Anni Futch leads women’s wrestling program from club roots to Division I status

If life were bound between hardcovers, senior women’s wrestler Anni Futch already knows what her book would say on the spine: The Swarovski Scholastic. 

The title fits. Her story reads like a genre blend — part athlete, part scholar and part founder of a program still being written. 

Since joining as a founding member of Lehigh’s women’s wrestling club in 2022, the Utah native has helped guide the program’s rise to Division I status while balancing a double major in economics and cognitive science. 

“When I first toured (Lehigh), I met one of the women who started the club six months before I got to the school,” Futch said. “I sort of came into college expecting to be committed to wrestling. I was ready to go in and put the work in.” 

When she arrived on campus in the fall 2022, the program was still taking shape. Practices were held every other week, and competition opportunities were limited because the club was new.

The slow start didn’t deter her.

Futch said she increased practices to three times a week, and on the weekends, drove to Connecticut and New York to train with her club coach, seeking out any competition she could find. 

“We would do any sort of competition we could get our hands on,” she said. “You kind of had to search out all the opportunities yourself when I was first here.”

Junior teammate Leila Sidhu said Futch’s efforts to grow the club didn’t go unnoticed. The foundation she helped build was still searching for its footing.

“She really broadcasted the idea of supporting women’s wrestling, and she was able to form bonds and network, and I guess that’s really a big part of all this,” Sidhu said. “She threw out the name and got people to be open to the idea that Lehigh women’s wrestling could have a team and go Division I.” 

As the university moved toward Division I status, Futch wasn’t simply watching from the sidelines. She and her father, Curt Futch, were part of the process.

A former collegiate wrestler, Curt Futch said he worked to expand the program so his daughter could pursue her dream. 

“I decided that if that was her goal, I was going to help her achieve it,” he said. “I did the networking that I needed to do, built relationships, tried to really help where I could be supportive, not just to her, but to the entire program.”

In May, Lehigh officially announced the addition of women’s wrestling as a varsity sport. 

“It (was an) amazing feeling, honestly, like it’s absolutely out of this world,” Anni Futch said. 

When she first arrived the team roster had three names. She drove herself to practices and accepted donations for her program. 

As her senior year comes to a close, Futch leaves behind a team with its own facility, athletic trainer and the support of the athletic department. 

Although her passion for wrestling runs deep, her athletic career began elsewhere.

Futch started competitive figure skating at age 4 and became nationally ranked in 2017 and 2019. In eighth grade, her father’s love for wrestling began to rub off on her as they watched the national championships together.

Curt Futch said he looked up Cael Sanderson, the wrestling coach at Penn State, and learned he would be at a camp in Utah run by his brother. He said Sanderson suggested that Anni Futch try wrestling.

Throughout high school, her father served as her coach and added extra practice time to prepare her for the collegiate level. 

That support system shaped not only the wrestler Anni Futch has become, but also the teammate her coaches and teammates rely on. 

“She’s just an interesting person overall,” Sidhu said. “She’s super smart, really sweet and she’s always ready to give a helping hand whenever anybody needs it. She’s always there, always prepared to be there for another person.”

Off the mat, Anni Futch said she’s passionate about fashion and reading. She said she has an endless supply of clothes and books. 

Of the many books she’s read, three hold a special place: Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. 

“I really like how these are all fictional stories, but they have a much larger implication,” Anni Futch said. “It really makes you think about your place in society and what exactly is going to happen in the future.”

She said she believes fiction holds a distinct kind of power — a belief that feels fitting as one of the most defining chapters of her own story comes to an end. 

“There definitely were a lot of big feelings before I competed for the last time,” she said. “I can look back and say I did what I came here to do and feel happy with how it went.”