Alajendra Alfaro decided to take a leap of faith.
The Denver, Colorado, native committed to Misericordia University earlier this year to wrestle for the Cougars’ first-ever women’s team.
“It was the coach,” she said.
Alfaro had offers in different states, including in Colorado, but the coaches didn't reflect what she wanted.
Thirteen other wrestlers are joining Alfaro in that leap — leaving their homes to compete under head coach Ken Chertow.
Chertow is a former Olympian who coached at Penn State and Ohio State University. His wrestlings camps are among some of the most attended in the country.
Chertow took the Misericordia job last summer. For the past year, he has facilitated the construction of a new wrestling room and recruited high school standouts across the country to compete for the Cougars.
“I've laid the foundation for the next five years,” Chertow said. “It's an exciting time for women's sports. And women's wrestling is probably the fastest growing of them.”
The introduction of Misericordia’s women’s team reflects the growing change in popularity for the sport. Wilkes University announced Wednesday that the school would be adding a women’s wrestling team in 2025. In the 2022-23 academic year, 51 colleges and universities had a women’s wrestling team. In 2023-24, over 70 schools planned to sponsor a team.
“The culture of wrestling is a tough one,” Chertow said. “The stereotype for women is maybe they're not as physical, but it's wrong. So, now that wrestling is catching fire… it's going to just be booming for women's wrestling. So I'm excited to be a leader in the forefront of that, not just locally in NEPA, but also statewide, nationwide, and ultimately worldwide.”
Chertow plans for Misericordia to be a national powerhouse for women’s wrestling — creating Olympians like himself.
“The goal is to have girls on the Olympic team in Los Angeles. I want to be involved in training our girls and other girls and helping them reach their highest goals,” he said.
Alfaro connected with Chertow.
“He was a very straightforward man, which I really like. He made it very clear that he left men's coaching for women's coaching, and he wanted to build a team… he was ready to build that team, and he was going to put his all into us, as long as we gave our all to him,” Alfaro said.
Angelina Dawson is also moving cross country to compete under Chertow’s tutelage. She spent the last year at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The prospect of leading a first-year team was enticing to the 23 year-old.
“Our first team this first year is going to be a pioneer. We kind of set the standard for the years to come. I think there's going to be such good things that are done with the program,” she said.
Dawson has All-American dreams for herself, hoping to be one of the premiere college athletes in the country. But she holds more modest aspirations for the team in its first year.
“I'm not asking everyone to place on the podium, because a lot of the girls have only a few years of experience. But what I am asking, or what I hope the outcome is, is that everyone stays consistent and stays with it, and as long as they're trying every day, that's all I care about,” she said.
Most of Chertow’s recruits are local. Maddie Stultz is a sophomore from Tobyhanna. She transferred from Cedar Crest College, where she originally committed to play softball along with wrestling.
“I never would have thought that I would be wrestling for Ken Chertow. If you told me this a year ago today. I would have told you you were crazy,” she said.
The prestige of Chertow and the vision he has for the team is what makes the program so desirable for recruits. Chertow is seen as someone who could coach anywhere in the world, but chose Misericordia — that matters.
The wrestlers know their work is cut out for them, but when the season starts in November, they will be ready.
“In this case scenario of taking this leap of faith with a first time program, I understand that it's going to need work, but I'm willing to put the work in, because if I don't get to have the program or the ideal program, that's okay. I just want to make sure that people after me have it,” Dawson said.
What Alfaro, Dawson, Stultz, and the rest of the wrestling team all have in common is a desire to put Misericordia — and women’s wrestling — on the map.
“I just want to put our name out there… When people ask me what school I go to, and I tell them, they're like, ‘well, where is that?’ And I'm like, it's in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, but I want people to know that middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. I want people to know my school…I want everyone to know where our school is, and I want everyone to know that we are not just a little school in a small town — we are going to be successful,” Alfaro said.
“We’re going to make history,” Stultz said. “And we’re going to set the standard for Misericordia in the future, and I want to be a part of that.”
Chertow is relentless in his pursuit of who he hopes to be future Olympians: on Saturday, he is hosting a wrestling clinic at Misericordia for girls in grades 4 to 12. He hopes that Misericordia’s team is a sign of things to come: that women’s sports, particularly wrestling, will continue to garner more and more attention.