Lattanze ’21, her heart was set on something different: Brown’s women’s club wrestling team.
The women’s wrestling program was formally established in 2023, and, as a club sport, does not have a formal recruiting process. In fact, Gilchrist was the first recruit in the program’s two-year history, having applied to Brown through early decision and announcing her commitment on Instagram shortly after receiving her acceptance.
Despite the program’s short history, Lattanze and the team’s wrestlers all hope the sport can grow into something much more.
For Gilchrist, taking the chance on a newly established team has already paid off.
“It was kind of crazy that I had as much faith in the program as I did,” Gilchrist said. But at Brown, “I really am getting the opportunity to not only get the education I’ve always wanted, but (also) chase world and Olympic dreams,” she added.
With their first recruit under their belt, the team’s now looking to expand.
“Our vision is to elevate the club to varsity status and, in doing so, establish the first women’s wrestling varsity program in the Ivy League,” according to Cadence Lee ’18 ScM’22, the team’s executive director.
But dreams of high-level competition in women’s collegiate wrestling hadn’t always been achievable at Brown.
Lee began wrestling against boys in eighth grade. As the years passed, she progressed to the national and world stages, later competing for Team USA.
“When it came time to choose a college, I faced a difficult decision: pursue one of the few schools offering women’s wrestling at the time or attend Brown, a dream school for academics,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. “I chose Brown.”
Although continuing her training while at Brown may have been possible through the men’s varsity team or remote training centers, Lee explained that it would’ve been a challenge to balance with coursework.
“Ultimately, I stepped away from competition and poured my energy into coaching,” Lee noted. Throughout her time as an undergraduate and graduate student, Lee worked with students at local high schools. Before leaving Providence, she began “laying the groundwork” for the Brown women’s wrestling team, drafting a budget proposal and constitution, she added.
When Lee left for medical school in 2022, she wasn’t sure what would become of the team.
That same year, Annie Ye ’26 arrived on College Hill. Noticing the lack of a women’s wrestling team, she and a fellow student spearheaded a new initiative to start one — unknowing of Lee’s previous efforts. The duo talked to people who started women’s club wrestling at other schools, such as Princeton and Columbia.
Ye and her co-lead worked with the Division of Athletics and Recreation to contact people who may be willing to coach the team. They were ultimately connected with Lattanze, who had wrestled with the Brown men’s team.
“Coach Nick picked up the torch and helped the team lift off,” Lee wrote.
As an alum, Lattanze knew how special Brown was, he said. After graduating, he began wrestling for Team Canada and started coaching at his former high school.
But for Lattanze, coaching women’s wrestling feels different, he said.
Head Coach Nick Lattanze ’21 at wrestling practice on Wednesday. Despite the program’s short history, Lattanze and the team’s wrestlers hope the sport can continue to grow.
“Everybody really wanted to put everything into it,” he said. “There’s more of this social movement for women’s wrestling — it’s typically a male-dominated sport — and these women on the team were just incredibly motivated and hungry to do something great.”
When he applied for the head coach position at Brown, Lattanze was temporarily living in San Diego while traveling across the country to train in different locations.
Last fall, he stepped into his position at Brown, which he finds is the “perfect place for women’s wrestling.”
He cites the Open Curriculum and Brown’s leadership in women’s sports as two of the primary reasons. Problems typical at other schools — such as the men’s and women’s teams fighting for resources — don’t happen at Brown, he said.
In fact, Lattanze said that, after practice one day, an athlete on the men’s wrestling team stayed two hours to help Gilchrist improve. The men’s coaching staff also frequently provides advice to Lattanze.
The athletes and coaches on the men’s wrestling team have “been incredible humans in all aspects,” he said.
While some team members on women’s wrestling are training at elite levels, not all have years of experience under their belt. Others are newer to the sport or only started wrestling in high school.
Lattanze “absolutely loves walk-ons,” he said, noting that people are always welcome to join the team. Since the team’s athletes have a wide variety of skill levels, he typically sits down with each athlete and asks what their goals are so he can give them a personalized training plan.
Regardless of the athletes’ experience levels, Lattanze said his job is to make sure people leave the team feeling like they had an “awesome experience” that changed their lives.
Ye called the community “super welcoming.”
“It’s not high pressure (or) high stakes, which is something that I wanted to emphasize in the culture,” she said.
Over this past year, almost 250 high school students interested in being recruited have reached out to Lattanze. Around 50 of those students told him that they plan to apply to Brown this fall, he added.
“We have a team that is willing to support anybody who gets in,” Lattanze said. “Whether you want to compete every single month and make a world team, compete at the national tournament or compete with other Ivies at the club tournaments, whatever it is, we’re going to make sure you get it.”
Recruiting as a club sport at an Ivy League school has its difficulties, he said, explaining that top potential recruits don’t always have the grades to get accepted to Brown through standard admissions processes, which differ from the system used to admit recruited varsity athletes. So, he’s reached out to coaches at prep schools and schools that see many students accepted to Brown each year to see if they might have any wrestlers who can meet Brown’s standard admissions standards.
Lattanze contacted Gilchrist after hearing that she was interested in attending an Ivy League school. Since Gilchrist attended Choate Rosemary Hall — a prestigious prep school in Connecticut — and was ranked high in national women’s wrestling recruiting, Lattanze suspected she might have a chance of getting into Brown.
“I wanted to go to a really good academic school, and I also wanted to continue to chase my goals with wrestling,” Gilchrist said.
The wrestling room, she said, can mold someone into a “great person and athlete.”
“I’m just really excited to be able to provide that as an opportunity to more girls at Brown and also to be a part of opening up new academic opportunities for girls in high school right now,” Gilchrist added.
As for the team’s future, Lee hopes to “create a program where female wrestlers never have to choose between elite athletic training and a world-class education.”
As head coach, Lattanze’s main goal is for students to look back fondly on their time as a member of the team.
“We want to become a really competitive team, and we can do it right,” Lattanze said. “My goal is to make sure that any person on this team leaves Brown looking back incredibly fondly over what they experienced at Brown — especially with the women’s wrestling team.”
Cate Latimer is a university news editor covering faculty, University Hall and higher education. She is from Portland, OR, and studies English and Urban Studies. In her free time, you can find her playing ultimate frisbee or rewatching episodes of Parks and Rec.
