A leaked video has amplified the spotlight on a California college and the wrestling program the school intends to cut after this final season.

California Baptist University is a private religious school in Riverside that has been quickly ascending in college sports. After competing for decades at the small-school NAIA level, the Lancers moved up to Division II in 2011 and up to Division I in 2018.

During that growth, Cal Baptist’s wrestling program shone. The Lancers won two national championships in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association and were instantly competitive in Division II, ending their five-year run at the level with back-to-back third-place finishes nationally. The Division I era has been a bigger challenge, though things had been looking up in recent years.

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But all of that progress is coming to a rapid halt in an all-too-familiar fashion for student-athletes across California. On Jan. 2, Cal Baptist announced it was shutting down three programs at the end of this school year: men’s golf, men’s swimming and diving and wrestling. According to Nolan Kistler, who was born and raised in Riverside, remains there as an attorney and is the program’s all-time winningest individual wrestler, the Lancers were blindsided by the news.

Wrestling action from the dual meet between Cal State Bakersfield and host Cal Baptist at the regular season finale on Feb. 21, 2026, in Riverside, Calif.

Wrestlers wear “Keep CBU Wrestling” shirts while standing off to the side of the wrestling mat during a dual meet between Cal State Bakersfield and Cal Baptist on Feb. 21, 2026, in Riverside, Calif.

Wrestling action from the dual meet between Cal State Bakersfield and host Cal Baptist at the regular season finale on Feb. 21, 2026, in Riverside, Calif.

“No warning whatsoever,” Kistler told SFGATE in a phone call on Monday. “The coaches, the kids, all the big donors, we all found out the same day as the public.”

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The school’s announcement included an FAQ page that said the move was done in the face of the “evolving” college sports landscape to help the school “realize the university’s goal of achieving greater competitive excellence that the new Division I era demands.” The language is very similar to what Cal Poly wrote when it cut its swimming and diving programs last spring — and also like Cal Poly (initially), Cal Baptist’s leadership said no amount of fundraising would lead them to change their minds. 

But unlike Cal Poly, which didn’t announce its move until after that season ended, Cal Baptist made its announcement as the wrestling and swimming and........

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