Wrestling with growing a new program: Jazmene Molina ’26

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Wrestling with growing a new program: Jazmene Molina ’26

Jazmene Molina in a Utica Pioneers jersey, stands against a black background.

"I feel like helping to build a new program here."

Jazmene Molina '26 came to Utica to be a Pioneer – in more ways than one.

With three teammates – Ashley Mendez ’27, Gillian Mills ’27, and Sara Sylvester ’27 – the sophomore transfer student from La Mirada, California is ushering in the University’s newest intercollegiate sport, women’s wrestling. When Molina learned last year that her college coach, Connor Lapresi, had accepted an offer to come to Utica and build a new program from the ground up, she was intrigued by the challenge, so much that she decided to follow him north to Ferrum College in Virginia.

A dual psychology and criminal justice major, her goals are not limited to quickly putting Utica University on the wrestling map or individual aspirations of qualifying for nationals, an achievement a late-season knee injury cost her last year.

“Women’s wrestling isn’t as big as other sports, but it’s growing. People know it as an exclusively-male sport, but that’s not true at all. I feel like helping to build a new program here, I can, at the same time, help combat that myth and help other people find their passion toward it.