Cleveland State University wrestler Riley Shaw, in an earlier match, recently completed in the NCAA tournament.

(Cleveland State University)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State University will discontinue funding its 52-year-old wrestling program in fall 2016.

The world's oldest sport will be replaced by men's lacrosse - the fastest growing college sport in the last decade. Its first season will start in the spring of 2017.

The moves are a result of a "program prioritization process" led by Athletic Director John Parry that explored factors including funding, competitiveness and national trends, the university said in a statement.

The 25 members of the wrestling team were told the news at 3:30 p.m. Coach Ben Stehura, in his fifth season at CSU, wasn't immediately available for comment.

"The decision to no longer fund wrestling at CSU was a very difficult one," Parry said in a news release. "The athletes, coaches and support staff have shown exceptional dedication to their sport and the university."

CSU will seek external funding to continue the program, officials said.

Wrestlers competed at Fenn College, which in 1965 became CSU. Its team competes in the Eastern Wrestling League.

Redshirt senior Ben Willeford and junior Riley Shaw recently competed in the NCAA tournament in St. Louis. They led the Vikings to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the league, and the team finished fourth at the league championships.

CSU did not want to drop a sport but cannot afford the additional cost of about $900,000 a year to add two sports, because if it added lacrosse it would have to add a women's sport to meet federal Title IX requirements, officials said Monday.

CSU would become only the second public university in Ohio to offer lacrosse. Ohio State University has men's and women's teams.

The team will play at Krenzler Field, and games are expected to attract students and community members, the university said.

The university began discussing adding lacrosse in fall 2014 and had hoped its first team would be on campus this fall and compete in the spring of 2016.

At that time it had planned to add a women's sport, either lacrosse or indoor/outdoor track and field, said Parry and President Ronald Berkman.

Public colleges are following the lead of their private counterparts in adding lacrosse, which in recent years has become the latest recruitment tool.

Relatively inexpensive to start, the sport has grown in popularity at high schools, especially those with middle-class students.

By offering the chance to play at the next level, colleges hope to attract students who otherwise wouldn't have considered those campuses.

CSU added men's lacrosse as a club sport in 2013.

No sport has grown faster at the NCAA level over the past decade than lacrosse, said US Lacrosse, the national governing body of the sport.

It said a record 170 teams played NCAA Division I lacrosse (67 men's, 103 women's) in 2014. It said nearly 30,000 players are playing collegiate lacrosse each year.

A Division I men's team has about 45 members.

Parry played lacrosse while at Brown University and completed football and lacrosse coaching stints at Brown while working as the assistant athletic director between 1975 and 1979.

He served two stints on the NCAA men's lacrosse committee. His wife, Candis, is an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Baldwin Wallace University.