Mesa State wrestling dropped its final dual match on the road at #14-Chadron State College Thursday night in Chadron, NE. by the score of 27-15. The loss dropped the Mavs to 4-8-1 overall and 3-6-1 in RMAC action. The Eagles improved to 7-4-1 overall and 4-1-1 in RMAC duals.
Rhett Breed (133#) picked up the Mavs first victory of the evening with a 9-5 decision over Ryan Zavala. The win tied the dual a 3-3 following an Eagle win at 125 pounds to begin the night. CSC's Devlon Webb, ranked #5 in the country, and defeated MSC's Miguel Baltazar 9-4.
Eighth ranked Jimmy Savala (141#) from Chadron won a major decision over the Mavericks Jason Wenger 17-5. The Eagles picked up their second technical fall decision at 174 pounds when #5 ranked Brett Hunter defeated Kyle Brightman, 17-1.
Mesa State went on a three match streak winning two decisions and a pin at the 149, 157 and 165 pound weight divisions. Keith Johnson (149#) pinned Chadron State's Jake Lords in 6:59. MSC followed that up with an 8-1 decision by Chris Holzworth (157#) over Phillip Bullington.
Third ranked Chase Walker, normally the Mavericks 157-pound wrestler, moved up a weight division to 165# and won a 10-5 decision over Bryan Irwin. Walker's win was the Mavericks fourth victory of the night and gave MSC a 15-7 lead with four matches remaining.
The 14th-ranked Eagles won the remaining four matches, including two pins to end the evening. At 174 pounds #5-Hunter won by technical fall over Brightman. MSC's Andy Laiminger fell in a highly contested dual, 2-4 to Ty Brown.
Chadron's Josh Majerus, the number one ranked wrestler at 197-pounds pinned MSC's Luke Laurita in 4:16. The Eagles closed out the night with heavyweight Shaine Odell pinning MSC's Dwayne Bacon (3:33).
Mesa State will return to action in two weeks at the NCAA West Regional Tournament hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney on February 28 in Kearney, NE.
