This weekend, the U.S. wrestling community has its focus on the biggest event in college wrestling, the NCAA Div. I Championships in St. Louis, Mo. A record crowd will fill the Saavis Center to watch the best college wrestlers in the nation in battle for national honors. The best men college wrestlers...    A few hours down the road, in Marshall, Mo., a historic national college wrestling event will also take place over the weekend. Hosted on the campus of Missouri Valley College will be the first U.S. College Nationals...  for women.    While teams such as Oklahoma State, Iowa, Lehigh, Nebraska, Minnesota and other big-time NCAA university programs battle for supremacy among the men, squads from Cumberland College, Missouri Valley College and Pacific University will fight for top honors among the women.    Every big-time event has to have a start, and for women college wrestlers, this weekend's tournament is just a beginning . Although there has been women's college wrestling since the late 1990's, never before had those involved agreed to meet with a national title on the line.    This weekend's tournament was the product of a meeting between U.S. women's college coaches at the U.S. Olympic Training Center this fall. They had come together to attend a special clinic conducted by National Women's Coach Terry Steiner, and an organizational discussion was planned.     In the past, the U.S. women's teams attended USA Wrestling competitions, competed against Canadian teams and held a few events on their campus. As a group, the coaches decided to have a loose "college season" for women, from January through March, and to host two national events: a dual meet tournament and an individual national tournament.    The dual meet event was hosted at Pacific University in February, and the individual tournament was selected for Missouri Valley College on March 19-20. So while the wrestling community puts its focus on the men in St. Louis, those involved in women's wrestling will be watching the action in Marshall.    "This is a big event for us. We have been focusing all season on it," said Carl Murphree, the women's wrestling coach at Missouri Valley College. Since it began its women's team, Missouri Valley College, an NAIA school, has had the largest and most successful women's college program in the nation.    "We still have a long way to go with this National Championship," said Murphree. "It is hard to get things started, but we all (coaches) knew it was needed. But we need an identifiable college championship to move forward."    Heading into the event, Missouri Valley College is ranked No. 2 in the national rankings published by TheMat.com. The No. 1 team this season has been Cumberland College, another NAIA school. Coached by Kip Flanik, Cumberland has built a large roster of athletes that wrestles all year long and has developed some tremendous individual talents.    "We are excited to wrestle in the first-ever Women's University National Championship, but a little disappointed at the timing because of Spring Break," said Flanik. "We are pretty tired going into this tournament. It has been a long season, but I hope our team performs."    Flanik coaches the most successful women's college wrestler ever, two-time World silver medalist Toccara Montgomery. A junior in school, Montgomery is one of America's top hopefuls for an Olympic title this summer in Athens, Greece. She acts almost like a second coach for the team, helping the younger athletes learn about freestyle wrestling and showing them how to compete at a high level.    Along with Montgomery, Cumberland has three other No. 1 ranked athletes in the women's college rankings:  Suekoiyla Shelly at 55 kg/121 lbs., Alaina Berube at 59 kg/130 lbs. Shelly Ruberg at 63 kg/138.5 lbs. Berube is competing well on the Senior National level as well.    Missouri Valley has a good group of athletes to bring to the tournament as well, with more depth than any other team in the nation. Currently, the Vikings have just one No. 1 in the rankings, Mollie Keith at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. However, most weight classes have at least one ranked wrestler from Missouri Valley, and the top three wrestlers at Keith's division are all from the team.    Perhaps the most talented member of the team is sophomore Stephany Lee, who is at Montgomery's weight and can beat top Senior level stars. Senior Kierstin Hyatt is having a great season at 121 pounds. Freshman Debbi Sakai at 112.5 pounds and sophomore Brooke Bogren at 130 pounds are also having strong years.    "It is a two-team race, us and Cumberland," said Murphree. "We just try to get the edge. My girls have been working hard all season both in and out of the wrestling room. It is just a matter of who shows up this weekend."     Ranked at No. 3 is Pacific University, a Div. III school in Oregon that has put together a nice team of women wrestlers under coach Scott Miller. At the International Duals on their campus, the top team was Canadian power Simon Fraser. Cumberland was second, Missouri Valley third and Pacific fourth in the meet. In fact, Missouri Valley upset Simon Fraser, but lost to Cumberland in the tournament there.    Pacific is led by No. 1 Kapua Torres, a freshman competing at 112.25 pounds, and junior Desi Lockhart, No. 3 at 121 pounds. Pacific can put a solid lineup out on the mats from top to bottom, something that gives them an edge against the other teams besides Missouri Valley and Cumberland.    Sitting at No. 4 is Menlo College, an NAIA school in California, coached by Lee Allen, a former Olympic Greco-Roman coach. His team is led by a few talented individuals, including his daughter Sara Fulp-Allen at 105.5 pounds and another tough freshman in Misty Stalley at 80 kg/176 lbs.    The Univ. of Minnesota-Morris, the first college to have a women's varsity team, sits at No. 5. Coach Doug Reese has held his group together, in spite of the fact that this is the last year for wrestling on the campus. Both the men's and women's team has been dropped by the university, an unpopular decision that the administration refuses to change.    Megan Goldsmith of UM-Morris holds the No. 1 spot at 80 kg/176 lbs., and two other Cougars have had good seasons, sophomore Ranae Faaborg at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. and sophomore Tabithia Ramsey at 112.25 pounds.    There are six varsity programs in women's college wrestling. The newest team is Lassen College, a junior college in California. Lassen has been active at a number of events this year, with a good showing at the recent USA Wrestling University Nationals and FILA Junior Nationals. Freshman Kuuini Johnson has been solid at 138.75 pounds, and freshman Sabrina Lancelotti is showing promise at 112.25 pounds.    MacMurray College, a Div. III team in Illinois, added some women wrestlers this season. New coach Jerry Kelly brought his superstar daughter sophomore Mary Kelly to the school, where she holds down a No. 1 national ranking at 105.5 pounds. Another veteran in the MacMurray room is junior Randi Miller at 147.5 pounds.     The rest of the field could include women athletes from men's teams such as Princeton and Cal-Bakersfield, and college students from a strong club in Hawaii. A few other women wrestling on colleges across the nation may also show up in Missouri Valley to test their skills.    There was talk of starting an organized league for the women's college programs, something that has not yet materialized. However, hosting both a national individual tournament and a strong dual meet event is a good step forward for women's college wrestling.     "I believe it is a little premature to have our own league, but in the future it is our goal to get our own league," said Cumberland's Flanik, who also has high goals for his team on the USA Wrestling Senior circuit. "This will be good preparation for Senior Nationals. In all,  we just hope for a good tournament."     Murphree is excited that Missouri Valley can be part of starting what will hopefully be a successful annual event. Wrestling is a big deal at Missouri Valley College, where their men's team has won NAIA national team titles and crowned numerous NAIA champio