FRESH FACES
The 2017-18 Colorado Mesa lineup will feature numerous fresh faces that we have already seen in a pair of duals. This week's lineup features two true freshman, a redshirt freshman, four sophomores, a junior and two seniors. Dylan Keeney at 133 pounds and Trent Armintrout at 165 pounds are the two true freshman in the lineup and both have experienced their ups and downs of the college season. Keeney is 7-9 but is in search of his first dual meet win while Armintrout dropped a heartbreaker in his lone dual matchup and now has the tough task of facing the nation's No. 1 ranked 165 pounder in Simon Fraser's Tyler McLean.
 
TAWATER RETURNS
Thursday night's dual marks the return of sophomore Payton Tawater. The Arvada native was one of the standouts from last season's team as he went 30-8 during his redshirt freshman season. Tawater's had just two losses on the season to Division II foes including his injury default loss, the other came to the national runner-up. He rattled off 19 straight victories before the loss.
 
GETTING HEALTHY
Colorado Mesa opened the season with several injuries and others coming off injuries from last season. Jareb Aziz (197lbs.) is now healthy and eligible to wrestle but will likely sit out this weekend along with the return of Tawater. 165 pounder Jason Buhr remains the only Mavericks on the shelf but should return in the month of February.
 
DROPPING DOWN
Sophomore John Daniel dropped down a weight just before the winter break and is wrestling at 149 pounds. He made the weight and competed at the Reno Tournament of Champions and went 2-2 defeating an opponent from Stanford along the way. Daniel is 8-7 overall on the season and 1-1 in dual matches.
 
SCOUTING SIMON FRASER
Simon Fraser is ranked in No. 11 in this week's NCAA Division II power rankings and features two of the top wrestlers in the country at their respective weights. At 165 pounds, Tyler McLean is the top ranked 165 pounder in the country and enters the dual at 24-2 on the season with his only losses coming at the Reno Tournament of Champions. Morgan Smith is ranked No. 2 at 197 pounds with his only two losses on the season coming in Reno as well.
 
SCOUTING THE TRACY BORAH DUALS
Colorado Mesa will square off with a pair of schools that are routinely mentioned as some of the top schools in Division II in Findlay from Ohio and Newberry from South Carolina. Findlay is ranked No. 16 in this week's national rankings with their top wrestler competing at 165 pounds in returning All-American Alonzo Turner. Newberry comes into the weekend ranked No. 14 in the country with their top ranked wrestler residing at 149 pounds in No. 4 ranked Austin Palmer.